COLLECT: “O GOD, AUTHOR OF INNOCENCE AND LOVER OF CHARITY, WHO BESTOWED THE GRACE OF MARTYRDOM ON YOUR HANDMAID, THE VIRGIN SAINT MARIA GORETTI, IN HER YOUTH, GRANT, WE PRAY, THROUGH HER INTERCESSION, THAT, AS YOU GAVE HER A CROWN OF HER STEADFASTNESS, SO, WE, TOO BE FIRM IN OBEYING YOUR COMMANDMENTS. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Hosea 2:16,17c-18,21-22; Ps 144:2-9 and Mt 9:18-26.
The feast of this very young saint, Maria Goretti, whom we celebrate today was born into a poor family in the Italian province. She had a deep spirit of prayer, obeyed God’s Commandments and worked hard to help her family, especially when her father died leaving her mother to cater for her seven children. When Maria was only twelve years old, an evil-minded young farm-hand called Alexander, made three attempts to seduce her and when Maria resolutely rejected all his advances, he stabbed her 14 times in a desperate fury. Maria Goretti died forgiving her assailant rapist, Alexander who later repented and lived a holy life. May such men always see the need to repent. Hmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!
One of the purposes of marriage, especially Christian marriage, is for companionship. In marriage, the partners are companions or should be companions to one another to share their joys and sorrows in life. This should be faithfully observed and carried out with all dedication and commitment. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in most marriages especially, in certain parts of the world. The companionship may be there within the first years of marriage, but it may limp or disappear completely, mostly from the husbands, especially when the wives give birth or when the husbands are ‘fed up with’ the wives.
The Old Testament portrays God as a husband and the people of Israel as his wife, whom he has married. As a husband of the people he has created in love, God, right from the creation of Israel as a nation up to our present age, has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate that he is a true, faithful, dedicated and committed husband. He is a husband par excellence. As a faithful husband, he not only provides companionship, but has also always been a source of consolation and hope for his suffering and sorrowful wife, Israel in the wilderness (Cf. Hosea 2).
God continues to be a companion and a source of consolation, hope and love for his people (wife), the Church (the New People of God, God’s new wife) through his Son Jesus Christ. He continues to be with us as our companion, our hope, our consoler and our healer through Jesus Christ in the Tabernacles of our active Churches, Temples and Chapels.
Let us be like both the official whose daughter died and the woman suffering from haemorrhage for 12 years, who, humbly but courageously, approached Jesus in faith to ask for life and healing respectively, always in faith and humility, courageously visit or approach him in our homes or workplaces, but more in our Churches or Chapels where he resides in the Tabernacles. In faith and trust in him, he is sure to accompany and journey with us in this life, providing consolation, hope, healing and life to us. I urge you to kindly pray for couples, especially those whose marriages are struggling. Also pray for the sick as well as those who have lost their dear ones that the Lord of hope and consolation may console and give them hope.
Let us pray for Enlightenment.
“Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten the darkness of my understanding and sharpen my conscience, so that I may recognise God’s will in all things. Send forth your light and truth into my soul! May I see all my sins and failures in this light and confess them with a contrite heart. Jesus Christ, gentle Saviour, I put my hope of salvation in you. Accept my confession with loving mercy and move my heart to true sorrow for my sins. Heavenly Father, when you look into my soul, look not so much at the evil I have done, but at the genuine sorrow which I feel within my heart. Help me to confess all my sins with a childlike trust in your loving forgiveness. Heal me and give me life. Amen.” May Saint Elizabeth of Portugal intercede for us. Stay blessed and happy feast to all who bear the name Elizabeth.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, MONDAY, ON THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE ANNUNCIATION, THE VISITATION, THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE AND THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE’. (LET US PRAY FOR HUMILITY, LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR, POVERTY OF SPIRIT, OBEDIENCE AND JOY IN FINDING JESUS) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “O GOD, WHO BESTOWED ON BLESSED MARIA GORETTI, A CROWN AMONG THE SAINTS FOR HER TWOFOLD TRIUMPH OF VIRGINITY AND MARTYRDOM, GRANT, WE PRAY, THROUGH THE POWER OF THIS SACRAMENT, THAT BRAVELY OVERCOMING EVERY EVIL, WE MAY ATTAIN THE GLORY OF HEAVEN. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.”
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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