3/16/13

Lectio Jn 8.1-11

Meditatio: ""Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you’?" Jn 8.10

Oratio: "O God, You have commanded us not to judge others for no one knows the heart of the other.

I remember when the religious elite brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus to see what he would do, He simply began to write in the sand (presumably) the sins of the accusers and one by one they all left.

Grant that I may overcome my tendency to judge others for it a divine prerogative to judge and not mine..

I ask these and all things through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the

Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Contemplatio: Keep silence and remain in recollection for a few minutes.

Operatio: Reflect on "judging"; to determine the guilt or innocence of an actor; in the story of the woman caught in adultery, no one of the accusers were without sin and in the end as beautifully expressed by St. Augustine, ‘Great Mercy and great misery were alone together.’ In prayer may I learn and apply the lesson of not judging others and at my end I will receive the same merciful judgment from God as the woman did.

Tomorrow's reading: :Jn 8.12-20