12.27.13

                

Lectio:   Mt 2.13-18                                                                                                                                 

Meditatio: “When Herod realized he had been deceived by the magi, he ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and younger, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.” Mt 2.16
                  
Oratio: O God, You gave us the ability to love but that same ability enables us to hate,

I remember Herod, who was a paranoid, ordered the killing of all the boys two years and  younger in the Bethlehem area because he wanted to stamp out any possible claimant to his throne. How terrible! How awful! How contrary to love!

Grant that I may use my free will to love and not to hate so that I may image You for it is in Your image that I was created.

I ask this and all things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Contemplatio: spend some time in silence and meditate on the selected passage and hear what
God is saying to you.

Operatio: reflect: "massacred....all the boys”: Herod ordered the killing of not just one but ALL the boys in the area. How despicable! How hateful! In prayer seek the grace to use my free will rightly and always in a loving way to myself, to others and to God.
   
Tomorrow's reading: Mt 2.13-15, 19-23