Daily Gospel Meditations - Saint John Society

What did Jesus mean by the gift of his body and blood? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings.

How is Jesus encouraging you to prepare for the Eucharist? What does it mean for you to receive Jesus’ very life and his love in this sacrament?

The integrity required to challenge Jesus - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Are there similar gray areas in my life? Are there aspects in which I choose to remain ambiguous, because I don’t want to take a stance that is unpopular, or face hard questions? Could Jesus turn the tables on me in a similar way? Do I have the integrity and purity of intention to question him? What steps is Jesus inviting me to take?

What we can learn from Mary’s visitation - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What doors has the Lord opened for you, so that you get to share your faith journey with others? What traits do you find especially inspiring in Mary and Elizabeth? Is there anything in their character that the Lord is encouraging you to imitate?

What does Bartimaeus’ healing represent? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Is your life diminished in some sense because there are steps you are reluctant to take? How has Jesus opened your eyes? Have you fully embraced the consequences of the grace Jesus has given you?

How Jesus addressed misaligned feelings - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. With which of the characters in this passage would you identify at this time? Express your feelings to the Lord, and, based on this gospel, imagine what He would say to you.

The rewards of those who venture things for Christ - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What things have you risked or given up to follow Christ? In what ways have you experienced that paradox of receiving from the Lord the true measure of those things you had given up to follow him?

The calling of the rich young man - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. How has Jesus led to you ascend from grace to grace? What are things that come natural to you now, but would have been difficult at the beginning? Can you identify some step or trial that Christ has encouraged you to face, something you need or have the grace to tackle, even when it’s not a step for everyone?

Why the Trinity is significant for our spiritual life - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. In which ways have you received your own being and gifts from God and from others? In which ways have you been called to give of yourself to others?

Why did Jesus want children to come to him? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Is Jesus inviting you to review any guiding principles in your life regarding the importance of forming others and his insistence that young minds be allowed to approach him? What does it mean for you to have a child-like heart, and how is that different from being childish?

What did Jesus teach about divorce? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What has it meant, in your case, to be challenged by Christ to believe you can aspire to a higher kind of love? What is the resistance you have found in your own hardness of heart? How has the Lord provided you with strength to overcome that resistance?

Protecting our relationship with God - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What are possible things you could do in attention to Christ? Could some words or actions of yours cause others to sin? Can you recall situations in which a challenging sacrifice was required to preserve your integrity or your faith? What helps you keep your distinctively Christian flavor?

How can Jesus be so strict and open-minded at the same time? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Do you recognize the patience of Christ toward you as you began your journey, when your steps were still imperfect, but well-directed? How is Jesus asking you to support the positive steps of others who are still on the way to a deeper life of faith?

Why the disciples avoided the topic of the Passion - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Are there questions about being a disciple that you are hesitant to bring up to Jesus? How can you expand your horizon, so as to see things from Jesus’ perspective? What entices you to want to be first in the way Jesus understands it?

Mary, our mother in the order of grace - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. In what ways have you grown in union with Christ, so as to partake of his sufferings and of his joys, as Mary did? Imagine you are the one at the foot of the cross, and that Mary receives you as her son, as her daughter, today.

Why did Christ sent his Spirit upon his disciples? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What calls your attention in the way the Holy Spirit works? Have you seen signs of the Holy Spirit in you or others in recent times? What dimension of the action of the Holy Spirit resonates with you?

The temptation to compare ourselves with others - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Are there areas in your life in which you feel insecure, or you tend to compare yourself with others? What does Jesus say in response to those voices? How does He encourage you? What is it that matters to him?

“Simon, do you love me?” - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings.

Imagine you are Peter and Jesus asks you these questions. Do you love me? How can you show Jesus your love for him? How could your love for him grow?

What does Jesus ask for when He prays for us? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What does each of these gifts Jesus prayed for mean to you? What is keeping you from receiving them? How would your life look like if you received a greater portion of these gifts?

What does Jesus mean by asking that his disciples be consecrated? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. How has Jesus protected you and watched over you? How has the message of Christ transformed you and led you to live in a way that is distinctive? In what ways has the Lord consecrated you, that is, established you solidly in faith?

Remaining in Christ’s love and friendship - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. In what ways has Jesus manifested his love for you? What is your perception of Christ’s commandments? Why is that? Is there anything that is keeping you from opening your heart to God in prayer? Take a time to do that, as you conclude this meditation.

Signs of spiritual growth - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Where are you in your spiritual journey? Can you identify some steps of growth you have taken? What is still lacking? Where is Jesus pointing next? Where do you get your identity from? How can you become more rooted in the Father?

The synergy of Christ and the apostles - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What is the mission that the Lord is entrusting to you? Why does He do that – why doesn’t He do it all by himself? What are the signs of his presence? What can you do to take up that task of the great commission?

What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What do you imagine Jesus saying in his prayer to the Father? How could your prayer become more Christ-like? What do you think would change in you if your outlook and intentions were more like those of Christ?

How to assess joy and sorrow in the spiritual life - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What have been some movements of joy and of sadness in recent times? What is the cause of those joys and sorrows? Is there something that Jesus wants to teach you through those movements in your heart?

How can sadness become joy? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Is Jesus inviting you to imitate some aspect of his leadership? What would be some examples in your life in which the reason for your sadness turned into joy in the Spirit?

Why does God reveal things to us gradually? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings.

Moving from emotion to conviction - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Do you remember times in your life in which you acquired more solid convictions of faith? How did that change look like? How was the before and after? Is there any similar step that the Lord may have in store for you now?

How can persecutors see themselves as true worshippers? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Are you sensitive to the voice of the world in some area? Is there any reality of this world that at times may appear to be the highest good for you, instead of the living God? How has the Lord strengthened your faith through the witness of the Holy Spirit?

The revelation of a new kind of love - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What aspect of Christ’s love strikes you as distinctive? What aspect of Christ’s love do you feel called to imitate? How has Christ’s grace empowered your freedom? Do you see his commandments as a constraint or as a liberation?

Why did Jesus tell the disciples that the world would hate them? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Why do you think you that need to hear this from Jesus today? In what ways does the voice of the world affect you? How is the Lord strengthening your faith, that you may not be overcome by the world?

Remaining in the love we have received - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. In what ways have you experienced Christ’s love? What does it mean for you to remain in that love? Have you been able to express a love that goes beyond your natural capacity for love?

Jesus is the vine, we are the branches - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings.

What kind of peace does Christ want for the Church? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Can you identify moments in your life in which you lived in the peace of Christ and when you lived in the peace of the world? How were those different? What is preventing you from loving others, from following Christ’s voice right now? What are the fears He wants you to overcome?

How is our relationship with Christ connected with his commandments? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What are some steps you took in your life that enabled you to receive Christ’s message? How has the thought of Christ and your love for him shaped your identity? How could it shape it even more?

The vine and the branches - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Have you seen in this time the fruits that result from being united to Christ? Has the Lord done some pruning in your life, that you may bear more fruit?

Can we know what God is like? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What have you come to know about the Father? What gestures and words of Jesus are especially luminous to you? What does the Father want you to pray for in the heart of Christ?

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What experiences have led you to discover Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life? How can you deepen that reliance on Christ, so as to find encouragement in him, and not just in human securities?

What are these signs accompanying the proclamation about? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Where have you seen the changes that the proclamation of the gospel can introduce in someone’s life? What is Jesus trying to show you through the things He emphasized in this sending? What attitude does He want to form in you?

Jesus, an icon of the Father - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What do you learn by looking back on these words of Jesus from the perspective of the resurrection? Why do you think that only in union with Christ it’s possible to live in the light? Why can’t the light and darkness be blended? In what way is Jesus inviting you to adopt his obedience and to see it as a blessing for you?

Why did some not follow the Good Shepherd? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What elements in Christ’s description of his sheep do you recognize in yourself? Do you also find in yourself some of the attitudes of the authorities that Jesus confronts? How is the Lord inviting you to grow as a disciple?

Why did Jesus say that He was the gate? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. In what ways has Jesus been the gate through which you have found access to your true self, to freedom, to a higher kind of love? How is Jesus calling you to conform your thoughts and desires with his, so that you may in turn guide others?

The good shepherd lays down his life for us - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What kind of relationships do you tend to establish with others: those of the hireling, or those of the shepherd? In what ways has Christ been your good shepherd? How does He want you to replicate toward others that sacrificial love that you see in him?

Should faith always make sense? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. How has the Lord purified your faith? Is He calling you to a deeper faith in him, to trust in him, to accept his teachings? How have you handled rejection?

Why does Jesus say we cannot have life unless we eat his flesh? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What are the hidden aspects of the Eucharist that Jesus wants you to rediscover today? What are the needs and desires in your soul that only this food can satisfy? What are the thoughts and feelings of Christ that the Holy Spirit wants you to receive? Or, to put it another way, what action or moment in the life of Christ would you like to connect with through the Eucharist?

“Mannas” that are not enough - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings.

What are those daily “mannas” you go for? How has the Father been drawing you to Jesus? In what ways has your relationship with Christ become life-giving?

How could the crowd not believe if they had seen? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. How has your faith grown over time? What steps of faith is the Lord inviting you to take? What do you find encouraging in Christ’s faithfulness?

The life of Jesus is the bread of life - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. Was there a time in which God sustained your life, as He protected Israel in the desert? How could you grasp this idea: that Jesus has become the sustenance, the one who restores you to your true identity? What aspects of Jesus’ life speak of that to you?

Jesus blended thoughtfulness and sternness - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. What do you find intriguing and thought-provoking in Jesus’ responses? What do those responses reveal about the mystery of the heart of Jesus? In what ways do you think that Jesus would challenge you to seek higher things?

Why were the disciples doubtful even after seeing the risen Christ? - Fr. Lucas Laborde. Click here for today’s readings. How is the Lord strengthening you? How has He strengthened you in the past through his presence and through his word?