"So shall my word be... It shall not return to me void."
In an age of information, every day we are surrounded by news and countless words. It can become easy to go to church and take in God's Word just as we do everything else: in one ear and out the other. But Isaiah reminds us today that God's Word has power and bears fruit. His Word is living and effective (see Heb 4:12). At creation, all that God had to do was speak His Word and all of creation came to be (see Gn 1; Ps 33:9).
Prayer is both how we receive the Word of God (with all its power) and how we respond to the Word of God. One of the most basic ways we pray is the way Jesus taught us in the Gospel today, the Lord's Prayer. Does your praying of the Our Father bear fruit in your life? Do you live out what you are saying in the prayer - "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done ... forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" - or do you simply repeat the prayer without thinking?
Let today be a wakeup call for you to ask the Holy Spirit to open the "ears of your heart" anew to the Word of God.
Today's Readings:
Scripture:
Is 55:10-11;
Ps 34:4-5, 6-7,
16-17, 18-19;
Mt 6:7-15
Read Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 764
See the first week of meditations to date.