Opening Prayer: Most High, glorious God, enlighten the
darkness of my heart, and give me right faith, certain hope, and perfect
charity, wisdom and understanding, Lord, that I may carry out your holy and
true command. Amen. ~St. Francis of Assisi
Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23
Journal: What do these verses from Matthew do within
you? What mourning or sadness or grief
is within you during this season? What
do you do with that? Where is God in the
midst of it?
Reflection:
Right in the middle of this joyful season of
celebrating the extraordinary gift of God’s coming into our dark world, we get
this stark reminder of just how dark our world and dire our need is for a
Savior. Today is referred to as The
Feast of Holy Innocents on the church calendar. It is the time when we remember the slaughter
of innocent children by King Herod in his attempt to kill the infant
Jesus. Herod was so threatened by the
idea of losing his throne to this newborn King that he would go to any length
to make sure his power and his position were not taken away from him. It is a vivid reminder to what lengths we
fallen humans will go to preserve and defend our self-centered ways once they
are threatened. In fact, we do it all
the time, just not so obviously or violently.
Ours is a much more subtle, covert operation, usually involving words as
weapons. (Watch and Wait by Jim Branch)
Prayer
Closing Prayer: O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we
feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of your presence, your
love, and your strength. Help us to have
perfect trust in your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing
may frighten or worry us, for, living close to you, we shall see your hand,
your purpose, your will through all things. ~St. Ignatius
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