Thursday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

We pray through Thursday in the ninth week of ordinary time, offering the whole day to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and asking God to guide what helps us and block what harms us. We sit with St. Gregory the Great’s image of the Church as dawn, learning how to live faithfully in the in-between where light is real and holiness is still growing. 
• opening prayers that set the day in God’s presence 
• Morning Offering that unites daily life with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass 
• St. Gregory the Great on the Church as daybreak moving from darkness to light 
• the “dawn” as a mix of progress and remaining weakness 
• Scripture’s realism about sin alongside hope for righteousness 
• Paul on “the day is at hand” and God completing the good work 
• thirst for the living God and the desire to see God’s face 
• a closing collect for protection and true good 
• entrustment to Jesus through Mary with devotions to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Guadalupe 
If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our publications now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org. 

Transcript

Thursday Prayer Begins

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Thursday, in the ninth week of ordinary time.

Opening Invocation And Doxology

SPEAKER_00 0:06

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Morning Offering Through Mary

SPEAKER_00 0:26

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

St Gregory On The Dawn

SPEAKER_00 0:47

From the Moral Reflections on Job by St. Gregory the Great, Pope. Since the daybreak or the dawn is changed gradually from darkness into light, the Church, which comprises the elect, is fittingly styled daybreak or dawn. While she is being led from the night of infidelity to the light of faith, she is opened gradually to the splendor of heavenly brightness, just as dawn yields to the day after darkness. The Song of Songs says aptly, Who is this who moves forward like the advancing dawn? Holy Church, inasmuch as she keeps searching for the rewards of eternal life, has been called the dawn. While she turns her back on the darkness of sins, she begins to shine with the light of righteousness. This reference to the dawn conjures up a still more subtle consideration. The dawn intimates that the night is over. It does not yet proclaim the full light of day. While it dispels the darkness and welcomes the light, it holds both of them, the one mixed with the other, as it were. Are not all of us who follow the truth in this life daybreak and dawn? While we do some things which already belong to the light, we are not free from the remnants of darkness. In Scripture the Prophet says to God, No living being will be justified in our sight. Scripture also says, In many ways all of us give offense. When he writes, The night is past, Paul does not add, The day is come, but rather, the day is at hand. Since he argues that after the night has passed, the day as yet is not come, but is rather at hand, he shows that the period before full daylight and after darkness is without doubt the dawn, and that he himself is living in that period. It will be fully day for the Church of the Elect when she is no longer darkened by the shadow of sin. It will be fully day for her when she shines with the perfect brilliance of interior light. This dawn is aptly shown to be an ongoing process when Scripture says, And you showed the dawn its place. A thing which is shown its place is certainly called from one place to another. What is the place of the dawn, but the perfect clearness of eternal vision? When the dawn has been brought there, it will retain nothing belonging to the darkness of light. When the psalmist writes, My soul thirsts for the living God, when shall I go and see the face of God? Does he not refer to the effort made by the dawn to reach its place? Paul was hastening to the place which he knew the dawn would reach when he said he wished to die and to be with Christ. He expressed the same idea when he said, For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Longing For God And Fulfillment

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Whenever I think of you, I give thanks to God. I am confident that he who has begun the good work in you will bring it to fulfillment on the day of Christ Jesus. My prayer is that your love may grow more and more in both knowledge and insight. I am confident that he who has begun the good work in you will bring it to fulfillment on the day of Christ Jesus.

Closing Collect And Entrustment

SPEAKER_00 3:54

O God, whose providence never fails in its design, keep from us we humbly beseech you all that might harm us, and grant all that works for our good, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. All that I have, and all that I am, I give to your hands, Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Invitation To Join The Cristeros

SPEAKER_00 4:27

If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Christeros and purchasing our publications now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org.