Tuesday - Thomas

 Read the Story - Life Magazine

Good Morning Children of Mary,

Today is Tuesday, April 27th and our meditation is The Unbelief of Thomas. Have a beautiful day!

The Setting:

"Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came" (John 20, 24).

Although the holy women and disciples assured him "We have seen the Lord," and to make their testimony more credible even related all the details, Thomas refused to believe. He relied more on his own judgment than on the words of others. What obduracy, what stubbornness! In his presumption he even indicated the manner in which he would be convinced. We cannot realize that Thomas should have lacked the faith of his fellow-laborers. Had he not distinguished himself formerly by his spirit of sacrifice, the the other Apostles sought to dissuade Jesus from going to Bethany? Thomas courteously declared: "We will go with Him and die with Him" (John 11, 16). And now, having forfeited the graces imparted to the Apostles at Christ's first apparition, he fell from one fault into another, from obstinacy into obdurate unbelief and gross presumption  

Prelude: 

In spirit behold the Apostles animatedly relating to Thomas the apparition of their risen Master.

Prayer: 

Divine Saviour, I thank Thee for the wholesome instructions imparted to me in this meditation. Preserve me from the spirit of singularity and stubbornness, which would rob me of the many graces attached to fidelity in community exercise. Grant me the grace to know myself and imbue me with the desire to submit in childlike simplicity to the direction of my superiors, and humbly to walk the way Thou hast traced for us in our Holy Rule and the constitutions of our Congregation. Let Thy hand guide me securely, that I may find peace and happiness in unreserved surrender to Thee, the portion of those that love Thee, O Highest Good, with all their hearts. 

Resolution: 

I will endeavor to be prompt at all community exercises.  

Spiritual Bouquet: 

"Where two or three are assembled in My name, I will be in their midst."

Jesus Mercy! Mary Help!

Jesus - Model of Religious, Meditations for every day of the year. Frederick Pustet Co.,   Copyright, 1925

Translated from the German of a Religious of the Congregation of St. Charles Borromeo, by a Sister of Notre Dame, Cleveland, Ohio,