Mk 8,14-21

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentionsand actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: Jesus and his disciples are in a boat on the lake.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: about my skill to use my good experiences (my memory) and the desire to seek and find good in my life

Jesus warns the disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, that is, lack of faith, hardness of heart, strict adherence to the letter of the law, and reminds them of the story of the multiplication of the bread. Rather, it is no coincidence that kvass is combined with bread, the production of which requires (or at least once was) leaven. Perhaps it does not take much for the leaven needed to make bread, that is, something life-giving, to become acid.

It is up to you how you will take care of the leaven in you, what conditions you will create for it to develop and what kind of bread will be made from it. You decide how you care for your faith, how you deepen your relationship with God, what space and time you give to meet Him. Maybe the time of Lent that begins tomorrow will be a time for you to build an ever closer relationship with God (what exactly will you do?) That will transform your thinking, your behavior patterns, emotional paths, just your whole …

The students are worried, they complain that they have taken only one loaf of bread with them, and that they may not have enough. Their focus on the lack is so great that they stop hearing Jesus, who sees their anxiety and asks the question: do you not yet understand and understand …? After all, they have experience that the five loaves Jesus broke were enough for five thousand people! Concern for lack prevents students not only from staying in the present moment, enjoying the moment and what is, but even from recalling good past experiences. Failure begins to occupy their full attention. Does he sometimes become their idol when they cannot hear Jesus in the boat with them? Is it not easier for us to see what is not there and not to see what is, to feel unhappy because of lack than happy because of what we have, point out to someone what he does not give me than to thank for what he gives? How do you find yourself in this scene? Do you not remember …?

That is, evidence confirming the multiplication of the bread, i.e. the love of Jesus, His care for a hungry man.

Let your eyes see, teach you to hear, and your heart to feel. Look at your life in this attitude: how God cares for you in your everyday life through the people he puts in your way, situations, surroundings and nature. How do you feel His love? What does it matter to you?

Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.…as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)