Mt 5,43-48

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 intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: remember the person you like and one you dislike.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: that I would love more

1.Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Think about what these words evoke in you? What is your consent? What do you experience in relations with those you like and what with those you perceive as your enemies? What makes you think of one person as your friend and another as an enemy?

2.You shall love you neighbor…
a) Take these words to yourself: you are your neighbor. How do you treat yourself, what do you think about yourself? Are you your enemy or friend? Look even deeper: each of us has some parts, spaces that we like, which we are proud of, happy and those we would like to get rid of. Today maybe it is worth looking at these unwanted parts in us and thinking about what they say about us, what they teach about ourselves, what they tell us about us? God accepts you as you are now. He looks at you as his most beautiful and beloved child. Look at yourself with God’s eyes as you can.

b) The word love in today’s pericope means agape love. This means that feelings that we identify with love are important, but much more our actions are important. To love the enemy means to wish him well, want good for him, not revenge. So, you don’t have to feel sublime feelings for the person you have suffered from, it’s very difficult. However, if you allow yourself experience a time of forgiveness, you can come to the point where you can say with full inner consent that you wish this person good. Search your understanding of words to love your neighbor.

3.God makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

In the world is a place for everyone, because God creates everyone. Look at the reality that surrounds you as a unit in which there is a place for every man, where there is a place for difficult and pleasant feelings, where there is a place for good and unpleasant events. Maybe it is worth merging, uniting what seems difficult to accept …

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)