February 11, 2015 - Wednesday

This is how you are to pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors;
and do not subject us to the final test,
but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13 NABRE)

It is National Marriage Week 2015. In celebration, today is Day Four of our virtual Marriage Retreat with Pope Francis. Today's theme is Christ Gives Couples the Confidence to Say 'Yes' Forever. Here is an excerpt:

During his Valentine's Day address to engaged couples last year, Pope Francis said, "We must not allow ourselves to be conquered by a ‘throwaway culture’. This fear of ‘forever’ is cured by entrusting oneself day by day to the Lord Jesus in a life that becomes a daily spiritual path of mutual growth, step by step.”

"Many in our culture today think that it is not possible to love another person for the entirety of one’s life. Some protest that love 'dies out' and say you can move on and find another person. Pope Francis, however, says that the fear of lifelong commitment is resolved by relying on Christ. In the Our Father, we say, 'Give us this day our daily bread'; for Christian couples, we must also ask, 'Give us this day our daily love.' If a Christian couple entrusts their love to Christ, He will sustain and multiply it. 'He has an infinite reserve!' the Pope said."* 

Today, I will pray one decade of the Rosary focusing on how Mary relied not on her own strength but on God’s.


Saint Gregory II, known for his spirit of strength and patience, pray for us.