Wednesday, May 10 : Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]

Lord Jesus Christ, … we are attached to our life. We don’t want to give it up, but to keep it totally for ourselves. We want to possess it, not to offer it. But you precede us and you show us that it is only in giving our life that we can save it… The cross – the offering of ourselves – weighs heavily on us. But on your Way of the Cross, you also carried my cross, and you didn’t carry it at some time in the past, for your love is contemporary with my existence. You carry it today with me and for me, and in an admirable way, you also want me to carry your cross with you today, like Simon of Cyrene in the past. And so, going with you, I place myself with you at the service of the world’s redemption… Help us to accompany you not only by means of noble thoughts, but to walk on your path with our heart and even more with concrete steps in our daily lives… Free us from the fear of the cross, from the fear of others’ mockery, from the fear that our life could escape us if we don’t take hold of everything it offers. Help us to unmask the temptations which promise us life, but the consequences of which leave us in the end without a goal and disappointed. Help us so that we don’t turn ourselves into masters over life, but that we give it. While accompanying you on the way of the grain of wheat that falls into the ground in order to bear much fruit (Jn 12:24), help us “in losing our life” to find the way of love, the way which really brings us life, life in abundance (Jn 10:10).
maronite readings – rosary,team