 
General Theme: Pilgrims of Hope General Objective: To live with faith and hope this Jubilee Year Objective of the week: To stay up close and to know more about Jesus who gives us hope and true peace. MONDAY Exodus 1:8-14,22; Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Matthew 10:34-11:1; “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[a] “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.[b] Jesus said, "I have not come to bring peace but division." (Mt.10:34) To bring division is to recognize what is right and wrong. We are called to do an act of kindness and not to give in to our fallen nature to speak harsh words to others due to our insensitivity to the needs of others. Selfishness and living in the conformity of the world can bring us separation from Christ. God wanted to free us from what we believe can make us happy by giving in to vices and all the pleasures of the world. He wanted us to stop living in a "make-believe world" escaping from the realities of life and live in sin. It is a soft reminder to all of us that we must continue to connect to Jesus in the hope of becoming more sensitive to the mission. Our help is in the name of the Lord to renew the face of the earth. Our contribution is to ponder the Word of God every day to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to be influenced by His love who help us not to conform to the world but agents of peace and love of Christ in order to radiate His love to others that brings peace and joy. Let us make a habit of doing a little act of goodness for the glory of God in the hope that we will be transformed into Christ and be a guiding light to our family, friends, and neighbors.
TUESDAY Exodus 2:1-15a; Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket[a] for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,[b] saying, “I drew him out of the water.” One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Matthew 11:20-24; Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.[a] For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” Genuine repentance or remorse of the many sins and faults we committed is another very important matter we need to work on, an area of our life we are also desiring to grow as followers of Jesus. Attitudes that might hinder us from obtaining genuine repentance like Justifying our faults or our sins; it’s like everything can be justified and somehow believing that we are right all the time: another thing is comparing my sins with those of others; it seems my sins are smaller than what others have committed; another one is accepting that I can’t change the way I deal with my favorite sins “unsa on man ing ani naman ko!” It seems that there is no hope. This is no good, Jesus wants a gradual and sincere change of heart, alone we cannot, but with Him we can, we need to be with Him and know from His heart
WEDNESDAY Exodus 3:1-6,9-12; Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[a] will worship God on this mountain.” Matthew 11:25-27; At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. The sight of a simple bush aflame yet unconsumed brought Moses to a divine encounter. It shows how God can meet us in the mundane. Our everyday routines can become holy when God interrupts the ordinary with the extraordinary. This is also how God equips ordinary and reluctant people to be able to perform His wonders - to change, to have courage and hope. In moments of fear and doubt, His presence is our firm foundation - to uplift and inspire us to walk confidently to places where He wants us to be. Christ also shows us that divine revelation often comes to the humble, and not the proud. He leads us to have childlike trust in Him that He alone is the path towards the Father.
THURSDAY Exodus 3:13-20; Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[a] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[b] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. Matthew 11:28-30; “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In today’s modern world we can be bombarded with so many demands of our work, business, family challenges and academic struggles on top of our financial crisis, health issues, societal problems and world problems. We become agitated, tired and worried easily. We sometimes lose hope. But how refreshing is Jesus' offer of rest to each one of us. He consoles us with his assurance of rest amidst our burdens and weariness. He invites us to learn from him from his gentleness and humility. Jesus is teaching us the eternal values that can sustain us in face of our daily realities. To live our lives in complete surrender to him whose yoke is easy and burden, light. This will bring hope to so many hopeless situations or realities. As VDMD, we received this first. It is then our mission to propagate the Good News to others so they too can find rest in Jesus.
FRIDAY Exodus 11:10-12:14; Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb[a] for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. Matthew 12:1-8; At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” To stay up close to Jesus is to listen to His voice. A voice that brings the word of truth. Where we can know Him more, as our shepherd and leader. This is our strong foundation of hope in order to find the true peace we need. He always reminds us by telling us, " My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me." ( Jn 10:27) In our prayer today we need to listen very carefully to Him. For He is the one who can provide us the voice leading us to the right direction and guidance. For His voice leads us to our real protection of our soul, body and spirit being Christian Catholics. As He said, " I, the Lord! But the blood will mark the house where you are. Seeing the blood I will pass over you, thus, when I strike the land of Egypt no destruction blow will come upon you."(Ex.12:13) Our big consolation and assurance, that our God is always with us. He is even giving us His merciful love in the middle of our sinfulness. As he said in today’s gospel, " I desire mercy, not sacrifice."(Matthew 12:8) Our God will be very happy if we allow ourselves to have a humble obedience to Him with a contrite heart. Let us present to him our great thanksgiving. We can express it fully to Him if we in turn should be always looking for ways to show mercy to others. As Jesus' followers, we are encouraged to teach and share to others, on how to listen to His voice. Through our daily liturgical Scripture readings. In there we can hear His words of love dedicated always to us.
THE JUBILEE PRAYER Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom. May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally. May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever. Amen
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About the Guidelines SheetThe Guidelines sheet is a prayer guide with the Word of God to help us journey together and be one in our weekly prayer as one community. This contains daily passages from scriptures together with reflections focused on a common theme and intention for the week. Archives
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