FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2025

Posted on Posted in US Daily Meditations


PURITY (MT. 5:27-32)

Prayer:

Holy Spirit. Fill me with your purity of heart.

Imagination:

Picture Jesus teaching His disciples to be pure.

Context:

Jesus continues to contrast Old Testament teaching with his new demands concerning purity. He uses graphic images of removing eyes and hands to symbolize the detachment needed to avoid sin.

Gospel text: (Read slowly, possibly aloud)

Jesus taught his disciples about the purity demanded in the Kingdom, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’. However, I say to you that whoever shall look upon a woman with lust, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better for one of your members to perish than for the whole body to be cast into Gehenna.
If your right hand causes you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away. It is better that one of your members should perish, than your whole body go to Gehenna.”

Thoughts: (Read all. Ponder the ones that attract you.)

  1. Jesus teaches that actions flow from your inner desires. So, His Kingdom must bring about an internal change.
  2. Avoiding external adultery is not enough. Lust must be attacked at its source, in your inner drives and deepest feelings.
  3. Only the Holy Spirit can purify your heart and free you.
  4. The Spirit must restrain your eyes from seeing and your hands from touching. This fulfills Jesus’ command “to cut them off.”
  5. The Kingdom gives you a full purity. The lust-filled world condemns this purity as useless. Jesus values it highly.

Affections. (When one touches your heart, use your own words.)

  • O Lord, create in me a pure heart.
  • Release your Spirit of chastity in my inner feelings.
  • How I struggle, O Lord, how I struggle! But, you encourage me in the battle.
  • O my Guardian Angel, keep a guard over my inner and outer senses.
  • If I struggle to keep your demands, I will be with you forever.

Resolutions: (Possibly you might want to make your own.)

+ I will deepen my devotion to the all-pure, Virgin mother of Jesus. She will help me.
+ I will examine those sexual attractions which I should remove.

Thought for the Day: (To recall your meditation.)

The purity of Jesus’ Kingdom is man’s greatest freedom.