Use the following meditation to help you reflect more deeply on the Scripture (you may want to read the passage again).

​We are all sinners. We all mess up, and it feels gross when we do something wrong. I usually feel heavy or frustrated when I sin. When I know I’ve done something wrong, I usually get angry with myself and take it out on others and run away from the One that I should be sprinting to: God.
When we sin, we hurt God and our relationship with Him, even if it feels like a “little” sin. It hurts our ability to love- ourselves, others, especially God- and our ability to receive love. But here’s the Good News: Jesus has taken away the sins of the world. Every last one of them was taken on and forgiven on the Cross when Jesus offered Himself to the Father so that we can re-enter into a relationship with God. With our sins out of the way, we can have perfect communion with God, the One that loves us the more than we could possible imagine.

Those things you did wrong that make you feel heavy, angry, upset in any way, are all forgiven when we come to Christ in the sacrament of Confession. When we tell the priest, who is the true presence of Christ in the sacrament, “Lord, forgive the wrong I have done,” or “Lord, forgive these and all of my sins,” Jesus truly washes away all guilt of sin. Your “fault is taken away” and Christ washes you clean. If you have the authentic desire for forgiveness and acknowledge your sins, then God will forgive all the wrong you have done. I don’t think that I ever feel lighter or more joyful than when I come out of Confession. All the things that bring me down are washed away, and I get to start anew with God. It can be intimidating and humbling to have to say all your sins, but nothing compares to the joy of the Lord.

Jesus not only forgives you, but gives you the strength to do better in the future. He gives you the grace to stop doing wrong and start choosing what is good. So if you are ever in distress and feel the temptation to sin, the Lord will preserve you if you ask and accept His help. Imagine freedom from sin. Imagine the freedom to be perfectly happy, to love and accept love fully, and to be filled with God’s grace.
​
Jesus does not want you to feel burdened by sin, He does not want to be apart from you. Pray with this Psalm and really ask God for forgiveness. Go to Him with a contrite and humble heart and soak in the joy of the Lord. If you desire God, He will come to you and give you all that you need.

These questions are to be used to talk to God; have a conversation with the Lord about these questions and what is going on in your heart as you pray today.

​How do you feel when you realized you have sinned? How do you react?

How do those feelings compare to the feeling you have after receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

How does the Lord's forgiveness inspire you to do better? How has it led you to change your life or freed you from particular sins?

In this step, you listen. Stop talking, let God speak to your heart. You may repeat one of these short phrases to focus your mind on the Lord.

"Lord, cleanse me of my sin."

"Lord, forgive the wrong I have done."

"Lord, help me to do better."

In light of today's reading and your time spent in prayer with the Lord, what concrete action or actions will you take to let this encounter with the Lord bear fruit in you today?

Allow the Lord to wash away your sins by receiving the Sacrament of Confession. If you cannot go today, make plans to go this week, and pray to the Lord to help you do better, to choose what is right, and to free you from sin.

​I can spend days reading the psalms and then months forgetting them entirely. They are such a beautiful collection of prayers for any time or season of our lives. There are happy psalms and sad psalms, psalms for telling God how great He is and psalms for sharing our frustration with the Lord. Today's psalm reminds me of what my attitude toward the Lord should be.

The psalmist writes:

Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you. 
You are my God.
​
Someone who is devoted and trusting. These two qualities are so difficult to have continuously. To be devoted to someone means that we are there in the good times and bad, sickness and health, richer and poorer. Sounds a little like marriage vows, right?

Well, our relationship with God is a lot like marriage. Really, it would be truer to say that marriage is a lot like our relationship with God. We begin our relationship with God at our Baptism. Someone makes promises and vows for us (they're called our godparents) and we are united with God in the most intimate way. We become His son or daughter, never to be parted. 

He wants us to be devoted to Him in the most intimate ways for the remaining days of our life in order to live with Him for eternity after our death.

The psalmist writes that He "keeps our life" for we are devoted to Him. He is keeping us safe and we remain as such as long as we remain devoted to Him no matter the circumstances of our days, whether they be good or bad or otherwise. 

How is your relationship with God? How well do you know Him? 

What promises do you make the Lord? What do you desire to give to the Lord?

​What type of relationship with Him is God calling you too?

"Keeps our life." 

"I promise you Lord."

​"I love you Lord."

Spend some time in prayer and write out a list of promises you want to make to the Lord. Put them somewhere where you can see them and repeat them every day.

Well, that was a long passage, but I hope you didn’t just walk away thinking, “what a bizarre story about Jesus casting out demons.” On one hand, you are absolutely correct; I mean, it is not every day that you hear a story about Jesus casting evil spirits into pigs, and those same pigs then running off a cliff into water to drown. However, if that is all you got out of it, I think you missed the whole point of this story.

Before I go any further I feel it is important to touch on a couple things. In our horror movie loving culture, I think it is easy for us to develop a false understanding that God and the Devil are somehow equals. This idea is completely false. We can see one example of that here in this passage. The demons that were inside of the man are literally begging Christ not to send them away. Christ shows how infinitely more powerful He is than the demons by not just casting them out of the man, but casting them into pigs who then ran into the sea where they would do no further harm. Once again, proving how much stronger our God is than Satan.

However, like I said before, we shouldn’t focus so much on the casting out of the demons, but rather the man himself. This story takes place in a place called Gerasa, which was a largely pagan (Gentile) territory. An unclean spirit possessed the man himself, living in an unclean place (a graveyard), which to a Jew, would be seen as even more unclean due to its proximity to a pig herd. However, none of that mattered to Jesus. This man was a lost cause, who had lost everything including his family, his job, even his ability to be among regular everyday society. However, none of that mattered to Jesus. As the story tells us, Jesus hops off his boat, walks to this man, cures him, the town hears all about it and sends Jesus away and before he can do anything else, He is back on his boat and gone forever. What we can take away from all that is Jesus’ whole reason for stopping there was for this one man, a gentile, who was totally cast out from society, chained up in a graveyard. Jesus traveled across the entire sea for this one man.

How often in your life have you felt unlovable, unredeemable, or unworthy? You have probably heard the saying that God loves you and would do anything for you, but if you are like me, that doesn’t really matter unless it is proven. I think for some of you, those are nice sounding words that need to be backed up by something greater. This story is your something greater. Jesus traveled across an entire sea for one man, and he would die on the cross again, even if it were just for you.

What is God saying to you today in this passage? What would it be like to be standing by the sea and witnessing this miracle of the Lord? 

In what ways in your life do you feel unlovable, unredeemable, or unworthy? How can you let God speak to you in those things?

How often do you meditate on the cross and what Jesus does for us there? Take a few moments today to look at the crucifix and let Him speak to you about your worth to Him. 

"You are enough."

"You are greater I could imagine."

"Thank you for choosing me."

Share God's love with those you encounter today. Use kind words, small deeds, or other simple ways to help those around you who may be struggling to encounter God's love through you. 

​Authority is a funny thing- we spend a lot of our lives stuck underneath someone’s authority- whether it be our parents, teachers, baby sitters, or someone else who watched us and looked out for our well being. We constantly want to push back against authority because we don’t like the burdens that rules and regulations bring. But it’s interesting that the people who often have authority over us are who they are… almost everyone in your life who has ever had authority over you was in a position of being responsible for you and your well-being. Authority is given to those who can help protect us and lead us away from the bad and towards the good. It’s funny when we stop and realize that authority is directly tied up with care and love.

With Jesus, it is no different. For the people Jesus was preaching to in the synagogue that Sabbath day, their experience of authority was very limited but powerful; the Law was the authority of the people of Israel. For years they lived according to rules and regulations that they wanted to rebel against- just like all of us in those overly-angsty teenage years. These people didn’t have a living person who was looking out for and promoting their well being, they simply had a list of laws and prohibitions given to them by God. And this is precisely why Jesus’ actions in the gospel today are so important!

Jesus brings the Law and the authority of God to us in love and compassion. No longer do God’s people have a book of Laws to dictate how they are to live- a far off and distant authority that doesn’t seem to care very much about their well being, but they have a living person who heals, blesses, and pours out love on his people. Today we see the beautiful reality of a God who wields authority to cast out demons, yet also loves us and cares for us enough to wield that same authority to lead us into happiness and life. 

Spend some time reflecting on Jesus’ authority in your own life, especially in those moments when we think He is asking us to give up too much of our lives, and ask Him to help reveal His love in the midst of His authority. 

How do you view authority? Do you see how it is directly tied up with care and love?

Do you see God's love and compassion in His authority? Do you accept that love and strive to know Christ and live in a relationship with Him?

​How can you live more under God's authority and grow in the love and freedom that it brings?

"Lead me."

"Humble me."

​"I love You."

Today in prayer, take time to reflect on Jesus’ authority in your own life, especially in those moments when we think He is asking us to give up too much of our lives, and ask Him to help reveal His love in the midst of His authority. 

Today's prayer was prepared by Adam Smyth, a high school youth minister at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Ellicott City, MD. 

If you have anything you'd like our team to pray for, please go to the page of our website called "Prayers" and let us know how we can pray for you today.