Mental Prayer for March 7, Children-Members of the Mystical Body

Mental Prayer Meditation Helps

Presence of God

Grace I Ask: That, with the eyes of faith, I may look upon children as the fruit of Christian marriage.

The Idea: Christ's Church, as we know, is Christ's Mystical Body. Christ is the Head, and we, as members of the Church, are the very parts of that Holy Body. What a great gift God has given to Christian parents! When they cooperate with God in the act of procreating children, they pro­duce new parts of the Mystical Body of Christ. Through baptism the vital life of that Mystical Body, grace, flows through that child. A man and a woman by the supreme expression of their love for one another, form for Christ's Body a new member which Christ and His Church will make a citizen of heaven !

My Personal Application: Do I try to look at marriage with the eyes of faith? A child was God's primary reason for instituting marriage, it should be my primary reason for entering mar­riage. Do I realize that the first purpose of Christian marriage is not just to bring children into the world, but to bring them into the world to be citizens of heaven?

I Speak to God: Dear God, Father, help me to have the proper attitude toward marriage. Help me to keep out selfish motives and to replace them with the motives you intended. Help me to see children as the true fruit of marriage in all its glory and blessing. Teach me to look on parent­hood as real cooperation with you in forming members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

Thought for Today: Body of Christ, sanctify me.
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Adapted from Mental Prayer, Challenge to the Lay Apostle
by The Queen's Work,(© 1958)