Jubilee | Catholic Devotional for Youth

Tuesday 23rd February – Tuesday of the 2nd week of Lent

Reflection: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20

EMBRACE GOD’S MERCY

One of the gifts of new life given to us is the gift of reconciliation. God calls us to Himself always out of love to reconcile us with Him. This beautiful and reassuring truth is at the heart of this holy Season as we are called to repentance and is central to the Jubilee year of mercy as we celebrate the mercy of God the Father who doesn’t want any of His children to be lost. It is in this light God tells us in today’s first reading “come now, let us reason together, if your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

God calls you and I to examine our lives: are their elements of hypocrisy in us? Are there certain attitudes, habits or conversations we engage in that do not bring honour to God? He reminds us today of his ever open arms but also of the terrible prospect of judgement on those who fail to repent. “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Dear friend, no matter how far you may have strayed, our loving Father is ever ready to welcome you home. Simply call out to Him.

PRAYER: Merciful father, have mercy on me and draw me nearer to you. Amen.

KNOW YOUR FAITH: YOUCAT 367 – To whom does the Fourth Commandment refer, and what does it require of us?

The Fourth Commandment refers in the first place to one’s physical parents, but also to the people to whom we owe our life, our well-being, our security, and our faith.

What we owe in the first place to our parents—namely love, gratitude, and respect—should also govern our relations to people who guide us and are there for us. There are many people who represent for us a God-given, natural, and good authority: foster or step-parents, older relatives and ancestors, educators, teachers, employers, superiors. In the spirit of the Fourth Commandment we should do them justice. In the broadest sense, this commandment applies even to our duties as citizens to the State.

HIDE A TREASURE: “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land” Isaiah 1:19 RSV-CE

Today’s Readings: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20; Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 &23; Matthew 23: 1-12

Thursday 10th December – Thursday the 2^nd week of Advent

Reflection: Psalm 145: 1, 9-13

OUR COMPASSIONATE GOD

When God calls us to be compassionate, He simply asks us to extend to others what we receive from him daily. Indeed our God is compassionate. You only have to sincerely look back on your life and you will find several situations and circumstances in which God’s immense compassion played out in your life or family.

It is only because of our heavenly Father’s great kindness and compassion that we can approach Him daily despite our frailty. God owes us nothing. Yet, every new day brings with it a new dimension of God’s steadfast love for us (Lamentations 3:22-23). He promises us in the first reading of today that He will meet us at the very point of our needs, causing fresh water to flow in the desert lands of our lives and fruitfulness in place of barrenness (Isaiah 41:18-19)

What then should be our response my dear young friend to our heavenly Father’s great kindness towards us?

God’s greatness calls us to be grateful to Him. We must make it a habit even now as youth to spend time praising God. Take time to think of His great deeds in your life and join your voice with the psalmist today in proclaiming God’s greatness. Look at the promises He has in store for you and lift up your voice in thanksgiving even if you are going through a wilderness experience right now. (Habakkuk 3: 17-19).
Our father’s great kindness also calls us as young people to be compassionate, kind and merciful to others. When we do this, we act like our Father in whose image we were created and who has commanded us to be merciful (Luke 6:36).

As we begin the Jubilee of Mercy, the Church calls us through the theme to be “Mercuful like the Father” . Let us open our hearts to receive God’s immense mercy this year and share that mercy with others.

PRAYER: My heavenly Father, I thank you today for your kindness and compassion to me. Please place within me a heart of thanksgiving always. Amen.

KNOW YOUR FAITH: YOUCAT 488 – Why should we thank God?

Everything that we are and have comes from God. Paul says, “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Being grateful to God, the giver of all good things makes you happy.

The greatest prayer of thanks is the “Eucharist” (“thanksgiving” in Greek) of Jesus, in which he takes bread and wine so as to offer in them to God all of creation, transformed. Whenever Christians give thanks, they are joining in Jesus’ great prayer of thanksgiving. For we, too, are transformed and redeemed by Jesus, and so from the depths of our hearts we can be grateful and tell God this in a variety of ways.

HIDE A TREASURE: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” Matthew 5:7 RSV-CE

Today’s Readings: Isaiah 41:13-20; Psalm 145: 1, 9-13; Matthew 11: 11-15

	Lois adu gyamfi on ARE YOU RIGHT TO BE ANGRY…
	cdyouth on GOD CAN USE YOUR ENEMY
	Edward on GOD CAN USE YOUR ENEMY
	cdyouth on BEWARE OF NEGLECT!
	Raquel on BEWARE OF NEGLECT!

	Lois adu gyamfi on ARE YOU RIGHT TO BE ANGRY…
	cdyouth on GOD CAN USE YOUR ENEMY
	Edward on GOD CAN USE YOUR ENEMY
	cdyouth on BEWARE OF NEGLECT!
	Raquel on BEWARE OF NEGLECT!