40 Days to Love

The book of Acts of the Apostles is like a bridge between the life and teachings of Jesus narrated in the Gospels and the life of the first Christians, after His death and resurrection. It shows us how the Holy Spirit continues to teach and direct his people through the writings, labors and actions of His apostles, those whom he has chosen as his witnesses and called to continue his mission. The author begins locating us in Bethany, where Jesus is raised to heaven, but not before giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. Acts 1: 3 says "He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days* and speaking about the kingdom of God." Today God would like to invite you to be a witness and participant of His Love, open yourself up to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit and let His breath drive you and transform you to take action as germ and seed of the Kingdom, continuing the mission of Jesus with your life. The ascension of Jesus marks the beginning of the activity of the Holy Spirit among the emerging church, which He summons to guide and lead fully as the new people of God. This is revealed to us in the work and speeches of Peter and Paul, two particularly different men who are not perfect but who allow themselves to be transformed by the teachings of Jesus and driven by the Spirit from their reality, they fight without fear to announce and bring salvation to all corners of the earth. Today as a chosen apostle you are also being called to be transformed in Love, to continue the mission of Jesus with authenticity and from a relationship of intimacy to transmit to others with joy the message of salvation of a God full of Love, who does not discriminate, has no borders, no limits, who confronts evil, defeats death, has the power to transform our weakness into strength, who puts Himself at the service of those in need, who does not stop fighting for His people, a God for whom all it's possible, He who wants and seeks to share his Kingdom and that only awaits your "Yes". May the Lord open our hearts to His eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

The Gospel of Luke presents Jesus as filled with the Holy Spirit and tells us how He was led by Him in the desert after returning from the Jordan river. In Luke 4:2 says he was led "for forty days,* to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.." Today God is inviting you to delve into a more intimate relationship with Him. The word Jordan comes from Hebrew and means "to descend." The river was recognized by the Israelites as a great channel of blessing from God, marking for them a new beginning, the end of their pilgrimage through the desert, after leaving slavery in Egypt, and the encounter and conquest of the Promised Land. It could be said that it is no coincidence that the public life of Jesus begins descending from the place recognized as the blessing of God, which leads Him to recognize Himself as Beloved and thus, in the desert manifest His divinity and humanity from trust, adopting a vigilant attitude before actions that may take His eyes off and affect His relationship with God. Today God wants to encourage you to follow the footsteps of Jesus entrusting you to the action of the Holy Spirit in the midst of uncertainties, doubts, achievements and victories, knowing and recognizing yourself as "Beloved Son/daughter" in order to experience His promises first-hand, opening up to feel and be transformed by His Grace in your daily life. May the Lord open our hearts to His Eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️.

The Gospel of Mark is one of the earliest accounts of the life of Jesus. It begins with a statement, acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, and presents His story in a dramatic way. In the first scene, it showcases God opening the heavens, the Spirit of God descending onto Jesus in the form of a dove at baptism and the voice of God recognizing Him as a Beloved Son. After this revelation, it tells us how the Holy Spirit pushes Jesus into the desert and in a second act it is no longer God who recognizes His Son but rather the forces of evil that begin to point to Jesus and name Him as the Son of God. Mark 1:13 tells us "and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him." Today God is inviting you to remain vigilant and see beyond temptations. This act of Jesus of remaining in the desert moved by the Holy Spirit allows us to glimpse at relationship of Jesus in His search for the Father, seeking to quiet the heart to know Him more intimately, fully recognizing Himself as the Beloved Son of God. And it is from this knowledge that He is able to confront the temptations of the evil one. The Jesus that the Gospel of Mark makes know to us is not only a spectator of the Word of God but He takes the time to meditate on it and fulfills it from the condition of Son. Today God invites you to imitate this action of Jesus, to see beyond the obstacles and temptations, recognizing yourself as a beloved son or daughter and that from this Love, driven by the Holy Spirit, we may decide to compromise ourselves to be witnesses and protagonists of the Kingdom. May the Lord open our hearts to His Eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️.

The Gospel of Matthew centers on Jewish traditions highlighting the divinity Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us who brings the Kingdom of God to earth. It portraits Jesus as a new Moses, who is the Son of God at birth by belonging to the lineage of David, and fully fulfills the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. As Moses, Jesus left Egypt, crossed through the waters of Baptism and entered the desert for 40 days. Matthew 4:2 tells us "And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he at last felt hungry." Today God would like you to enter to the desert with Him to that place of solitude but also that place of search and encounter. Today He wants you to silence your inner noises to meet with His Word. The ancient name of fasting comes from the verb "stare" which means to be vigilant. We could say that this fasting of Jesus in the desert, more than a simple abstinence from food, is a method of self-control that allows Him to open up to a closer relationship with the Father, through prayer. We can interpret this hunger of Jesus as a hunger to fulfill the Will of God since He is perceived as vigilant, strong, full of confidence and wisdom, when He is tempted by evil after days without food, as His sustenance came from God Himself and His Word. Today God is inviting you to follow the footsteps of Jesus into silence, giving you the chance to get to know Him better through the Scriptures, and thus from His Love acquire the necessary tools to recognize what can distance us from Him and fight for the establishment of the Kingdom of God among us. May the Lord open our hearts to His Eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

The Gospel of Luke shows Jesus as the king who comes into the world to give perfect fulfillment to God's law and offer salvation to everyone, without exception. He begins by telling us the story of John the Baptist and his mission to prepare the way of Jesus with the grace of the Holy Spirit, introduces us to Joseph, from the house of David, as the husband of Mary, a humble woman who, before the announcement of an angel gives a "generous Yes" that opens the doors to Love. And thus he introduces us to the story of Jesus from his childhood. In Luke 2:22 we find that "When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord," Today God wants to remind you of the importance of presenting yourself and offering yourself to Him as an act of donation, delivery and fidelity. Luke reveals God as the Messiah from the obedience of Joseph and Mary to the law of God beginning with the purification of the woman after giving birth and continuing with the rite of presentation of the male firstborn child. Thus, he introduces us to the fidelity of the holy family to God, making us recognize their simplicity and humility within the offering of two lovebirds as a sacrifice and a symbol of scarce resources. Reveling Jesus as a man who is united to God in every sense and from his childhood learns through his family to present Himself to God and to others. Today God is calling you by the hand of holy family to present yourself before God as you are so that through His Love and Grace, we may learn to respond to his calling following in Jesus footsteps. May the Lord open our hearts to His Eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

The book of Jonah historically marks the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile and tells us the story of how Jonah is called by God to prophesy and give warning to the city of Nineveh. As an Israelite, Jonah sees God as exclusive to his community and because of this he could think that the Ninevites were not worthy of his God. Thus in first instance, he seeks to flee his calling by taking a boat to the city of Tarshish but ends up being thrown into the middle of the sea to calm a storm, he is then swallowed by a fish and on the third day, crying out for God's mercy, he is thrown over the earth. After this experience, God calls Jonah a second time and in Jonah 3:4 tells us that "Jonah began to go into the city, and he made a day's journey proclaiming: "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed." Today God is asking you... Are you willing to listen to my calling? Jonah pretends to ignore his mission, thus seeking to flee from the presence of God so as not to share Him with others but ingeniously and wisely God encounters him and help him recognize who he is, whom he serves and invites him to enter into a closer relationship with Him through prayer. Like Jesus, Jonah is also sent to save the pagans. And God thus uses a strong wind in the middle of a storm and the belly of a fish as means of conversion not only towards Jonah but also towards a crew of different religions who end up recognizing the power and greatness of the only God, a God who Loves all the same. Today God invites you to take a step of trust and throw yourself into the sea of ​​His mercy so that by the grace of His Love we may open ourselves to listen to His message and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit we lead our evangelizing mission, inspiring others along the way. May the Lord open our hearts to His eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

God uses Ezekiel to warn Egypt about Pharaoh's attitude and his wrongdoing that influences and affects the entire nation, leading it to sin, but also reveals His mercy, showing himself as a just, wise, powerful and sovereign God. Ezekiel 29:13 tells us "But thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years. I will gather the Egyptians from among the peoples where they are scattered;" Today God wants to remind you that regardless of your failures, betrayals or mistakes, He loves you and continues and will always advocate for you, always wanting to give you the best, perhaps not in the time you ask for but in His time. In this passage God demonstrates the gratuitousness of His Love, he gives Egypt a life lesson, he does not punish, much less condemns, but rather shows the nation His Love, granting them a humble and united kingdom after a period of changes and trials. Today God is asking you to open yourself to His Love and to the action of the Holy Spirit who calls us to communion, actively seeking to share with others the gratuitousness and joy of the Good News. May the Lord open our hearts to His eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

Ezekiel is sent to alert Egypt as the pharaoh had deified himself, the nation was proud of their achievements and only sought to take advantage of alliances to feed their power and wealth, trampling nations and inciting idolatry. Ezekiel 29:12 tells us "I will make the land of Egypt the most desolate among desolate lands; Its cities, the most deserted among deserted cities for forty years; I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout other lands." Today God asks you to reflect on your attitude towards desolation, emptiness, feelings of ruin or loneliness. The pharaoh takes a proud attitude, boasts of his power and cares little about betraying an alliance due to the security of his own power and material goods. It could be said that he self-deified, becomes self-sufficient corrupting his people and dragging them into sin. Egypt suffers the consequences of desolation for placing all its trust in a powerful but not compassionate ruler, while God seeks to be recognized by them as the just, wise and kind ruler. Today God wants that, as Egypt, in the midst of your emptiness, anguish, pain or sadness, you do not feel like you are fighting alone. Do not close in on yourself like the Pharaoh, but that in the midst of trials we may recognize God, open ourselves to His Love and allow Him to be our support and trust. May the Lord open our hearts to His eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

Although Egypt was an old enemy of the Jews and a place where many gods were worshipped, its wealth and power made it seem like a good ally to Judah in fighting the Babylonian empire but It betrays Judah and turns its back knowing the alliance will not bring any benefits to them. Ezekiel tells us how God speaks to him to prophesy against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to make him aware of his judgment against the country due to his actions. In Ezekiel 29:11 it says "The foot of man will not pass through it, the foot of animal will not pass through it. It will remain uninhabited for forty years." Today God is asking you what things would you like to remove from your life? How are you preparing your land and what do you need to remove from it so that your harvest is abundant. If we see the number 40 as a time of preparation, it could be said that God wants Egypt to be awakened, not because he wants the destruction of his children, but to prepare and purify them for their good, eliminating all those customs and ideologies that distance them from His Love and making way for new beginnings and a closer relationship. Today God also wants to help you eliminate weeds and impurities from your soil, making way for our harvest to be good and abundant. May the Lord open our hearts to His eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️

Ezekiel, whose name means "Whom God makes strong" comes from a lineage of priests, lived and prophesied in the exile, announcing a promising future for Israel but not before denouncing the false hopes and ideologies to which his companions clung. God communicates with Ezekiel through visions guiding and urging him to make amends for His people through fasting and giving him the strength to endure humiliation and hostility from hiscompanions. Ezekiel 4:6 tells us "When you have finished these last ones, you will lie down again on your right side, and you will bear the guilt of the house of Judah for forty days. I have given you one day a year." Today God is asking you to pray or offer a sacrifice for your brothers and sisters, especially those who are far away or feel abandoned by God. God asks Ezequiel to bear the guilt of the people of Judah, urging him to show his faith in public, doing things like tying himself with ropes, sleeping on one side, eating and drinking rationed food and at specific times... but the most important thing is that God does not leaves him alone but grants him the strength to carry out his mission. And so he is in charge of keeping the faith of the people alive, encouraging them to trust God in the midst of trials, letting them know that God does not abandon them, but wants to prepare and purify them for their own good, to give them new life and fill them with blessings. Today God wants to do the same with you, give you strength and use you as a liberating instrument that makes His Love and Mercy known, especially to those who feel marginalized or rejected. May the Lord open our hearts to His Eternal Love 🙏💕🕊️