“Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.”

“When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.”  - Ezra Taft Benson (August 4, 1899 – May 30, 1994: American farmer and religious leader)

Gospel Text: (Mt 22:34-40)

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Today, a teacher of the law asks Jesus «Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law?» The Lord in response takes us to the depths of Christian catechesis, because «the whole Law and the Prophets are founded in the first two commandments» (Mt 22:40).


This could explain the classic commentary of the two wooden beams of the Lord's Cross: the upright beam stuck in the soil is the vertical, looking at heaven towards God. The crossbar represents the horizontal, the relations we have with our fellowmen.

The saints we know allow us to see how their love for God is expressed in many different ways when it comes to helping their fellowmen. Today, let us ask the Mother of God to fill us with the desire of surprising Our Lord with our deeds and words of affection. Thus, our hearts will open to those who live and work next to us.