Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: August 22, 2025

Date: Friday of the 20^th Week in Ordinary Time/Memorial of the Queenship of Mary

Scripture Text:  Matthew 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."

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

In today’s gospel, Jesus presents to us the two greatest commandments: love of the LORD and love of our neighbors. Jesus reminds us that these are the basis for all the law and for the message of the prophets.

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

How loving am I? Am I holding back part of me and my love?

Praying:

LORD, Almighty Father, Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and Most Holy Spirit, You know me. You know my know my mind, my thoughts, my intentions, my loves. Stir your love within me so that it may tenderize my whole being making me more receptive to your love and more capable of loving. Help me to live your commands of love: first, loving You with all my being and strength; second, by loving all my sisters and brothers. And help me to love myself, seeing myself as You see me. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.