Friendship Makes Us Brave

Welcome to our daily Rosary Meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us a stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us, then lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us and earnst now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning as now and never shall be, world without end. Amen. Our first mystery. Friendship changes everything. Friendship makes love personal. Friendship draws us out of our selfishness. Friendship unlocks courage, the willingness to lay down one's life for another. We don't die for abstract ideas. We die for people, for friends. The military tells soldiers they must be willing to die for their country and for freedom. But when the battle begins, a soldier does not fight for the abstract good of freedom or nation. He fights for the man next to him. He's willing to die for his brothers. If I'm alone on a battlefield, I mean alone, I'm not going to die for freedom's sake. I'm going to run and hide and save my life. But put my best friend on that same battlefield, my wife or sons or daughters, I'll surely fight and die to save them. Abstract ideas don't move us to sacrifice when it costs everything, unless they become personal. And they become personal through people we love. It's friendship that makes a person brave. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, preface in earnest, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed it is a fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Prefress and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Prefress and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Prefress and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Prefress and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Prefress and earnst, now and at the hour of our death, Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now and ever shall be, world without end, amen. Oh my Jesus. Forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Our second mystery. Courage must be personal, not abstract. Likewise, goodness must be personal and not abstract. At the last supper, Jesus said, A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. Wait a minute. That sounds pretty manipulative to me. That sounds like I'll be your friend if you do what I say. But that's not what Jesus means. He means, if you really know me, if you are my friend, then you will know that I am love in person, and you will not want to reject love. You will not want to reject me. And that is what the commandments are. The first three commandments are about the love of God, and the next seven are about the love of others. The commandments are just about love. So to break a commandment is to reject love. But love is a person. It's Jesus. So to break a commandment is to reject Jesus. It's personal. See, morality is not simply about keeping or breaking rules. Any more than bravery is about protecting the abstract good of freedom. Morality is about friendship with Jesus. And once I know Jesus is love and goodness in person, then I don't want to reject him by choosing or doing some unloving or bad thing. This is what sin is. God offers himself, and sin says, no, I choose something instead of you. Sin doesn't damage God, but it rejects his love. It rejects him. So Jesus reframes morality as friendship. It's not, if you want to be my friend, you have to keep my commandments. Rather, it's if you know me, love in person, you will not want to reject me. Morality is not rule keeping. Morality is loyalty within friendship. And that changes everything. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us a stare daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Our Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in our ensnown at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now and over shall be, world without end. Amen. Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Our third mystery, Judas Iscariot was not a true friend of Christ. When Judas came to the garden to betray him, Jesus said, friend, why are you here? Jesus calls him friend, because Jesus knows Judas. He sees the value of Judas and is willing to die for him. Now you might say Judas knew Jesus. He lived with him for three years, have in sake, but he didn't know him. By his greed, Judas made himself blind to the truth of who Jesus was, that Jesus was love and goodness in person. He did not know him, and so he sold him for 30 pieces of silver. It could have been 30 or 30 billion. It doesn't matter. It was greed, and greed is a rejection of love, a rejection of Jesus. It was greed that blinded him, and so he traded infinite goodness for something finite. This is sin, pride, vanity, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust. These are all the reasons we break the commandments, all the reasons we reject God who is love. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stair, daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, amen. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pre-Friest and Ernest, Noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pre-Friest and Ernest, Noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pre-Friest and Ernest, Noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pre-Friest and Ernest, Noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pre-Friest and Ernest, Noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now and ever shall be, world without end, amen. Oh, my Jesus. Forgive us, arsons, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy. Our fourth mystery. John the Apostle is called the Beloved Disciple because John knew Jesus. He loved Jesus, and Jesus loved him. And they were friends, profound friends. And he would not betray Jesus. He would not reject him. And John followed Jesus to the courtyard of Caiaphas, and he stood by him at the cross. Why? Because when you see the truth about Jesus, you forget yourself, and you choose him. See, you cannot be brave for yourself because self-preservation will always win out. And you cannot be good for yourself. If I am at the center, if I am the center, then I will choose what benefits me when it costs me something. But love moves me to choose what is good for my friend, even at my expense. You cannot be good for abstract rules. Our selfish fears and desires will always win out. But friendship, friendship moves me to choose what is good for someone else, even at my expense. You can only be brave and good for someone else, for a friend, for Jesus. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us to stay our dearly bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in earth, now in the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, preface and earnst, noun at the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou, among women, blessed is the fruit, the Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pre voice, in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Aimen. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pre voice, in earnest, noun at the hour of our death, Aimen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou, among women, blessed is the fruit, Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now and ever shall be, world without end, amen. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Our fifth mystery, the difference between John and Judas was friendship. So how do we develop the kind of friendship with Jesus so that we never want to reject Him by sin and are willing to sacrifice our life for Him? Well, let me suggest three ways as a form of a resolution. First, friendship takes time, so spend time with Him. Talk with Him from the heart. Get to know Him by reading His life and words and actions and feelings recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Second, Jesus is love, and the commandments are the reflection of God who is love. So we are going to do a short series on the 10 commandments to understand them better and see the real connection between them and Jesus. And third, Mary knows Jesus better than anyone else. So we are going to sit at her school in the rosary every day and let her teach us to know and love Jesus better. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us a stare, daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb. Jesus, holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in ours, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb. Jesus, holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in ours, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of thy womb. Jesus, holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in ours, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, blessed is a fruit of Thy womb. Jesus, holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us in ours, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou, among women, blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou, among women, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray first and earnst now in the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray first and earnst now in the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray first and earnst now in the hour of our death, Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray first and earnst now in the hour of our death, Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as now and ever shall it be, world without end, Amen. Oh, my Jesus. Forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, and especially those most in need of thy mercy. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the rune of souls. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. What are your thoughts on this meditation? That gave me a very different perspective, I think, of how we get into conflict with other people, and if someone does something against us, we don't just, I don't think we have just such a passion against evil, or just that we're so righteous and we want good so much, but mostly we feel hurt when others sin against us because we feel as if they don't love us. Even if it's in very small things, we think immediately, at least personally, I think the way my thoughts unravel, is they did this because they don't love me. They did this because there's some, they don't realize how much I'm working at this or how stressed I am, and I'm tired right now, why would they do this to me? And it's because they're thoughtless, it's because they don't care, and there's all these subtle assumptions we make, but they do come from a certain degree of all sin or when we hurt someone, there's a lack of love there, even if when we're committing something, when we're doing something, we're not thinking about that at all. The problem is that we're not thinking about them. Problem is we're not thinking about them. Yeah, but I can apply that to everything I'm doing. Most of the time, even if I'm doing something good for someone, I could still be thinking more about it. I'm not maybe using my mind to my full capacity or maybe not yet oriented in the correct way to always be seeking someone else's good. It's all personal. Yeah, but that does change. I struggle the most right now in categories of laziness and avoidance. I get anxious and then I just shut down. I just don't wanna do anything or respond to anything or I just run away from something, very conflict avoidant. But then it can be hard to in an examination of conscience if I'm thinking of that in the standard way to assess that and fix it because you're like, oh, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not doing anything. But to think of it this way is helping me kind of think about what I'm lacking there is also love. And you're gonna find that obviously in everything, but even the avoidance of conflict might seem like the good thing to do because you don't want to get into a fight. But if that's not the person's greatest good or even your greatest good or the right thing to do, not doing anything isn't the thing of actual love. So this is just changing my examination of conscience. Why is it changing it? What's at the core? Because it's- What's the switch? Like you said, it's too easy to think of morals as philosophy and something of the head and something abstract. And you analyze things in a scientific way and that's inaccurate to the human experience. Yeah, yeah, we think, well, if I do this, who does it really hurt? And how does it- Exactly. And how does it hurt God? So what's the big deal? Yes. Mm-hmm. But love has a name, Jesus. And every sin is a direct personal act against love. A personal attack on love who is a person. And the difference is that just actually naturally moves us to do things. It makes it not even so much a part, I think partly we give up the battle against sin all the time because we're like, I can't be perfect. I'm not in a lab, I'm not in some isolated test that we can have all the perfect control and everything. But love is entirely different than this. It's you really want and you can desire it. Let's bring it right back to Judas. Judas betrays Christ. And that moment where he goes into the garden and the act of betrayal and Jesus, the first word Jesus says to him is friend. Yeah. Jesus is, what's he doing? He is accentuating the point. Judas, what you're doing is a direct rejection of me. And that captures right there every single possible act of sin. It also shows us why without meditation that battle against sin is not just harder, it's impossible because you're not, if you don't have a friendship with Christ, then you're not worried about losing your friendship with Christ. Yeah, but you still are losing it. You just don't see it, you're blind. But this is, it's more than just adding stakes, it makes it easier. This is what makes it easier. Normally adding stakes does make things more difficult because you feel, like I said with my own experience, stress, avoidance, or you imagine a tightrope walker five feet above the ground versus above an arena with no net. So you'd think stakes would make that harder, but the stakes of love are entirely different and a real friendship with Christ. Changes everything. Well, thanks for the conversation. Thanks for the meditation. Most free apostles of friendship, good conversation and the rosary. Share this with others.