The beginning of a new academic year, in countries where the year begins in September, can be a good opportunity to remember that God is waiting for us, going ahead of us into this new stage. St. Josemaría encouraged living ordinary life in just this way: "Seek Christ, find Christ, love Christ." In this recollection, we want to meditate alongside two figures from the Gospel who encountered Jesus in the middle of their ordinary lives: the Samaritan woman and Zacchaeus.

With the Samaritan woman, we will contemplate Jesus coming out to meet us in ordinary life, offering us something greater than we expected: "If you knew the gift of God..." (Jn 4:10). We too can discover the Lord along our everyday paths, in our family, our work, our studies, our daily relationships.

With Zacchaeus we will discover a different gift: freedom. Zacchaeus was rich and accustomed to accumulating possessions, but his encounter with Christ changes the way he lives: he discovers that true happiness lies not in possessing more and more, but in knowing how to let go and to share. We too can reflect on what place money and material things occupy in our lives; whether we know how to distinguish what we truly need from mere whims, and whether we are generous with what we have received.

May this start of the new year be an opportunity to put Christ back at the center. May we, like the Samaritan woman, know how to let ourselves be found by Him; and, like Zacchaeus, welcome Him into our lives with freedom and generosity.

A recollection is a period of time dedicated exclusively to God, with periods of mental and vocal prayer (the meditations and recitation of the Rosary), spiritual reading, and silence with God. As the name implies, it’s an opportunity to recollect who we are in front of our loving Father, God, and to bring our whole selves and full attention to Him.

You may wish to pause between the different parts of the recollection to allow each one to make an impression. The Holy Spirit speaks quietly.

Paying full attention can be a challenge. It may be helpful to find a quiet place to sit, stand, or kneel before starting; somewhere you're not likely to be interrupted. Take some time to turn off any background noises, pause your notifications, and calm the chatter in your own mind. It can be helpful to make paper or digital notes to focus in the moment and to be able to come back to any ideas the Holy Spirit inspires later on.

On 9 January 2018, the Prelate of Opus Dei wrote us a long letter on freedom: "Our divine filiation enables our freedom to expand with all the strength that God has bestowed on it. It is not by emancipating ourselves from the Father’s house that we become free, but rather by embracing the reality that we are sons or daughters."

After reading part of the letter, you may wish to spend a few minutes with the New Testament. Click for today’s Gospel and a short commentary.

Spiritual reading means thoughtfully reading spiritual texts like Sacred Scripture and the lives and writings of the saints in order to “build up a store of fuel” that later feeds our prayer (cf. The Way, no. 117).

Click here to go to this meditation directly on Spotify.

A meditation is short period of guided mental prayer with the preacher, a priest, talking to God out loud on a set topic, usually a theme from the Gospels. What matters most is your personal conversation with God. The preacher’s goal is to inspire your prayer by giving you light and moving your heart. You may find it helpful to spend more time on certain ideas, follow your own train of thought when the priest's words inspire something particular in you, or choose an image to keep pondering after the recollection or in your next time of prayer.

• Do I entrust my life and my family to Mary’s maternal mediation? Do I ask her to intercede for vocations for the Church and for the Work?
• “Grant that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory” (Collect of the Mass of the Assumption). Do I try to live in such a way that the fruits of my actions contribute to the glory of God?
• There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that belongs to me’ (Lk 15:11-12). Contemplating the story of the prodigal son, do I realize that sin robs me of happiness and separates me from God?
• When he came to his senses, he said to himself… (Lk 15:17). Do I ask the Holy Spirit for the light to see the reality of my life with the perspective of faith? Do I go to confession with the assurance that he is waiting for me and welcomes me with joy?
• The older son was indignant and would not go in, but his father went out to persuade him (Lk 15:28). Do my own shortcomings help me to understand and forgive others and not judge? Do I try to dialogue with my spouse, avoiding arguments that only lead us to distance ourselves from each other? Do I correct my children with affection and patience?
• The father in the parable replied: Your brother was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found (Lk 15:31). Do I ask the Lord for a big heart everyone — even those I find it hard to deal with or who have hurt me — finds room in? Do others’ achievements make me happy?

Pope Francis described examining our conscience as “the good habit of calmly rereading what happens in our day, learning to note in our evaluations and choices what we give most importance to, what we are looking for and why, and what we eventually find” (Audience, 5-X-2022). The questions in this examination of conscience are related to the themes of this month’s recollection and are meant to help us look past the surface and ask God how we have responded to his love for us. It can help to start by calling on the Holy Spirit, asking for light, and to end with an act of contrition, expressing sorrow for our sins and asking for help to stay close to God.

The Rosary is a traditional Catholic prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, asking her to pray for all her children in their time of need. Through the different prayers that make up the Rosary, we tell our Lady that we love her and we contemplate Jesus’ life. Click to go to a guide for praying the Rosary.