💚 Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son. // Gospel Acclamation (based on Acts 16:14b)⁠ ⁠ // ⁠ ⁠ How often do we find ourselves in these states? Broken and desperate, cold and unbelieving. ⁠ ⁠ But the Gospel Acclamation reveals the proper response in these moments: “Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son.”⁠ ⁠ Particularly in these overwhelming moments, we need the truth of Christ’s words to penetrate our hardened hearts and heal what cannot be healed by human effort. Yet we cannot even open our hearts by ourselves. We need His grace to do so. We must simply desire to be open to God, to turn our gaze toward Him, and to invite Him to help us. ⁠ ⁠ And He will. Every single time. ⁠ ⁠ He will “rouse [His] power, and come to save us” (Psalm 80:3). Jesus longs to save, heal, and restore us. He begins that work here on earth, for most of us will complete it in purgatory, so that we will be completely healed when He leads us into Heaven. He is aware of...