The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, ´Be uprooted and planted in the sea, ´ and it would obey you.Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ´Come here immediately and take your place at table´? Would he not rather say to him, ´Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished´? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ´We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.´"

 
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I place my faith and hope only in you. You are my God, my Creator and my Redeemer. I thank you for all you have done for me, and I want to love you with my whole heart, and to dedicate my entire self to sow the seeds of Gospel charity in everyone I meet.

 
Petition: Lord, increase my faith so that it becomes the motor of my life. H elp me always to trust in your will for my life.

1. A Request for Faith.

 
A mustard seed is small indeed. But as we can easily observe, the size of a seed does not necessarily reflect the size of the tree and fruit it ultimately produces. Christ emphasizes in his words here how little faith we really have in our hearts, it is even "smaller than a mustard seed". And he makes it very clear that the faith he is asking of us is really very small in comparison to the goodness he's ready to show us, and the fruit it will bear . As the apostles traveled town-to-town with Our Lord, they saw firsthand the great impact faith had in the lives of all the people that Jesus cured of illness and disease. Jesus said that it was their faith that cured them, and where there was no faith he could not work miracles. When Peter doubted he sank. How could the apostles resist the desire to have more faith themselves? Thus they exclaim Lord, increase our faith.

2. God as a Bargain Bin.

 
There may be times when we find ourselves living our Christian lives as if it were some sort of legal contract with God. We expect if we do something good, God will be pleased and be good to us in return. This attitude can very subtly become part of our way of thinking, unnoticed by our conscience. We think it is Christian, but it isn't, because our focus is on ourselves and our wants to the extent that we fail to recognize what truly is good for us here in time in view of what is good for us in eternity. When this happens, it is common for the values of our faith to hold less weight than our wants or the selfish goods that we instinctively seek. We fail to see things clearly and our own will, not God's will, becomes the light that guides us.

3. Unprofitable Servants.

 
A healthy spiritual life begins with a sincere prayer to recognize God as the source of all blessings . It is humbling, but it is also the key to giving fruit, for God is no miser, he wants to give us his all his gifts in Christ. Those who seek the Lord lack no blessing (Psalm 34:10). In this light, how can we fail to see the undeniable fact that no one can fully repay God for all the gifts that he has already given us: the gift of life for starters, and the promise of eternal happiness? Yet, our weak, near-sighted nature makes us focus on ourselves and our wants to the extent that we fail to recognize what truly is good for us here in time as well as in eternity.
It is in serving him and putting him first that we find ourselves. When we put ourselves first, our relationship with God becomes reduced to a cold and forded exchange, and we might even be tempted to rebel against the master who expects to be served first. But isn't that really the key to our happiness? Thus, our relationship with God ought to be marked with filial trust and gratitude to a loving Father who knows and wants what is best for us-even if that entails sacrifices that seem to lack direct, personal reward.

Conversation.

 
Lord how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking that my love for you is all giving and no receiving ! Help me always to recognize that all I do is only a very pale reflection of all you have done for me. Help me to trust in your providential love, and give me dispositions of unbreakable faith and total generosity in fulfilling your holy will in my life.

Questionnaire:

1. How strong is my faith? How often do I sincerely ask God in prayer to increase my faith?
2. How do my actions and decisions reflect my gratitude and humility for all the Lord has done for me? In what way could I do a better job showing God my gratitude?
3. In what ways is God calling me to show my faith to those around me? Has my response to Our Lord taken on characteristics more like a contract rather than a loving relationship with one who loves me deeply and deserves all my love in return?