given. sunday

Sunday, July 6

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer: Our Father, here I am, at your disposal, your child, to use me to continue your loving the world, by giving Jesus to me and through me, to each other and the world.  Let us pray for each other as we allow Jesus to love in us and through us with the love with which His Father loves him. (Seeking the Heart of God by Mother Teresa)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Luke 9:12-17

Reading for Reflection:

 

     You give them something to eat.  It seems that a significant amount of following Jesus involves figuring out what you've got to give—even if it feels like just five loaves of bread and two fish—and then figuring out how to give it and who to give it to.  You see, God gave you something wonderfully unique and specific; something that only you can give.  It may feel like a woefully inadequate amount,, but in His hands, it is more than enough to satisfy all and still have some left over.  "You give them something to eat, because I gave you something very specific that only you can give.  First give it to me, and then I will give it back to you in abundance.  Then you will be able to give it to them, whoever your them may be.  And in the giving of it to them you will find that there is enough to feed you as well."  Incredible!
     And once we are willing enough and courageous enough to give Jesus our little loaves and fish, he does something really amazing with it.  Amazing and frightening all at the same time.  He takes it, then he blesses it, then he breaks it, and then he gives it.  All of which sounds pretty great, except the breaking part.  Because in Jesus' economy we can't be multiplied enough to be given, we can only be broken enough to be given.  It is in the breaking that the abundance seems to come.  It is in the breaking that the multiplying seems to occur.
     Thus, if we really want to have something of depth and substance to give, it will almost always involve some sort of breaking.  The funny thing is that when we feel the most broken in our lives it is usually the time we feel least able to give, or the time when we feel like we have the least to offer.  But just the opposite is actually true.  When we are broken, we are actually most fruitful in giving something of substance and value to those we are trying to give ourselves to.  Somehow, in the brokenness, it has stopped being about us and our ability to multiply ourselves, and has begun being about God and His ability to multiply our little loaves and little fish with His strong and tender hands.

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

            

Closing Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

     Help me to realize the many voices of hunger, the many sounds of thirst, the many cries of loneliness, the many callings of sickness and nakedness and imprisonment.  Help me to hear in all of them something of You calling to me to become more than I am.  More understanding.  More compassionate.  More involved.  More like You. (Reflections on the Word by Ken Gire)