Opening Prayer: O Lord our God, help us to live our lives with
the faith and courage necessary to live by love and not by fear. Forgive me when my seeing and my thinking get
so distorted that I allow fear to control me and make me its slave—even when I
don’t fully realize it. Seize my heart
and soul with your perfect love in such a way that it drives out all fear and
gives me the freedom to truly love, rather than manipulate, those in my life
and world. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Scripture Reading for the Day: 1 John 4:16-21
Reading for Reflection:
We live in a time in
which we are constantly tempted to let our fears rule our lives. More than ever our world gives us reasons to
fear. We are afraid for our own inner
impulses which we are not able fully to understand or control, we are afraid of
the many strangers surrounding us and threatening to invade our lives, we are
afraid of the increasing capability of humanity to destroy itself and we are
afraid of a God who can punish us with eternal damnation. The greater our fears the less our
freedom. In order to alleviate our fears
we often become very active, busy and full of worries about our future, always
on guard for possible dangers. Our fears
also make us very self-centered since they make us live our lives as an ongoing
battle for survival.
Jesus came to cast out our fears. He announced a God of perfect love in whom no
fear can exist. He himself and all his
messengers, whether angels or apostles, say constantly; “Do not be afraid.” But
it is far from easy not to let the many real fears make us deaf and blind to
the God of perfect love. The news of
every day, the concrete emergencies of our own daily life and our own inner
self-doubt make us often fearful before we are fully aware of it ourselves.
What we truly need is a safe space to
dwell, to take off our heavy armour and let the perfect love of God touch us,
heal us and guide us from the land of fear to the land of God. ~Henri J. M.
Nouwen (from the foreword to Rule for a New Brother)
Reflection and Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Closing Prayer: O Lord, our God, cast out all of our fear with your perfect love; that we might live in continual union with you and continual community with each other. Amen.
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