Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to
be still before God.
Opening Prayer: I feel your love as you hold me to your sacred
heart, my beloved Jesus, my God, my Master, but I feel, too, the need I have of
your tenderness, and your caress because of my infinite weakness.
~Charles
de Foucauld
Scripture Reading for the Day: Psalm 36:5-10
Reading for Reflection:
I know you through and
through—I know everything about you. The
very hairs on your head I have numbered.
Nothing in your life is unimportant to me, I have followed you through the
years, and I have always loved you—even in your wanderings.
I know every one of your problems. I know your need and your worries. And, yes, I know all your sins. But I tell you again that I love you—not for
what you have or haven’t done—I love you for you, for the beauty and dignity my
Father gave you by creating you in his own image.
It is a dignity you have often forgotten, a
beauty you have tarnished by sin. But I
love you as you are, and I have shed my blood to win you back. If you only ask me with faith, my grace will
touch all that needs changing in your life; and I will give you the strength to
free yourself from sin and all its destructive power.
I know what is in your heart—I know your
loneliness and all your hurts—the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations. I carried it all before you. And I carried it all for you, so you might
share my strength and victory. I know
especially your need for love—how you are thirsting to be loved and
cherished. But how often have you
thirsted in vain, by seeking that love selfishly, striving to fill the
emptiness inside you with passing pleasures—with even greater emptiness of
sin. Do you thirst for love? “Come to me all you who thirst” (John
7:37). I will satisfy you and fill
you. Do you thirst to be cherished? I cherish you more than you can imagine to the
point of dying on a cross for you. (Mother Teresa from Bread and Wine:
Readings for Lent and Easter)
Reflection and Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Closing Prayer: How exquisite your love, O God! How eager we are to run under your wings, to eat our fill at the banquet you spread as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water. You’re a fountain of cascading light, and you open our eyes to light. Keep on loving your friends; do your work in welcoming hearts. (Psalm 36:8-10 The Message)
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