Opening Prayer: Loving Father, teach me to love and care for
those that need you today. Those who are
passed over and do not feel love unless I love them for you. May Christ's love for others be felt through
me today. In your name and by your power
I pray these things. Amen. (Disciplines
for the Inner Life by Bob Benson)
Scripture: Luke 4:16-21
Journal: What is your response to the Scriptures today? What is God saying to you? What is God asking of you? What is God calling you to?
Reflection:
Ministry is service in the name of the Lord. It is bringing the good news to the poor,
proclaiming liberty to captives and new sight to the blind, setting the
downtrodden free and announcing the Lord’s year of favor (Luke 4:18). Spirituality is attention to the life of the
Spirit in us; it is going out to the desert or up to the mountain to pray; it
is standing before the Lord with open heart and open mind; it is crying out,
“Abba, Father”; it is contemplating the unspeakable beauty of our loving God.
We have fallen into the temptation of
separating ministry from spirituality, service from prayer. Our demon says: “we are too busy to pray; we
have too many needs to attend to, too many people to respond to, too many
wounds to heal. Prayer is a luxury,
something to do during a free hour, a day away from work or on retreat. The few who are exclusively concerned with
prayer—such as Trappists, Poor Clares, and some isolated hermits—are really not
involved in ministry. They are set free
for single-minded contemplation and leave Christian service to others.” But to
think this way is harmful; harmful for ministers as well as for
contemplatives. Service and prayer can
never be separated. (Living Reminder by Henri J. M. Nouwen)
Prayer
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)
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