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
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 36
Scripture for the Day: Romans 5:1-8
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 I 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.
I thirst for you. Yes, that is the only way to even begin to
describe my love for you: I thirst for
you. I thirst to love and to be
loved by you—that is how precious you are to me. I
thirst for you. Come to me, and fill
your heart and heal your wounds.
If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the
world, that matters not at all. For me,
there is no one any more important in the entire world than you. I
thirst for you. Open to me, come to
me, thirst for me, give me your life—and I will prove to you how important you
are to my heart.
No matter how far you may wander, no
matter how often you forget me, no matter how many crosses you may bear in this
life, there is one thing I want you to remember always, one thing that will
never change: I thirst for you—just
as you are. You don’t need to change to
believe in my love, for it will be your belief in my love that will change
you. You forget me, and yet I am seeking
you every moment of the day—standing at the door of your heart, and knocking.
Do you find this hard to believe? Then look at the cross, look at my heart that
was pierced for you. Have you not
understood my cross? Then listen again
to the words I spoke there—for they tell you clearly why I endured all this for
you: I thirst (John 19:28). Yes, I thirst for you—as the rest of the
Psalm verse which I was praying says of me: “I looked for love, and I found
none” (Psalm 69:20).
All your life I have been looking for your
love—I have never stopped seeking to love and be loved by you. You have tried many other things in your
search for happiness; why not try opening your heart to me, right now, more
than you ever have before.
Whenever you do not open the door of your
heart, whenever you come close enough, you will hear me say to you again and
again, not in mere human words but in spirit: “No matter what you have done, I
love you for your own sake.”
Come to me with your misery and your sins,
with your trouble and needs, and with all your longing to be loved. I stand at the door of your heart and
knock. Open to me, for I thirst for you.
(I Thirst for
You by 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
Song for the Week: Jesus Lover of My Soul
Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenseless head
with the shadow of thy wing.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.
Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity
Closing Prayer:
O Thou who ordered this wondrous world, and who knowest all things in earth and heaven: So fill our hearts with trust in thee that by night and day, at all times and in all seasons, we may without fear commit all that we have and hope to be to thy never-failing love, for this life and the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Worship)
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