genuine love

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: Romans 12:9-10

Journal: What does it mean for you today to let love be genuine?  How will you do that?

Reflection: “Let love be genuine.”  The Greek word used here for “genuine” is anypokritos.  It means without hypocrisy or disguise; unpretentious.  Thus, we are called upon to love each other truly, from the heart.  True community is a thing of beauty.  When we choose to live openly and honestly with each other, in loving transparency and vulnerability, it does something powerful both within us and among us.  It touches and transforms.  It creates a safe space where we can come out of hiding and truly be ourselves, and thus be truly loved.  True community ignites something beautiful deep within us that can be ignited in no other way.  For the Spirit of God is present and active in genuine community in a dynamic and powerful way.  A way that gives each of us a little taste of what the kingdom of God is all about.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: God of our creation and re-creation, you who are constantly at work to shape me in the wholeness of Christ, you know the hardness of the structures of my being that resist your shaping touch.  You know the deep inner rigidities of my being that reject your changing grace.  By your grace soften my hardness and rigidity; help me to become pliable in your hands.  Even as I pray this, may there be a melting of my innate resistance to your transforming love.  Amen. (Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.)