April
9, 2024 ~ Tuesday in Eastertide, Week 2
I am chastened by the recognition of how often I do the check-list thing and think about how to get all that I deserve. Then I look back over my life and worry that I might actually get all that I deserve...Please, God, spare me that, at least some of it!
Help me, again and always, to discover Your peace within myself, so that I can work to reflect it outwardly to others. Help me to measure my life in gratitude instead of my wants and expectations. Grant me the consciousness to spend more of my allotted days seeking forgiveness for my faults and forgiving others for theirs, rather than me judging us both harshly. I want to wake each morning, remember each noon, and when I lay me down to sleep, feeling and knowing the grace You bestow on us all. I want to look beyond myself and live into the gifts You have given each of us to use generously on behalf of all Your people.
O Lord, I am also chastened by the recognition that what good I think is owed to me in this life is exponentially less than what I owe You, Your People, and, Your Creation. It is past time for me to begin re-payment so I'll start today even if slowly. amen.
*Francis de Sales
[1567-1622], a saint on the Roman Catholic calendar, was Bishop of Geneva but
not allowed to live there as it was under Calvinist control. Of great
accomplishment as a bishop, he is best known now as a mystical writer who
championed the laity and provided gentle spiritual direction and counsel. His
best known work is Introduction to the Devout Life, still read
today, in which he emphasized charity over penance as a means to progress
in spiritual pursuit whatever your station in life, from the wealthiest to the
poorest. He did not define charity in terms of money but
rather caring consideration in whatever way is available to us. He is said to
have struggled with a short temper but through his writings we only know him
with an inner calm and deep faith.
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