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I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly God was speaking: “My name is I am.” I waited and God continued: “When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I was. When you live in the future, with its
problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I will be. When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM.” - Helen Mellincost
(God in this moment . . . all day long . . . ) |
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1 TM 1:1-2, 12-14; PS 16:1B-2A, 5, 7-8, 11; LK 6:39-42
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge; I say to the LORD, “My Lord are
you.” O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.
I bless the LORD who counsels me; even in the night my heart exhorts me. I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.
USCCB Lectionary
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Jesus states a heavenly principle we can stake our lives on: what you give to others (and how you treat others) will return to you (Mark 4:24). The Lord knows our faults and he sees all, even the imperfections and sins of the heart which we cannot recognize in ourselves. Like a gentle father and a skillful doctor he patiently
draws us to his seat of mercy and removes the cancer of sin which inhabits our hearts. Do you trust in God's mercy and grace? Ask the Lord to flood your heart with his loving-kindness and mercy that you may only have room for charity, forbearance, and kindness towards your neighbor.
"O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes
advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for thy name's sake." (Prayer of William Barclay, 20th century) DailyScripture.net
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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Describes the recollection which should be practiced after Communion. Concludes this subject with an exclamatory prayer to the Eternal Father.
Since, then, Holy Father, Who art in the Heavens, Thou dost will and accept this (and it is clear that Thou couldst not deny us a thing which is so good for us) there must be someone, as I said at the beginning, who will speak for Thy Son, for He has never defended Himself. Let this be the task for us, daughters, though, having regard to what we are, it is presumptuous of us to undertake it. Let us rely, however, on Our Lord's command to
us to pray to Him, and, in fulfillment of our obedience to Him, let us beseech His Majesty, in the name of the good Jesus, that, as He has left nothing undone that He could do for us in granting sinners so great a favour, He may be pleased of His mercy to prevent Him from being so ill-treated. Since His Holy Son has given us this excellent way in which we can offer Him up frequently as a sacrifice, let us make use of this precious gift so that it may stay the advance of such terrible evil and
irreverence as in many places is paid to this Most Holy Sacrament. For these Lutherans seem to want to drive Him out of the world again: they destroy churches, cause the loss of many priests and abolish the sacraments. And there is something of this even among Christians, who sometimes go to church meaning to offend Him rather than to worship Him. - Chapter 35
(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.) Paperback (Kindle edition available)
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