Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
Alleluia. He is risen. Alleluia, we are risen. Alleluia, you will rise again! (Michelle Francl-Donnay)
Opening Prayer
Have for God an expansive love which includes all that love is capable of and all that a heart can love in God and for God; an exalted love full of purpose and ardor, transcending the mass of creatures; a profound heartfelt love which is at your heart’s center and cannot be uprooted by any created power. (M. of P, 9# 2)
In living your life have only one desire: to be and become the person God wills in nature, in grace, in glory for time and for eternity. (M of P 10, #7)
Reading
There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it. It is never satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it. But it is always awake. It is the human desire for love. Every person in this earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in this desire…
…Love is the “why” of life: why we are functioning at all, what we want to be efficient for… I am convinced (love) is the fundamental energy of the human spirit, the fuel on which we run; the wellspring of our vitality. And grace, which is the flowing, creative activity of love itself, is what makes all goodness possible. Love should come first: it should be the beginning and the reason for everything.
From The Awakened Heart
by Gerald May
Reflection
Now take some time for personal reflection.
How has God’s Love for you been evident this Easter Season?
How have you shown your Love Response back to God?
Reflection
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. (St. Augustine of Hippo)