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.
By: Sister Joan Sobala
“I love you, Lord, my strength.” Psalm 18.2
Opening Prayer
I love you, Lord, my strength. I say it over and over again. I love you, Lord, my strength. I believe I do, and yet I don’t always act as if I do. Oh, I pray, and see you in nature, and in my loved ones, but today you ask something more of me, namely that I show my love for you in the ways I treat the widow and orphan and stranger. In other words, how I treat those who are not initially close to me by birth or community relations or friendship or choice. Help me to make a place in my heart and mind and actions for these people whom it would be easy to leave on the margins of my life. I pray in the name of Jesus, your son and our brother. Amen.
Reflection
This far into ordinary time, our liturgical readings take us back to basics: love of God and love of our neighbor. For Sisters of Saint Joseph throughout the world and in our history, the call to serve the dear neighbor without distinction has been the bedrock of our lives. We have been taught by Jesus to seek out, look at, and touch with love the ones it would be so easy to pass by. Moreover, we, Sisters of Saint Joseph, try to invite others to treat the stranger, the widow and the orphan in the same way. It is a work of the Gospel. Not easy, but worthwhile in every way. At the end of today’s first reading from Exodus, God describes himself as compassionate. Paul in the First Letter to the Thessalonians encourages his community to become models of how to follow Jesus. And in the Gospel, we hear again the two great commandment: Love God and love your neighbor. Could anything be more clear? Could anything supplant this call? No. Let’s be attentive to the call together, whatever that might mean.
Closing Prayer
Loving God, I ask for the gift of recognizing my dear neighbor. That’s the hard part. The recognition. I don’t always realize who is out there, hurting, frail, neglected. Help me to do so, alone and in the company of others. May the Holy Spirit guide me, guide us as we try to love as you love. Amen.
