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.
By: Sister Joan Sobala
“By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” Luke 21.19
Opening Prayer
Tender God, with the days shortening and the temperature dropping, I am tempted to become like your creatures who burrow in for the winter, hibernating safely until spring. The world is so chaotic, I would rather be where I don’t notice it, but I know that I must stay the course and find a way of doing so with hope, courage and even humor. Be with me as I try, Gracious God, Amen.
Reflection
One contemporary phrase for perseverance is “staying the course.” The Thessalonians in today’s second reading didn’t want to do that. They were convinced they didn’t need to do their share to build up the faith community in this world, because they believed that Jesus was coming again…very soon. To put it into simple terms, they stopped working, stopped contributing their time and efforts to creating a faith community where all could be welcome, and a world of compassion, mercy and justice. Paul strongly condemned this attitude as unworthy of Christ’s followers.
Long before Jesus, the writer Malachi encouraged people to stay the course, reminding them that, in their faithfulness, they would be warmed by “the sun of justice with its healing rays.”
We can say that at the moment, our world is a thorny place, with its cataclysms, storms, wars, complexities and uncertainties. Through it all, God is faithful and calls us to be faithful.
Be confident. We are not alone. We have companions to walk with us, laugh with us when incongruities show up. Stay the course.
Closing Prayer
Creator God, I know that these hard times will pass. The world will blossom with newness and people will love another again with all the possibility for love that is in us. I believe that your presence and love are so strong and ever-present that our world, our country, our times will become new, that laughter will well up in us and that joy will be more prominent in our lives than tears. You inspire hope in me, Gracious God. May my awareness of You never wane. Amen.
