DAILY MEDITATION: "Freedom from Judging, Freedom for Mercy" for Friday, 9 March 2018
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The desert fathers said that judging others is a heavy burden, while being judged by others is a light one. Once we can let go of our need to judge others, we will experience an immense inner freedom. Once we are free from judging, we will be also free for mercy. Let's remember Jesus' words: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged" (Matthew 7:1).
For further reflection...
When the Pharisee who had invited himself saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is - that she is a sinner." Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." He said, "Tell me, teacher." Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "DO YOU SEE THIS WOMAN?" (Luke 7: 39-40, 44 (NIV))
Your response...
Where in your life would you find it helpful to have more mercy and less judgment?
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DAILY MEDITATION: "Towards a Nonjudgmental Life" for Thursday, 8 March 2018
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One of the hardest spiritual tasks is to live without prejudices. Sometimes we aren't even aware how deeply rooted our prejudices are. We may think that we relate to people who are different from us in colour, religion, sexual orientation, or lifestyle as equals, but in concrete circumstances our spontaneous thoughts, uncensored words, and knee-jerk reactions often reveal that our prejudices are still there.
Strangers, people different than we are, stir up fear, discomfort, suspicion, and hostility. They make us lose our sense of security just by being "other." Only when we fully claim that God loves us in an unconditional way and look at "those other persons" as equally loved can we begin to discover that the great variety in being human is an expression of the immense richness of God's heart. Then the need to prejudge people can gradually disappear.
For further reflection...
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in [another's] eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to [another], "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when all the while there is a plank in your own? (Matthew 7: 2-4 (NIV))
Your response...
How do find yourself reacting to people who are very different than you?
Comment on this meditation.
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DAILY MEDITATION: "The Great Gift of Parenthood" for Wednesday, 7 March 2018
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Children are their parents' guests. They come into the space that has been created for them, stay for a while - fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years - and leave again to create their own space. Although parents speak about "our son" and "our daughter," their children are not their property. In many ways children are strangers. Parents have to come to know them, discover their strengths and their weaknesses, and guide them to maturity, allowing them to make their own decisions.
The greatest gift parents can give their children is their love for each other. Through that love they create an anxiety-free place for their children to grow, encouraging them to develop confidence in themselves and find the freedom to choose their own ways in life.
For further reflection...
"If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring it success." (Ecclesiastes 10:10 (NIV))
Your response...
In what ways were your own parents able or unable to practice parenting as a form of hospitality?
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DAILY MEDITATION: "True Hospitality" for Tuesday, 6 March 2018
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Every good relationship between two or more people, whether it is friendship, marriage, or community, creates space where strangers can enter and become friends. Good relationships are hospitable. When we enter into a home and feel warmly welcomed, we will soon realise that the love among those who live in that home is what makes that welcome possible.
When there is conflict in the home, the guest is soon forced to choose sides. "Are you for him or for her?" "Do you agree with them or with us?" "Do you like him more than you do me?" These questions prevent true hospitality - that is, an opportunity for the stranger to feel safe and discover his or her own gifts. Hospitality is more than an expression of love for the guest. It is also and foremost an expression of love between the hosts.
For further reflection...
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10: 38-42 (NIV))
Your response...
"Hospitality is the creation of a free space where strangers can become friends." (Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us)
Comment on this meditation.
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DAILY MEDITATION: "Creating a Home Together" for Monday, March 2018
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Many human relationships are like the interlocking fingers of two hands. Our loneliness makes us cling to each other, and this mutual clinging makes us suffer immensely because it does not take our loneliness away. But the harder we try, the more desperate we become. Many of these "interlocking" relationships fall apart because they become suffocating and oppressive. Human relationships are meant to be like two hands folded together. They can move away from each other while still touching with the fingertips. They can create space between themselves, a little tent, a home, a safe place to be.
True relationships among people point to God. They are like prayers in the world. Sometimes the hands that pray are fully touching, sometimes there is distance between them. They always move to and from each other, but they never lose touch. They keep praying to the One who brought them together.
For further reflection...
"These are the [ones] who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts but do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt." (Jude 19-22 (NIV))
Your response...
"Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness." (Jean Vanier, Community and Growth)
Comment on this meditation.
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DAILY MEDITATION: "Reflecting God's perfect love" for Sunday, 4 March 2018
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God's love for us is everlasting. That means that God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. It is an eternal love in which we are embraced. Living a spiritual life calls us to claim that eternal love for ourselves so that we can live our temporal loves - for parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, spouses, and all people who become part of our lives - as reflections or refractions of God's eternal love. No fathers or mothers can love their children perfectly. No husbands or wives can love each other with unlimited love. There is no human love that is not broken somewhere.
When our broken love is the only love we can have, we are easily thrown into despair, but when we can live our broken love as a partial reflection of God's perfect, unconditional love, we can forgive one another our limitations and enjoy together the love we have to offer.
For further reflection...
"But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love... Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst." (Nehemiah 9: 17, 19-20 (NIV))
Your response...
That which gives us true freedom and true happiness is the compassionate love of Christ. (Pope Francis)
Comment on this meditation.
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"Reflection for the Third Sunday in Lent" The Henri Nouwen Society in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for Sunday, 4 March 2018
Reflection for the Third Sunday in Lent
HOPEA person with hope does not get tangled up with concerns for how his wishes will be fulfilled. So, too, his prayer is not directed toward the gift, but toward the one who gives it. His prayer might still contain just as many desires, but ultimately it is not a question of having a wish come true but of expressing an unlimited faith is the giver of all good things....For the prayer of hope it is essential that there are no guarantees asked, no conditions posed, and no proofs demanded, only that you expect everything from the other without binding him. Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good. Hope includes an openness by which you wait for the other to make his loving promise come true, even though you never know when, where or how this might happen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Good Shepherd of all, help me to hear your voice of assurance when I am lost and hopeless. Let me find rest and safety in your presence. Though I may be tempted to be full of fear and self-pity, though I may wish to run away from you, please never give up on me. Amen.
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Excerpt from With Open Hands by Henri J.M. Nouwen, published by Ave Maria Press. Used with kind permission of the publisher.
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DAILY MEDITATION: "God's faithfulness and ours" for Saturday, 3 March 2018
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When God makes a covenant with us, God says: "I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me." In our society we don't speak much about covenants; we speak about contracts. When we make a contract with a person, we say: "I will fulfill my part as long as you fulfill yours. When you don't live up to your promises, I no longer have to live up to mine." Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling or unable to be faithful to their terms.
But God didn't make a contract with us; God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships with one another to reflect that covenant. That's why marriage, friendship, life in community are all ways to give visibility to God's faithfulness in our lives together.
For further reflection...
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people." (Hebrews 8: 10-11 (NIV))
Your response...
Instead of "I think, therefore, I am" or "I shop at WalMart and Macy's, therefore I am" or "I have a job, therefore I am," the model here is "I am loved by God, therefore I am." (Paul Louis Metzger, Connecting Christ)
Comment on this meditation.
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DAILY MEDITATION: "God's Covenant" for Friday, 2 March 2018
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God made a covenant with us. The word covenant means "coming together." God wants to come together with us. In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God is God-for-us. When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us. Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God. God is God-within-us. Thus God's covenant reveals to us to how much God loves us.
For further reflection...
"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." (I John 4: 11-13 (NIV))
Your response...
Are there signs or reminders of God's love that you see in your life?
Comment on this meditation.
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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Scripture chosen by L. Yeskoo.
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