The Birth of St. John the Baptist
Spain, ca.1525
Gilded wood
Art Institute of Chicago
My daily work is to show up for life, treat all people with compassion, generosity, and respect, take care of today’s responsibilities, and help manifest God’s vision of peace, unity, and love in our fragile world.
Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God. Isaiah 49:4
Mustard Seeds in a Plate at Reganigudem, Visakhapatnam district
By Adityamadhav83 [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
“You always inspire me,” I told her recently as I coped with the anxiety of a job search.
“You just made my day,” she said. Her gracious reply energized me to banish the idol of worry and put my attention on the things of God.
Tiny seeds of appreciation, respect, encouragement, love, and compassion do grow and spread and bear great fruit.
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.” Mark 4:26-27
Let us be the family of the Lord. Let us love one another. Let us pray for our enemies. Let us help the poor and the homeless, the refugees and immigrants. Let us comfort the lonely and grief-stricken. Let us welcome the rejected and abandoned. Let us show compassion to the suffering. Let us forgive those who have hurt us.
[… Jesus said,] “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3:34b-35
JESUS MAFA. Detail of Jesus from the Lord’s Supper, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. [retrieved June 3, 2018]. Original source: Librairie de l’Emmanuel
Each of us needs the food and drink of love to be fully alive and human. God’s love empowers us to stand tall, rejoice with the knowledge of our unique place in God’s heart, and be aware of God’s blessings and grace even when life circumstances trouble us.
May I remember to offer God’s love to all those I encounter today.
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. Mark 14:22-23
Unknown Icon Painter, Russian (active 1690-1710 in northern Russia)
The Holy Trinity
egg tempera on wood, between 1690 and 1710
We are in the presence of God. Now.
We are not alone. We have not been abandoned. The Lord is with us always.
Listen to the silence. Feel the fullness. Absorb the peace.
Trust.
[Jesus approached and said to them,] “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b
JESUS MAFA. Pentecost, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. [retrieved May 20, 2018]. Original source: Librairie de l’Emmanuel
May the language I choose always express God’s Spirit of love and compassion.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Acts 2:4-6
God’s love has been planted in my heart. May I take time today to sit with Love in the quiet of my heart space. May I let Love prune and shape my life and will. May my own capacity to love grow, flourish, and bear great fruit.
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 1 John 4:16b
