We pray for gentle. We need to see what God sees. Or will we?
Once we pray the Examen, we ask God to make clear the day and to disclose to us the place he has been current, the place we have now fallen brief, and the place we are able to go to be his arms and toes.
Joseph A. Tetlow, SJ, writes, “Once we ask for gentle, we have to be prepared to simply accept what God offers us.” That is true. Typically God reveals one thing we don’t need to see.
Typically God reveals the place he has been current, resembling in a dialog with a coworker or a choice made for our household. We’re pleased to see, whether it is one thing lovely. Frankly, generally it strokes our personal ego and helps us to know we’re heading in the right direction.
However generally God reveals the place we fall brief relating to an individual in our circle who’s hurting or a scenario we have now a possibility to treatment. Typically, we fall brief by way of our personal sin. Maybe a foul behavior is popping into a part of our character. Even these revelations are a grace. It’s God’s gentle that drives out the darkness. That gentle offers us the chance to rid ourselves of obstructions that maintain us from being near Jesus.
Even now, I sit earlier than Jesus and ask that he shed his gentle on my day, habits, and communities. A face involves thoughts. I’ve seen this face earlier than in my prayers. It’s the face of just a little lady in my group. She is hurting. I can see it. Jesus has introduced her face to thoughts earlier than. I prayed for her, after which I forgot.
In the course of the Examen, God sheds his gentle on this example, and I do know I can do extra. He desires me to do extra. It will likely be awkward.
I believe once more of what Tetlow writes, “Once we ask for gentle, we have to be prepared to simply accept what God offers us.” I think about God saying to me, “You requested for it,” in a teasing, joking kind of method. I need to do the best factor. I need to be God’s arms and toes to share his love with this little lady. I additionally know that God doesn’t want me to assist. He’s giving me a possibility to reside in his love. This can be a grace. If I don’t take the chance, he’ll discover another person. God is giving me the chance to attract nearer to him and to attract this little lady nearer to him.
Scripture says, “for the Spirit searches every little thing, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). And I believe there’s a lot extra to this gentle than simply that lady’s face. There’s her story, my story. How I’m studying to cleave to Jesus increasingly. How he desires to show me this.
So I pray:
Lord, you’ve shed your gentle on my day and my group.
Now I ask that I keep near you as I take a look at what you could have proven me.
Divulge to me now how I can transfer ahead in obedience.
Divulge to me the alternatives I’ve to indicate your love.
And, Lord, give me the energy and boldness to do your will.
Photograph by Jenna Reivolahti on Unsplash.