"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love, where there is injury pardon, where there is doubt faith, where there is despair hope, where there is darkness light, and where there is sadness joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen."
Reflection
Many of us spend much of our lives wondering what we should be doing for our livelihood and what it is that God calls us to do in our life's journey. Our day-to-day activities are full of choices from moment to moment.
The apostles, in contrast, were given very definite directions from Christ. After years of teaching and example, He "summoned them and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and told them to cure every disease and illness." He even told them what to wear. (Matthew 10:10)
What direction do we have in leading our lives?
It is reassuring to recall often that each of us was in the mind of God before the earth was created. We have our main direction given us by God in the Ten Commandments. Christ guided us even further in how we should live through the Beatitudes. He urged us to work toward spiritual perfection. Through the Church we have the sacraments to affirm us as Christians, to be channels for our spiritual nourishment and forgiveness - Holy Communion and Reconciliation.
All is grace. All is gift, but it is up to us to trust and reach out to the love of God, always there for us.
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