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The Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

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Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offence, let me bring pardon. Where there is discord, let me bring union. Where there is error, let me bring truth. Where there is doubt, let me bring faith. Where there is despair, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let me bring your light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.


O Lord, 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 one receives, it is in self-forgetting that one finds, it is in forgiving that one is forgiven, it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.

Moving Forward Meditations

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Moving Forward - 28 January 2025

    TUESDAY, January 28, Thomas Aquinas


    Mark 6:3b And they took offense at him.


    What a sad situation this is for the people of Nazareth! Jesus returns to his home synagogue and astounds the people with his teaching, but their response is based on what they remember, wondering, “How can this be?” And it is this doubt that causes them to stumble, or as Mark tells us, “they took offense.” The Greek word for this skandalon, from which we get scandal, means “a striking against,” as if they encountered a block of some kind and tripped over it. The stumbling block is their own thinking.


    What makes this even sadder is that because of their stubborn refusal to believe, Jesus isn’t able to do much of anything there, and he leaves. Thomas Aquinas, whom we remember today, said, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” The people of Nazareth were trying to understand and explain what they saw and heard of Jesus when what they needed was faith. Sometimes my own need to understand trips me up, too, and I fall, sprawling. Lord, help my unbelief.


    MOVING FORWARD: When have you fallen short of God’s call because of doubt or disbelief?



    (Source: Forward Day by Day Movement)

     
     
     

    Moving Forward - 27 January 2025

      MONDAY, January 27      JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, Bishop and Theologian, 407


      Mark 5:34 [Jesus] said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”


      This passage is one of my favorites. The two stories of healings in this passage from Mark both deal with the love of daughters. One daughter, twelve years old, is deeply loved and cared for by her father; the other, a woman, a daughter, who has been ostracized by her community for as many years because of her condition. Despite how differently they are valued, both are precious to Jesus.


      Unlike Jairus, the father of the young girl, the woman can only approach Jesus secretly. She sneaks a touch of Jesus’s cloak, believing that would be enough to heal her, and it is! After Jesus repeatedly asks who has touched him, the woman comes forward, trembling with fear, and confesses. Jesus, moved by her faith and her story, tells this daughter that she is healed and whole. And just as he lovingly took Jairus’s daughter by the hand and raised her to life, I see Jesus tenderly raising the woman by her hand as he sends her in peace, her life restored.


      MOVING FORWARD: Send a note of support and love to a woman in your life.



      (Source: Forward Day by Day Movement)

       
       
       

      Moving Forward - 26 January 2025

        SUNDAY, January 26, 3 Epiphany


        Luke 4:18a The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.


        On this day, in his hometown synagogue, Jesus announces that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and that he has been anointed by God to bring good news to the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed. Isaiah is referring to the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:10-13), where every fifty years, all debts were to be cancelled and all slaves set free. What a wonderful reset this would bring to people’s lives! The poor and captive suddenly freed from all that hindered their opportunity for prosperity and belonging, no longer burdened by their failures or wrongdoings.


        This reconciliation with God and man was proclaimed by a trumpet blast on the Day of Atonement. The trumpet is sounding for us as well! In Jesus, we can experience that same “at-one-ment” with God, free from the burden of our failures and faults, united with God. The good news is that today, despite being burdened and bound, wherever we are, or whatever we have done, Jesus brings wholeness and freedom. Jesus is our Jubilee!


        MOVING FORWARD: Maybe it’s time for a reset. Jesus can help.   

              


        (Source: Forward Day by Day Movement)

         
         
         
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