Day By Day #21
Day by Day #21
MORNING/MIDDAY OFFICE
Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:34–36, 40
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” . . .
The King will reply, “I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Devotional
Born in the former Yugoslavia, Mother Teresa (1910–1997) joined the Sisters of Loretto in Ireland at age seventeen, and within a year was sent to Calcutta, India. There, she witnessed the profound suffering of the poor who lived and died on the streets. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious order dedicated to serving the sick and dying in the city’s slums. In 1979, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. By 2015, there were more than 5,600 workers serving in 844 communities around the world.a
Mother Teresa made no distinction between being open to the heart of Christ in prayer and being open to the hearts of others, especially the hearts of the poor. Here is how she describes what it really means to love others in Jesus’ name:
It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.b
The greatest disease in the West today is not TB [tuberculosis] or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. . . .
At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.”c
And Mother Teresa, in following the way of Christ by loving one person at a time, changed the world.
Question to Consider
What phrases or sentences from these Mother Teresa quotes most speak to you today?
Prayer
Lord, forgive me for the times I have ignored your voice and avoided entering into the pain or loneliness of those you have placed around me, especially those closest to me. Help me to really see the needs of those around me today—and then to listen. Then may the words and actions that flow from me reflect your heart of love. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
MIDDAY/EVENING OFFICE
Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 49:14–16
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.”
Devotional
In this passage, we are given two beautiful images of the infinite love God has for us. He refers to himself first as a nursing mother who cannot forget us. He then says we are permanently tattooed on his hands. Think about that! We are always on God’s mind, permanently inked into his very being. In spite of our faults, sins, and mistakes, God is crazy in love with us!
As much as he loves us, God knows we also need to experience his love through other human beings. German philosopher Josef Pieper (1904–1997) writes compellingly about the powerful connection between God’s love and the love of another person:
It does not suffice to us simply to exist; we can do that anyhow. What matters to us, beyond mere existence, is the explicit confirmation: It is good that you exist; how wonderful that you are! In other words, what we need over and above sheer existence is: to be loved by another person. That is an astonishing fact when we consider it closely. Being created by God actually does not suffice, it would seem; the fact of creation needs continuation and perfection by the creative power of human love. . . .
We say that a person “blossoms” when undergoing the experience of being loved; that he becomes wholly himself for the first time; that a “new life” is beginning for him . . . a man succeeds in fully existing and feeling at home in the world only when he is “being confirmed” by the love of another.d
When people were with Jesus, they thrived, sensing these words from his very presence: “It is good that you exist; how wonderful that you are!” Allow yourself to receive the gift of that message from him now.
Question to Consider
Recognizing that “a person blossoms when undergoing the experience of being loved,” who is one person you can help to blossom this week by intentionally offering them the experience of being loved?
Prayer
Father, thank you that my name is permanently engraved on your hands and that you love me even more than a mother loves her newborn. Help me to rest in this deep love so that loving the people around me becomes my first instinct and natural response. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)
a http://www.motherteresa.org/07_family/family00.html.
b David Scott, The Love That Made Mother Teresa: How Her Secret Visions and Dark Nights Can Help You Conquer the Slums of Your Heart, Special Canonization Edition (Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Press, 2016), 48.
c Mother Teresa, Words to Love By (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1983), 80.
d Josef Pieper, Faith, Hope, Love (San Francisco: St. Ignatius Press, 1997), 174, 176.
From the book
