Friday, October 28, 2016

My dearest God,

I read the words of Mother Teresa and find myself opened to the core.  Her words cut me open as she points to the poor.  She so identifies her spiritual life with the poor, the unwanted, the rejected, and the unloved.  And I have to ask the question, "Do I know them, do I love them, do I reach out to them?

Her ways of loving are simple.  They give dignity, hope, mercy, kindness, and love.  Is this the way I love?  Do I love the unlovable, the lost, the lonely even those closest to me?  Do I love my neighbor as myself?  Clearly, I fail to love as she loves, as you love.

So often you bring us to our knees.  You hand us a mirror to take a close-up look at ourselves.  You invite us to see ourselves as you see us.  When I take the mirror, you reveal my shortcomings, my mistakes, my sins not because you want to reign judgement on me but because you know in seeing myself, my whole self, I have an opportunity to see truth and the opportunity to change.  The truth is I don't like it when I accumulate unloveliness, when I store up anger, resentment or bitterness.  I don't like who I become and neither do you so you give me a way out by revealing the truth. 

Holy God,
only you
can open doors
to the heart.
Only you
can reveal
the truth,
not the falsehoods
we want
to believe,
but the
real truth.
Show us
the poor
in ourselves
so we may
reach out
and touch
the poor
in others.

Love, Andrea