Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 2: 5-11

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross” (Phil 2:4-8).

Prayer

What is your mind, Holy One? What thoughts did you think? What sights and sounds flashed through you, filling your heart with wonder or anger, praise or the abiding sadness into which all human souls sink? All these certainly were yours, as they are ours.

Beyond the myriad emotions and that pulled at you there is a constancy present in your every act. There is a consistency flowing from a central conviction about who you are and who the Blessed Wonder called you to be. Your soul and eye did not waver from the one good thing—revealing from the depths of your being the face of the Eternal Wonder. You are the face and flesh the One who lights the night sky with Pleidies and Orion. You are the visible beauty of the Blessed Silence, who constantly loves, giving life to the fallen and confused, the troubled and misdirected, which is to say, to me.

Never, dear Christ, did you turn from the holy purpose of revealing the unfathomable depth of the divine heart, the length and breadth of illimitable love. Blessed are you. Your face reveals the mind of God. Of all the faces of Earth, I need to see yours most of all. When I do not see you my soul sinks into shadows of gray where there is no fire of life and joy. But when I see your love for me and every soul of Earth I know: I was made to dwell in the blessedness of God—and to be such blessedness in my time and place that the beauty of the divine heart may be known.

Today, may the beauty of your mind find expression in the life you have given me to live. Amen.