Well--Being

 The Spiritual Waiting Room

Well-Being

Peaceful Gentle

Embracing Healing Loving

Inwardly Folded in Divine

Joy

(photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12 to 13 and 19

Now Israel, what does the Lord ask of you? Respect God and follow God's paths. Love God and serve God with your whole heart and your whole being. Keep the commandments for your own well-being. Love the immigrant for you were immigrants in the land of Egypt.

(scripture adapted by John J. Mcnamara)

Reflection 

God comes to us for our own well-being: what an amazing thought! How often do we search for that very well-being. We hunger for that interior peace and calm in the midst of so many daily challenges: will I get COVID-19; will I lose my job; how will my children do at school today; is it safe to go into that store?

God comes to us with that gentle voice and says: I want you to be well. I want to protect you. I will be with you. Be not afraid.

What God asks of us is very simple and very clear: follow the ways of God. Be loving towards others. Serve God by caring for those among us who are most in need. Reach out to the stranger, the one who has lost her way.

Embrace others the way God is embracing you each moment of your life. Kathy took that picture on a beautiful day. We both felt embraced by the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the sunflower. As it bent toward the sun, we could both feel the loving power of God's healing embrace.

God calls us to reach out to the immigrant and God reminds the Jewish People that they were immigrants when they went to Egypt during the famine. Sometimes we can forget where we came from, what our ancestors went through, and the obstacles that had to be overcome. 

I always think of my grandmother who came to America from Ireland when she was sixteen years old. Nana came with all of her possessions in an old suitcase that looked so bad that her sister who met her at Ellis Island threw it into the garbage when Nana wasn't looking. 

She worked hard and made a good life for her and her children in America. She overcame the suspicion and discrimination that people face from those who find it hard to welcome a person who looks or sounds different from them. 

God tells us that all those differences don't mean a thing. God wants our well-being and enfolds us in Divine Love.

God is not concerned about the country we come from because we are all created to be brothers and sisters. God invites all of us to live a life of JOY!

1.  What does the Lord ask of you?

2. How do you find interior peace and well-being?

3. Why is it hard for us to welcome those who are so different from us?