Love

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Love

One    Another

Fulfill the Law

Come Into His Presence

Adoption

(photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scriptures and Prayer: Psalm 95: 1 and 2

Let us come together and sing with joy to our God

We can rejoice in the rock of our salvation.

Let us come into the presence of God with gratitude;

We can sing psalms to God with joy.

Romans 13:8

The only thing we should owe to one another is to have love for one another.

When we have loved one another, we have fulfilled the whole law and all the commandments.

Prayer

Thank you God for the gift of your adoption which leads us to true freedom and an eternal inheritance. Amen.

Reflection

Our reading from Psalm 95 celebrates the feeling of joy that comes from our personal contact with God in prayer. This joy fills our heart and our soul because we realize that we are entering into the presence of God.

It is the feeling that we get sometimes when we are joined with our sisters and brothers in prayer. We realize that we are not alone. There are many who want to gather together and lift up their voices to give praise to God.

That joy leads us to the love that St. Paul speaks about in Romans 13:8. When we are filled with the joy that comes from dwelling in the presence of God, we want to share the gift we have been given with others. We know it is not right to keep it to ourselves.

We owe this to one another. When we take those concrete steps to love others, we are sharing what God has given to us. When we feed the hungry, we are giving the gifts that we have received from God to others.

In the circle that is love, so many times when we do that we are filled with joy. Our act of love becomes a Psalm---we are praising God through our humble and sincere acts of love for others.

Our Prayer today sums it up for us: when we realize that God loves us so much that God adopts us, we are truly free. We are free of prejudice, hatred, greed, and selfishness. We live with God.

We celebrate the Love that God gives us just as that Valentine's Day baby in Kathy's photo. We know that we are loved by God today and always. God will never leave us.

What a GIFT!!!

1. How can our prayer lead us to experience joy?

2. What do you feel is the connection between joy and love in your life?

3. How can our acts of love lead to joy?

4. Do you feel that God has adopted you?

5. What do you see as you reflect on Kathy's photo?

(scripture and prayer adaptation, reflection, and questions by John J. McNamara)