by: Frances Dillon Kline
For today's invocation I have chosen the timeless prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Let us turn our hearts to God:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
by: David Anthony
Imagine the Great Judgment. A person you have every reason to hate is standing next to you. You speak up, Oh God it's me and I have a little problem here. You see this guy?
God says, Yes.
ME: Do you know what he did?
God says, Yes.
ME: How can you let him be here?
GOD: Well he is truly sorry and I invited him.
ME: That is simply unacceptable.
GOD: Well Dave, I created him and he is my child just as you are my child. He is your brother and I love him with all my being.
ME: Not my brother. Heaven isn't big enough for the two of us.
GOD: I love you enough to give you your free will and that is your choice. Imagine yourself walking out of heaven. God doesn't cast us into the fires of hell. We walk into them open eyed and smiling. Think of the joy of the father upon the return of his prodigal son. He runs down the road to see him. The saddest part of the story is his brother. He is angry and won't even come into the celebration. The whole point of our existence is becoming united in the body of Christ.