six::sixteen

To live no longer for myself, but for Christ and Christ in others. Such ought to be the way I live. Such is the life of reconciliation. The one who has been reconciled and is reconciling keeps the joys and sorrows of others in their own heart, learning to, like Christ, share in the other's life. Such a work is difficult, naturally sorrowful, yet that life will in the end bring joy.

I want to hurt with those who hurt. I want to rejoice with those who rejoice. I want to experience the wonder such that Mary experienced when she found her son, Jesus, sitting in the Temple answering the questions of the teachers of the law. Here, frustration turns to contemplation. Contemplation leads to graceful activity of the soul. The entire person is reoriented to the world, made to be able to see beauty and truth, though certainly able to see the ugly and bad (that non-existence given weight by thoughts and actions), yet then address that incompleteness and work towards making it whole.

Gracious God, grant me eyes to see aright, a heart to feel. Shape my sensitivities into the likeness of Christ.

(2 Corinthians 5:14-21, Psalm 103, Matthew 5:33-37)