Devotion for today: do ordinary things with extraordinary love

We are now with the sorrowing women on the Via Dolorosa. They couldn’t do anything more for Christ than show Him compassion and love, and for this He was grateful.

Scripture for meditation: Luke 23:27-28

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.”

Scripture for reflection: Colossians 2:6-7
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta tells us: We must grow in love, and to do this we must go on loving and loving and giving and giving until it hurts – the way Jesus did. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love: little things like caring for the sick and the homeless, the lonely and the unwanted, washing and cleaning for them. You must give what will cost you something. This, then, is giving not just what you can live without but what you can’t live without or don’t want to live without, something you really like. Then your gift becomes a sacrifice, which will have value before God. Any sacrifice is useful if it is done out of love. This giving until it hurts – this sacrifice – is also what I call love in action. Every day I see this love – in children, men and women. I was once walking down the street and a beggar come to me and he said, “Mother Teresa, everybody’s giving to you. I also want to give to you. Today, for the whole day, I got only twenty-nine paise and I want to give it to you.” I thought for a moment: If I take it he will have nothing to eat tonight, and if I don’t take it I will hurt him. So I put out my hands and I took the money. I have never seen such joy on anybody’s face as I saw on his – that a beggar, he too, could give to Mother Teresa. It was a big sacrifice for that poor man who’d been sitting in the sun all day and had only received twenty-nine paise. It was beautiful: twenty-nine paise is such a small amount and I can get nothing with it, but as he gave it up and I took it, it became like thousands because it was given with so much love.” (Mother Teresa: A Simple Path, Lucinda Vardey, Ballentine Books, 1995)

Prayer: Lord, I Give You My Heart by Michael J. Smith

This is my desire: To honor You Lord with all my heart.  I worship You.  All I have within me, I give You praise.  All that I adore is in You Lord, I give You my heart. I give You my soul. I live for You alone. Every Breath I take. Every moment I'm awake, Lord, have Your way in me.
[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/lord-i-give-you-my-heart-lyrics-michael-w-smith.html ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fugrqhRb_lc&feature=related.

My thoughts: I once stood outside of an abortion clinic and prayed the rosary with our Bishop, some priests and other lay people. I was scared: scared of the comments from passersby, scared of the man who watched our feet to be sure we didn’t cross the line, scared of what other people might think of me. I was right in my fears. Nasty comments were hurled from some car windows; some people made fun of us as they walked around us, yet I became stronger and stronger the longer I stayed. The peace and dedication of those brave people with me filled with me with courage and love for God and His children. The quiet witness of those in prayer, in solidarity with the will of God, had a profound, life-changing affect on me. So did the sight of a woman getting out of a car, seeing the prayerful witness to life, pausing and getting back in the car. Did we bring compassion and love to Jesus that day? I think we did. We let Him know He didn’t suffer and die in vain, that He left a following who would do what the weeping women were so brave to do, and place themselves with Jesus. That was so hard for them: the crowd was so mean, so full of hate, just like some people passing our little group. But they stayed and compassionated Our Lord, and He asks us to do the same today. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta tells us it must cost us something. That doesn’t necessarily mean money. It may just mean our pride.

Our prayer to God: What do we spend our time on that makes us feel good? TV? Video Games? Eating out? How about giving up some of our well-deserved pleasures and giving out some of our time and talents?  Maybe we could do something this Lent we always wanted to do but, for some reason, feared. Jesus will be with us. We do Him no service to weep for Him and not His children.