Proclaim with Joy – True Friends – Wednesday, April 25 Gospel – Why does the Son come?

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast

Proclaim with Joy

I want to be a woman whose faith in God’s promises holds no matter how long there is no evidence of it—a woman who uses her voice to bring hope to the weary and to rejoice with those who rejoice. I want to proclaim God’s goodness and faithfulness steadily, with great joy, regardless of what the world around me looks like—because when it is darkest, that is when my voice is most needed.  Sometimes we are criticized.  Sometimes we are harsh and choose a totally new process to help Jesus who is in the poor and suffering. I am so happy with God’s calling.  I pray God will lead me to the right solution. We cannot prepare those God has called us to serve except with justice and joy. Many of us want to end poverty and want to welcome the stranger.  We want to cheer them on with love and give a sense of love and joy.  We look to them for joy of service and love.  The are no longer poor, but the project of love and joy. We are not their judges, but we are their friend and servant. We must leave the people who are the cry of the poor with hope.  Each is loved and lifted from their poverty to the best we have to offer and we always pray. We search for a positive outlook for all in need.  If you have concerns keep them to yourself and God will give you the answer.  If you are not partners with our Lord to proclaim joy, remember always it is not about you.  It is about God’s calling and proclaiming those in poverty with joy. Do not leave the house without proclaiming joy.  Take Jesus with you on the journey. Ask other members of SSVP to pray and proclaim with joy.

True Friends

The support of friends, especially in times of crisis, is vital to helping us through the emotions that flood and fuel our hearts. They will help us see clearly enough to move through mourning, provide lighter moments, too, especially if we might seem to teeter on the edge of truly losing hope. They will be the personification of God’s unconditional love and help us find even greater spiritual depth. “Just be yourself.  Let people see the real, imperfect, flawed, quirky, weird, beautiful, magical person you are.”  We are entangled and bound up together, not as in a net in which we are trapped, but in a network through which we are nourished and find our health. It is humility that teaches us the good of this entanglement while pride tries to escape our embeddedness, mostly by ignoring it and sometimes by violently wrestling free.  We need to be entangled in God most highly and in SSVP.  We learn, we love and are challenge to save those in need.  Sometimes we become true friends with those in need.  It is not a bad thing as long as we are there to serve Jesus in all our Vincentians and those we serve.  Always praying for those in need and giving hope.

Wednesday, April 25 Gospel – 2nd Week of Easter, Year 1…John 3:16-21

Vincentians our Gospel passage last week includes one of Jesus’ best-known and best-loved sayings. The Lord is speaking to Nicodemus and he tells him, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This is my favorite reading. While traveling in Dominican Republic and bring needed goods and support, I met a young man, who came from Haiti.  We bonded and he asked me if I wanted to buy a broach.  He had beautiful crosses in silver.  He asked me if I wanted it engraved. So he engraved in in my favorite scripture – John 3: 16-21.  I have worn this cross many many times.  People see it and I read it to whoever wants the reading.  Mostly at Church, but sometimes to the stranger.  It is funny how many people know the Scripture.  I have wiped many tears and continue to wear and share my cross.  My husband gave me a beautiful gold cross and a heart.  I wear that as well.  Not to brag but to be able to tell people that these gifts are not expensive and last all your life.  It is really sharing your life with God.

Why does the Son come?

Because God is angry? Because God wants to lord it over us? Because God needs something? No, he comes purely out of love, out of God’s desire that we flourish: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved him.”

Blessings,
Lynn