Monday

Monday

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Psalm 23:5

Monday Prayer

Long hours and even longer days have taken their toll on me, Lord.  Work leaves me both physically and mentally drained; it is as if I live to work rather than work to live.  My God, strengthen me to carry the crosses of work so that I can more clearly see your work in and through me.  You know of the struggles I have at work, even those that I hide from everyone else.  Breathe new life into my vocation.  Amen.

Monday Meditation

Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.  It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.  It is not to lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left, but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and commitment.  It is not an educated intimidation with good books, good stories and good works, but the liberation of fearful hearts so that words can find roots and bear ample fruit.  It is not a method of making our God and our way into the criteria of happiness, but the opening of an opportunity to others to find their God and their way.  The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness  where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances.

-          Henri Nouwen