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Spiritual Reflection
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January 29, 2010 | | | |  | Spiritual Reflection for Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 31, 2010
Addressing the fractious Corinthian church, Paul urged the believers to 'strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31). He even told them how to get there: by practicing love. Not the overly romantic love that musicians sing about but divine love – love that moves mountains and changes hearts. It's the love Jesus poured out when he died on the cross. It's also the love that we experience as we give our lives over to Jesus.
Let's face it. We are all fallible. We all make mistakes in the way we treat people. We all fail to meet the standard of love presented in this reading. So how can we love in the way Paul describes love? By receiving it as a gift and not trying to manufacture it all on our own. Prophecy, tongues, miracles – all these spectacular gifts of the Spirit will fade. Plus, they are all limited by our own understanding and capabilities. But not love. It is limitless. It never fails.
Just as Jesus taught Peter, Paul, and the other apostles the way of love, so too does he want to teach us. As we stay faithful to prayer, Scripture, and the sacraments, something happens. Often enough, it is a gradual process so that we don't even notice what is happening. Perhaps someone else may make a comment that prompts us to review our actions. We see that God's grace has moved us to become more kind and generous. It has made us more alert to other people's situations and needs.
All this happens because we are becoming like Jesus. We are eating of his body in the Eucharist and soaking up his wisdom in the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit is responding by forming us according to God's image and likeness.
So let God fill you with his perfect love today. There will be plenty of time for action as the day unfolds. For now, just sit still and receive. This, after all, is the greatest of all the gifts!
“Lord, I surrender my relationships to you. Come and fill me to overflowing so that your love can flow from me to everyone in my life.”
(Excerpt from: The WORD Among Us) | | | | | |
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 Our Lady of Lourdes - In 1858, in a grotto, near Lourdes in southern France, Our Lady appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, a young peasant girl. She revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision, and told the girl to drink from a fountain in the grotto. When Bernadette dug at a spot designated by the apparition, a spring began to flow. The water from this still flowing spring has shown remarkable healing power, though it contains no curative property that science can identify. Lourdes has become the most famous modern shrine of Our Lady. |
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