Lenten Devotional Day Seven "Love One Another"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . "Love one another, as I have loved you." (John 13:34) AND "I say to you if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment." (Matthew 5:22)

CONSIDER. . . We learn to love because we are first loved. We all need to experience, through other humans, a love that delights simply in our being. We are the "apple of the eye" to one or more persons, so much the object of devotion that we are reflected in the pupil of their eye. Jesus seems to say that we need to make the practice of love from the heart our aim.

Practice, however, soon reveals the difficulties we face in learning how to love well. Social creatures like us cannot avoid experiences in which love is wounded, pride punctured, self-esteem threatened and deeds misunderstood.

SO WHAT. . .Don't let wounds fester. Jesus makes forgiveness a centerpiece of his teaching because lack of it lies at the root of so much human misery. The resentment that festers in unforgiveness fuels most personal and social conflict. And remember this. . . God's forgiveness cannot flow to or through closed, unforgiving hearts. Who do you need to forgive this Lenten season? What wounds are festering and keeping you from experiencing the fullness of God's forgiveness.

PRAYER. . . Loving God, help me to forgive, help me to be open to who in my life needs forgiveness. Please remind me that I am called to love as you have loved me. . . fully and completely. Amen.