Reflection
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
John 20:19-31
Our task is not to search for the God beyond but to become aware of the God who is within, who sustains us, who is the unconditional gift of life and of love. “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” God’s presence is the source of all being, of our being. That will not change no matter what we do. What can change is our awareness of that and the effect that will have on our living and our peace of heart.
Prayer
Speak Lord, your servant is listening.
1 Samuel 3. 9
Action
Explore your image of God? What does it mean to you when you think of God as within, of God as the vivifying spirit?
Suggested Reading
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
John 20:19-31
God is love and if you live in love, you live in God and God lives in you.
John 4:16
For in God we live, and move, and have our being.
Acts 17:28
Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time.
Pope Francis
Through the Spirit, the risen Christ is universally present in the world everywhere and in every moment, as pervasive as the air we breathe, as the sun or the rain that comes down on us, as the wind that blows around us, as the life that flows with our every breath.
Elizabeth Johnson
Faith seeks understanding through the path of love.
Ilia Delio
The substance of faith is a hope in the unseen.
Ron Suskind
God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.
Jean Paul Richter
Without hope, our faith gives us only an acquaintance with God. Without love and hope, faith only knows God as a stranger.
Thomas Merton