Reflection
Through Jesus God promised light from darkness and life from death. The awakening of the earth in Springtime, the lengthening of the daytime hours images that promise. Under the dark cover of the winter earth, there was life ready to become vibrant again. Jesus refers to his own act of self-giving, in the image of the grain of wheat, which dies in the ground in order to allow new life to grow. In the same passage he invites his followers to imitate him in that selfless act of love. The implication is that in each of us, too, there is a dormant potential waiting to be brought to life.
Prayer
May I live my life fully.
Action
I will look at my life and find areas where I can share my gifts. What potential is dormant in me?
Reading
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. God will honor whoever serves me.
John 12:25 -27
We Christians want to imitate Christ; we are invited to be open to change. How good it would be in our relationships, as well as in our lives of faith, to be docile, to truly pay attention, to soften up for the name of compassion and the good of others.
Pope Frances
Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.
St. Francis de Sales
The key to change is to let go of fear.
Roseann Cash
Nobody can go back a start a new beginning but anyone can start today and make a new ending.
Maria Robinson
It is never too late to be who you might have been.
George Eliot
We cannot become what we need to be, remaining what we are.
Max Depree
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
God cares a lot more about who we are and about who we are becoming, than about who we once were.
Dale G. Renlund
We have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing God means to make us.
CS Lewis
One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
Maya Angelou