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| God cannot fill what is full. He can fill only emptiness – deep poverty – and your “yes” [to Jesus] is the beginning of being or becoming empty. It is not how much we really “have” to give, but how empty we are, so that we can receive fully in our life and let him live his life in us. In you today he wants to relive his complete submission to his father – allow him to do so. It does not matter what you feel, but what he feels in you. Take away your eyes from yourself and rejoice that you have nothing – that you are nothing – that you can do nothing. Source: Letter, Feb. 7, 1974, quoted in Albert Huart, S.J., “Mother Teresa: Joy in Darkness,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection (Sept. 2000): 658 |
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
| For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:3–4, NIV
Lord our God, we thank you for making us into a community whose refuge and certainty is Jesus Christ. We thank you that he will not remain hidden from us forever; his life will be revealed, perhaps soon, in our times. Lord God, how long, how long have your children waited! Now a new time is coming, the end of this age, and we rejoice in this even if you must also judge and punish. No matter what happens, we are at peace. We live in your future, in the future of Jesus Christ, in the great day when humankind will receive the Spirit and their old works will come to an end. Be with us. Bless us this night and help us in what we have most on our hearts. We have so much on our hearts, but you see everything and you know our needs. Lord God, your grace will overcome all earthly troubles, and your name will be glorified on earth if only there is a church that believes and truly awaits your help. Praise to your name! You have done immeasurably much for us and you will do even more. Amen. |
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