Welcoming the Holy

Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.

Prayer

Loving God, you have called me as a follower of Joseph to stand open, receptive and expectant before You, to know my dependence upon You, to wait for your grace in the Holy Spirit. Liberate me to a radical sense of mission through the rhythm of contemplation and courageous action, to be a healing presence in any and all situations. Amen.

(SSJ Federation Research Team, adapted)
 

In this reading Rainer Maria Rilke, speaks to one of the mysteries the Founders must have faced. 

Be Patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to

Love the questions themselves.  Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them and the point is to be able to live everything.
 

Love the Questions NOWperhaps you will then gradually without noticing it live along some distant day into the answers. 
                     Rainer Maria Rilke 

 

Reflection

Now take some time for personal reflection.
How does this reading reflect the courage of SSJ Founders? How does it inspire you?
Pray the names the men and women in your life who have modeled faithfulness to the questions?

Closing Prayer 

Remain ever before me, O Living Presence, for in You I am safe. You are my Beloved; in You I can do all things. Psalm 27

Reminder My enthusiasm and the energy I expend for God’s cause are proportionate to the love for God I have in my heart. If I am “madly in love”, I will do great things for God. (Paraphrase of Maxims of Perfection, Olivier)