How is God calling you to serve others?
Ponder what you have written.
Talk to God, or write a letter to God about what you have written.
Offer what you have written to God, and ask that it may bear fruit as you listen to the call of God for you.
For additional reflection: a brief video on the joyful call to service: "Let Your Light Shine"
You might also want to visit the Virtual Chapel, and simply sit in silence for a few minutes.
Close with the Our Father or the following prayer:
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Loving God, may I take on the mind and heart of Christ, that I may hear your call for my life and embrace your world through my prayer, my work, and my life with others, in Jesus Christ. Amen. |
Although you don't have do be a sister to do Christian ministry, some form of service is a part of all religious life, both in the apostolic congregations and the contemplative orders. The vowed life always includes a reaching out to others. Depending on the religious congregation and our own call, that may mean:
- working with the broader community of God's people (Christian or not)
- service to our own religious Sisters
- and always, prayer that encompasses the needs of the whole world.
Service is love in action, deliberately and creatively applied and circulated.
Piero Ferrucci, What We May Be (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Thatcher, 1982)
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"Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. . . Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."
Matthew 25:34-40
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As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near." Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
Matthew 10: 7-8
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"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last..."
John 15:12-16a
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The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13
Day 6. Ministry
Very truly, I
tell you, the one who believes in me
will also do the works that I do
and, in fact, will do greater works than these,
because I am going to the Father.
(John 14:12)