Dear friends,
I offer this reflection on what it means to follow Jesus, for your late summer prayer and discernment. While it is a "Rule of Life" from the Brakkenstein Community of Blessed Sacrament Fathers in Holland, the invitation is for each one of us. Read it as a prayer; meditate on a line that calls to you. Open yourself to the revealing of the Spirit in you for this season. May your days be blessed by God's presence.
Your sister in Christ,
Nancy+
Following Jesus
does not mean slavishly copying His life.
It means making His choice of life your own
starting from your own potential
and in the place where you find yourself.
It means living for the values
for which Jesus lived and died.
It means following the path He took
and seeing things as He saw them.
If there is anything in which this life,
this way, can be expressed,
in which God has revealed Himself most clearly,
it is the reality of love.
You are someone only in as far as you are love,
and only what has turned to love in your life
will be preserved.
What love is
you can learn from Jesus.
He is the one who has loved most.
He will teach you to put the center of yourself
outside.
For no man has greater love
than he who lays down his life
for his friends.
He will also teach you
to be unlimited space for others,
invitation and openness:
'Come to me, all who are weary and over-burdened
and I will give you rest.'
So be converted to love every day.
Change all your energies,
all your potential,
into selfless gifts for the other person.
Then you yourself will be changed from within and through you
God's Kingdom will break into the world.
You are called to follow Jesus closely.
With Him you will take the road
up to Jerusalem,
the city of suffering and glorification.
With Him you will give everything
that the Kingdom may come.
On this road you are called
to be least of all and not master,
to carry other men's burdens
and not lay your own on them,
to give freedom instead of taking it,
to grow poor in order to make others rich,
to take the cross upon yourself
thus bringing joy to other men,
to die in order that others may live.
This is the mystery of the gospel
and there is no purpose in endless talk about it.
Be silent - for it will be true and genuine
only if you practice it.
So keep Jesus Christ before your eyes.
Don't hesitate to go anywhere He leads you;
don't stay where you are and don't look back,
but look forward with eagerness to what lies ahead."
-Rule for a New Brother
by the Brakkenstein Community of Blessed Sacrament Fathers, Holland
Photo: N. Hagner
Chapel Chats: It is beautiful on the porch! Reach out to Rev. Nancy if you would like to meet for conversation and prayer. We can meet indoors when the weather is challenging!