Day 3 - March 9

The Joy of Mercy Online Lenten Retreat

Day 3 – March 9

Today’s Theme: “Who Me? Worried?”

Today’s Scripture

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  -- Matthew 6:25

Fr. Kempf’s Reflection

   Do you ever worry? Maybe you even worry about whether you can be forgiven. Or maybe someone else’s harmful actions cause you anxiety, and forgiveness is difficult.

   Perhaps this part of a longer prayer I wrote will help you:

I know that You are with me.
You’ll never go away.
Things aren’t the way I wanted,
but You are here to stay.

We are troubled. We do worry:

When we think we don’t have money to pay our bills.
When we wonder whether we will get good grades or whether our children will.
When our car makes a noise that we haven’t heard before or our body gets a lump that we haven’t felt before.
When the conversation didn’t go well and we think the other person is mad.

   We worry…we worry a lot.

   Jesus comes to us in the midst of all that in our Scriptures and says: “Do not worry.” Remember that Jesus, even as he told people not to worry, could see his own cross looming on the horizon. The famous preacher from some years ago, Charles Spurgeon, put it this way: “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its trials; it simply empties today of its joy.”

(Excerpted from Two Minutes Toward Meaningful Living)

What things do I worry about the most?

If Jesus came to me, what would he say about those things I worry about so much?

Today’s Prayer

Merciful God, so often I do worry. Yet, you have promised to be with me always. Free me from the grip of my worries, and help me to trust your amazing and unconditional love.

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