Day 5 - March 11

The Joy of Mercy Online Lenten Retreat

Day 5 – March 11

Today’s Theme: “Make Every Moment Count”

Today’s Scripture

Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. -- Luke 10:41

Fr. Kempf’s Reflection

   Maybe you are a worrier. Maybe you think those bad things didn’t happen because you worried. No. Worry didn’t help anything. It just kept you from being as alive in the present as you could have been. When the anxiety comes, acknowledge it. But don’t stay there.

  In Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, a high-school girl, Emily Gibbs, dies. She pleads to return to earth for just one day. She is told that she will have to live it just like she did, and no one but her would know she is back for just one day. She pleads and argues, and they finally let her go. Emily goes back to earth for her 12th birthday, the day was for her painful and sad as she watched so many troubled and worried people race through their day. Dad offers her a birthday greeting then bustles off to work. On the inside she is screaming, “But, Dad, I only have this one day. Just look at me. I want to drink in your face.” Mom wishes her a happy birthday, then tells her to get dressed and ready for school, while she cries out—on the inside—“But, Mom, I only have this one chance.”

   At the end of this day, she says: “Wait. One more look. Goodbye world! Goodbye Grover’s Corners—Goodbye Mama and Papa—Goodbye to clocks ticking—and Mama’s sunflowers—and food and coffee—and sleeping and waking up!”  And she ends so sadly, “Oh earth, you are too wonderful for anyone to realize you.”

   Jesus offers a different way than the worry that keeps us from being truly alive. He says, “Don’t worry. Just love now.”

(Excerpted from Two Minutes Toward Meaningful Living)

Who are the people in my life who might be saying to me, “I only have this one day”?

What would change if I could really believe, “Oh earth, you are too wonderful for anyone to realize you”?

Today’s Prayer

Merciful God, help me see this ordinary day for what it is: precious; filled with you.

Published by special arrangement with Creative Communications for the Parish.

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