FRIDAY, December 18 Ember Day

Who were these people whom the Lord refused to hear when they called upon him? They were those who had first refused to hear the Lord when he had called upon them--to render true judgments, practice compassion, and minister to the needy. They had asked from God what they had not themselves been willing to give. It is as in the Lord's Prayer where we pray that our heavenly Father forgive us in the same way that we forgive others. What we give determines what we receive. God invites all his creatures into his embrace, but we can opt out by clinging to ungodly attitudes and behaviors. If we find the channel through which God's forgiveness flows is blocked, the blockage is in us, not in God.

I am reminded of a prayer by St. Anselm (d. 1109) for his enemies: "Lord, whatever you cause me to desire for my enemies, give it to them and give the same to me, and if what I ask for them is ever outside the rule of love, whether through weakness, ignorance, or malice, give it neither to them, good Lord, nor to me."

PRAY for the Diocese of Wyoming (Province VI, USA)

Ps 40, 54 * 51; Revelation 5:6-14; Matthew 25:14-30

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