Week 1: Knowing Yourself as a Loved Sinner -- Day 5 (Wednesday May 23)

How can I respond to a God so good to me and surrounding me with the goodness of holy men and women and the wonderful gifts of creation? All I can do is give thanks, wondering at God's forgiving love, which continues to give me life up to this moment. By responding to God's merciful grace, I want to ammend (Spiritual Exercises 61).



Today, more and more we allow our feelings of sorrow and repentance to shift our focus from ourselves as sinner to God as the prodigal parent who loves us even in our sinfullness. We want to experience God's mercy and love for us as one's caught up in the human story of sin.



Using Lection Divina read and pray through the following passages:



Lamentations 3: 21-26

Psalm 143:1-6



Using Composition of Place read and pray through the following passage:



Luke 15: 1-7

Questions to Reflect on

1. 
   
   What events and relationships in my life have been conduits of God's mercy to me?


2. 
   
   What are the feelings I associate with being forgiven and shown mercy?


3. 
   
   Are there relationships in which I need to show some forgiveness or mercy?


4. 
   
   How, through God's mercy and grace, have I grown stronger in the broken places of life?


5. 
   
   How have you understood yourself to be counted with the tax collectors and sinners that gathered around Jesus?

Click on Comments to review Pastor Mike's Reflections and make comments of your own.