Presence

Dear Jesus, I come to You today, longing for Your presence. I desire to love You as You love me. May nothing ever separate me from You.

Freedom

Dear Lord, instil in my heart
the desire to know and love You more.
May I respond to Your will for my life.

Consciousness

At this moment, Lord, I turn my thoughts to You.
I will leave aside my chores and preoccupations.
I will take rest and refreshment in Your presence.

The Word of God

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.^,

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.^{, 17}The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Inspiration

Because we could not go to God, God came to us and dwelt among us. As Fr Canice Egan SJ put it, ‘In the silence of the night Love Itself stole down unseen to embrace the hearts of all.’ That the Creator of the universe would deign to take on the nature of his creature and become one of us is so astonishing that we cannot take it in. We ask God to reveal himself to us as he promised he would.

Conversation

Jesus, You always welcomed little children when You walked on this earth.
Teach me to have a childlike trust in You,
to live in the knowledge that You will never abandon me.

Conclusion

I thank God for these few moments we have spent alone together and for any insights I may have been given concerning the text.

Amen