2 Corinthians: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Many years ago, I learned that my life became much richer when, at the end of meditation, I asked, "How can I best serve you this day?"
One time, when I was living in Chicago, and on my way into Old St. Patrick's for daily Mass when I was confronted by a man who obviously was hopped up on drugs. He came out of nowhere and completely got in my space and asked for money. I was so taken by surprise, couldn't get around him, and was completely off guard. He made me so uncomfortable.
At that moment, a friend who was also going into Mass stepped right up, invited the man into Mass, and when the man refused, he gave him a dollar. The encounter stayed with me throughout the day.
The next morning during meditation, I asked God, "How can I best serve you this day?" What I heard/felt the phrase, "Ask their name," and I knew God was referring to the man from the day before.
I started asking some of the regular beggars their names and what I found was at first they were surprised but when they shared their name, they sat or stood up a little taller. It's like they were no longer invisible.
One man named John stood outside a Starbucks on the corner. One day it was raining, so I asked him if I could buy him breakfast instead of giving him money. We went inside, had breakfast, and talked. He told me about his brothers and sisters, and how they had written him off; how one man would typically put larger bills in his cup, and he'd pocket those instantly, maintaining the correct jingle of the coins in the Mc Donald's cup; and how he missed his mother who had died some years before.
Though I never saw that one confrontational man again, I felt armed with just the question to diffuse any similar situation.
The greatest freedom is doing God's will. You don't know how it will affect other people's lives, nor your own. God's got the plan, we are just the hands and feet, ears and eyes who can perform God's will.
A four-leafed clover I along the Camino de Santiago.
March 17
Matthew: And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Mark: James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);
Luke: His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
John: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Acts: “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
Romans: and the way of peace they have not known.”
1 Corinthians: If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
2 Corinthians: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Galatians: My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.
Ephesians: and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
Philippians: Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.
Colossians: And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
2 Thessalonians: I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the mark in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.
2 Timothy: so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Hebrews: But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
James: But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
1 Peter: For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for ` doing evil.
2 Peter: You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability.
1 John: How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
Revelation: For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.