Together to praise the Creator… He is the source of joy.
You make us alive, you gather us together, Lord here we are.
Here we are, Lord, to praise You, to bless You, to make You present to those already with You and still in contAct with us, and to those who are absent.
In small groups, we lay down our sorrows, our burdens, our joys.
We are especially happy to welcome A., and Paul her husband. United, they go through a long path of suffering. The testimony of Paul’s journey through illness that affects body, soul and spirit has both moved and enlivened us.
At the onset of the disease, which strikes with full force, a host of questions assail you. Do you want to heal? Cure for whom? Cure why?
God seeks to give you life and joins you there, if you want it. To discover the tenderness of the Lord it is then a question of passing from intellectual reflection to the heart.
Love is life, I give life, I give you my life. .. (Jn 10, 17) … To refuse it is to deny my deep being. Humility will help me to let the Love pass through me, to give it to others. There lies my healing.
Pray to the Lord, he will give you the strength to pursue the path he has destined for you… My grace is sufficient for you, it is in weakness that power gives its full measure (2 Cor 12, 9).
I give you love, I give you my love,
What you carry within you lets it flow.
Thank you for sharing your uplifting life journey with us. It challenges us, upsets us.
Several moving testimonies followed, all showing the presence of the Lord, his fidelity, his tenderness, his compassion for those who are suffering. The song wipes away the tears: I would like to live in the house of the Lord. (A thing)
At the end of the morning, we share in small groups what we want from our emotions and / or our questions following the various testimonies.
Following the testimonies, we look at ourselves, identify in our life a test that we have gone through and answer the question:
What spiritual path have I traveled? during? after? now? Sharing in small groups is followed by a time of prayer.
I was born to praise you… to glorify your name… I was born to love you…
Praise to the Spirit teaches us to pray and introduces this time of prayer: He who looks at you will shine; Don’t let darkness overwhelm me; I thirst for you, Lord; Magnify the Lord with me; Do not be afraid.
Come on, God sends you…
A little testimony
Sharing in small groups first of all expresses a strong impression of respect and contemplation. Everyone is attentive to the echo in him of the testimonies heard, received in the depths…
The witnesses told us about their experiences with deep serenity, they shared with us their trust in God, in Life, our Source, our Origin.
Each was marked by their humility, their simplicity in being true, their journey, acceptance and closeness to God.
For everyone, this has awakened deep questions, painful at times but what hope too! Thus Bernadette, who was expecting medical results that she knew were bad, welcomed these testimonies as a sort of comfort, as another way of apprehending the future.
Many were also marked by the fact that wherever we are (hospital, revalidation, home) the Lord asks us to flourish and it is up to us to find out how.
Are we ready to bloom everywhere?
We were also impressed by the graces of forgiveness received by Maria for not holding the medical profession responsible for errors made on several occasions. Could we do the same?
In short, we leave with many questions but also a wonder:
How lucky we are to be Christians.
Brigitte
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