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 touch 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. Together, they are going through a long path of suffering. The testimony of Paul's journey through the illness that affects the body, soul and spirit has both moved and invigorated us.
At the onset of the disease that strikes you hard, a host of questions assail you. Do you want to be cured? Cure for whom? Cure why?
God seeks to give you life and meets you there, if you want. To discover the tenderness of the Lord, it is then a question of moving 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 Love pass through me, to give it to others. Therein lies my healing.
Pray to the Lord, he will give you the strength to continue on the path he has planned for you... My grace is sufficient for you, it is in weakness that power is made perfect (2 Cor 12:9).
I give you love, I give you my love,
What you carry inside you, let it flow.
Thank you for sharing your edifying life journey with us. It challenges us, moves us.
Several moving testimonies followed, all showing the presence of the Lord, his faithfulness, 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. (One thing)
At the end of the morning, we share in small groups what we want from our emotions and/or our questions following the different testimonies.
Following the testimonies, we look at ourselves, identify a challenge in our life that we have gone through and answer the question:
What spiritual path have I taken? during? after? now? The 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; Do not let darkness invade 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 them of the testimonies heard, received in the deepest ...
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 one was marked by their humility, their simplicity in being true, their journey, acceptance and rapprochement with God.
For everyone, this has awakened deep questions, sometimes painful but also what hope! Thus Bernadette who was waiting for medical results that she knew were bad welcomed these testimonies as a kind of comfort, as another way of apprehending the future.
Many were also struck by the fact that wherever we are (hospital, rehabilitation, 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 the mistakes she made on several occasions against her. Could we do the same?
In short, we leave with many questions but also a sense of wonder:
How lucky we are to be Christians.
Brigitte
No responses yet