Until a few months ago, when I began polishing up a novel I’m working on, I was a weekly contributor at www.catholicmom.com You can still find my articles in the archives, but before I took off, many of the columnists and I contributed to this prayer book.
If you are busy with life, but also, someone who daily links to God, i.e. YOU PRAY, then you will benefit from this prayer companion. One brief prayer pondering for each day of the year, beginning with a brief quotation from scripture, saints, recent popes, or important spiritual writers; and then, a personal reflection written by contributors.
Contributors include Catholic writers, Mary Amore, Sherry Antonetti, Danielle Bean, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, SP Corbitt, Erin Cupp, Sarah Damm, Patrice Fagnant MacArthur, Jen Fitz, Allison Gingras, Pat Gohn, Lisa Hendey, Kaye Hinckley, Ellen Gable Hrkach, Judy Klein, Colleen Connell Mitchell, Lisa Mladinich, Rhonda Ortiz, Cassandra Clifton Poppe, Margaret Rose Realy Oblate, Karee Santos, Barb Grady Szyszkiewicz, Charisse Tierney, Leticia Velasquez, Kelly Wahlquist, and Nancy Ward.
Here’s one of my reflections: (Only because I already had the copy. 🙂
April 15—The Super Glue of Renewal
Monthly theme: Renewal
Core focus: Forgiveness works both ways
Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.
–Desmond Tutu
Renew: To make new or as if new again. To restore. I know a woman who could renew or restore anything. She was my grandmother. In her pocket was a tube of Super Glue, just in case she found anything broken in her house; a china cup with a broken handle, the bead off a piece of jewelry, or the crack in the frame of a picture. But she was a fixer of people, too, as well as things. She was a healer of hearts. How did she do it? Well, this time, it wasn’t with Super Glue. It was with forgiveness.
Each of us, as human beings, has something to forgive–because people hurt us, even those who profess to love us. We must let go of our hurts whether it be an act of infidelity against us, prejudice, the loss of a job, or the ‘just plain meanness’ of another toward us. But again, as human beings, we also have something to be forgiven for. So we must first look at ourselves, at the ways we have hurt others, too. Until this is done, our renewal is not really possible. Forgiveness works both ways.
Jesus, help me to see that I must forgive others before I can expect to receive forgiveness myself.
Question to Ponder: Will I commit to forgive someone who’s hurt me in order to bring about my own new beginning, and renewal?
Translating a World on the Edge 