Opening Prayer
Breath of God, You are a cooling breeze and a blazing fire! Be the strong wind who overwhelms our fears and pettiness. Be tongues of fire who ignite us with passion and conviction. Be the words we speak and the message who changes hearts and leads all people to You. Make sense of and unify the babbling differences we experience. Eternal Spirit, let your Breath of Life take us beyond our individual vision and connect us as one Body in Christ. Let Your breath permeate every fiber of our being and every aspect of the human experience. Forgive and heal all that separates us from You and one another. Teach and empower us never to strangle or bind others in our judgments so that they cannot breathe the life-giving oxygen of Your saving and freeing love. InSpirit us, Holy God. Make us holy by Your fiery, soothing presence.
Dear Therese of Lisieux, in 1895, as you were beginning the darkest time of the final surrender of your life and expectations to the Beloved Jesus, you made your Oblation to Merciful Love. You offered yourself totally to Love Who is God. Empower us today with the same spirituality of self-sacrifice and generosity that moved you, Therese, so that we transcend our needs, hurts and hopes and return to God what is already His in our life! InSpirit us to understand the unconditional and all-powerful Mercy of God, especially when fear or insecurity invades our soul.
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