Dear Friends,

As I prayed and thought about this reflection, I went back to the second reading at this Sunday’s mass Philippians 1: 4-11. I invite you to read it with this Cursillo family in mind. It is a beautiful prayer!

I don’t know what each of you are going through right now, but I am struggling, yet I know that God is near. I wonder what can I do? What can I offer? A friend, knowing some of what I am going through, gave me a small book, Prayer Vol. 01 by Strahan Coleman. His prayers are powerful and cut to my heart, but this one….

"Let Love Ache

Father, give me courage to keep on loving when others keep on hurting: help me to live an achy love, a gritty, persistent and emptying love: a love that’s not afraid to flow toward the other who has little left to offer in return. And may I tread faithfully with heaven through the unfinished work that is surrounding me.

Love would be easy if it was a one-off kind of thing: a brother that listens to your wise advice, a friend who finally comes round to seeing things as you do, a child who doesn’t make the same mistake two, three or one hundred times___But love is more achy than that, because loved ones don’t always get healed, minds don’t always clear instantly, the dead don’t resurrect to satisfy our grief. The longer we walk through the ache of love, the harder it becomes to continually choose that path___May you choose love again today, because it is right, because it is good and because it is ultimately worth the trouble. Keep loving the person who never seems to change, keep hoping for the grace of God to rise with tomorrow’s morning and, even if it doesn’t, keep loving. Because, though love aches, it’s the greatest thing we have on this sweet earth.”

This prayer speaks so clearly of the love that St. Paul invites us into. So, I encourage you when you ask the question “What can I offer?”, “How do we help another?” We let them know we love them—that we care, we try to see from their perspective and get in touch with God’s deep love for them and we pray, and we pray, and we pray…. seeking wisdom, to know when to speak and what to say. And we keep loving with an achy heart.

De Colores,

Jane Meiser