Living with Christ Morning Prayer

Living with Christ Morning Prayer
Friday, December 20, 2013

“For nothing will be impossible for God.” 

Lord, I know that you are God and I am not, 
I believe what my faith proclaims: 
that you are the “Father almighty.” 

I do believe you have indeed 
done marvelous, impossible things,
but a shadow side to this truth nags at my heart.
Father, millions of people in desperate anguish
have prayed to you for help,
for a miracle, and had their prayers go unanswered.

How true it is, Lord, that
the reality of evil and suffering,
in the face of your almightiness,
is a mystery that the human mind
cannot comprehend.

I remember reading a Catholic philosopher
who pointed out that we tend to think of “almighty”
in political terms—the power of the dictator
who is free to do whatever he or she wants.
But Lord, what if your almighty power
is the power of disarmed love—
the power of emptying yourself,
out of love, taking the form of a slave,
to bring life to others? A love strong enough
to push through death into life?
A love that invites me to share in it?

It is a mystery, Lord, a mystery of love.
Today—less than a week before Christmas—
seems like a good time to ponder it. 
For the O antiphon for today, see page 190 in the December issue of Living with Christ.