
LET OUR LIGHT BURN BRIGHTLY

In the responsorial psalm we acclaim, "Lord, this is the people that longs to see Your face" (Ps 24). We receive God's blessing and grace to be a part of something that is incredibly great: His kingdom. And it all starts within each one of us, with a response like Mary's "yes" to spread the Good News and to be Christ's light for others.
I would like to end with this comfort prayer for today's reflection. It is called "Collecting Light" by Deborah Gordon Cooper.
Across the street a neighbor strings white lights along the eaves of his house.
Across the world they sleep out in the cold, our neighbors too, wakened by gunfire.
I see the way the chickadees take turns at the feeder. I watch a woman take her husband's hand.
I see the way the sun will find the only interruption in dark clouds, to toss this amber light across the pines.
I watch the way a young man lifts his mother from the wheelchair to the car, the shawl he lays across her lap.
I save up every scrap of light, because I know that it will take each tiny consolation every day to mend the world.
Let us consider how to "rouse one another to love and good works" (Heb 10:24).