Outwards

Outwards
At this hour, I call out to you Jehovah Rophe
the Lord our healer — Exodus 15:26

Turn outwards. Call to mind the people you have seen and heard today. Call to mind those you expect to encounter in the next few hours. Outwards is the direction of the other, the neighbour, the one we are called to love as ourselves.

O Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console
[from a Franciscan Prayer]

Ponder the idea of healing in all its forms. Write a list of five people that you see need healing today. Choose one of the five and spend time picturing them made whole and happy and healthy.

The Book of Common Prayer
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Try to look up the Taize song Ubi Caritas and the hymn Brother Sister Let Me Serve You (above). What other hymns speak of the ideas we find in Matthew 25:40


O! My soul reaches beyond herself this day, offering friendship’s hand for Jesus sake

O! My soul reaches beyond herself this day, offering friendship’s hand

O! My soul reaches beyond herself this day, offering friendship

O! My soul reaches beyond herself this day, offering

O! My soul reaches beyond herself this day

O! My soul reaches beyond herself

O! My soul reaches beyond

O! My soul

O