I could certainly spend more time praying for others. Not only for their good, but for mine as well. And that praying for others is a matter of righteousness and justice. I don’t know if you have set yourself a New Year’s Resolution this year, but praying more for others, is a pretty darn good one, and one that I will be committing to this year.

Have you ever said to yourself, “I just don’t feel like doing [fill in the blank] right now,” even though you know it’s the right thing to do? I think if we are being honest, most of us say some version of the above to ourselves often. This experience of knowing you should do something, but are having a hard time being motivated, is an ancient one.

This is the kind of love that Jesus shows to us by transgressing the boundaries of divinity to become human, die on a cross, and be resurrected for the whole world. It is this kind of radical, boundary-breaking love that brings true and genuine peace.

God's love is stronger than your anxiety, your pain, and your anger. Find times to tap into that sense of belonging and connection. I know it is hard to make time to pray and meditate, but this is such an important part of our flourishing.

Just as unconsecrated oil can illuminate a room when lit, so the oil of gladness can illuminate your creation and make your presence known in our deepest places.

Christ, your anointed one, illuminates your creation and enlivens us.

We are bad at making the space to shut out the ‘visual noise’ of television, advertising, and busyness to pay attention to the small graces that God is speaking through. Practices like centering prayer, meditation, or even doing some form of art like painting or poetry create space to hear from an eternal God who speaks to us in much different ways that we speak to each other.

With this in mind, the church must be a place that does not make judgments on others but seeks to be a place where relationships can be mended and grace be given. To a certain extent, we can only empathize with our neighbors at the level of temptation broadly, but not specifically. I know what it is like to be tempted, but not tempted to certain activities that might be enticing to others. This makes temptation actually pretty isolating, and can lead to a sense of loneliness in our temptations.

God put a little something of Godself in the work of creation so that when we experience those breathtaking moments, we long to obtain the beautiful one. Beauty gives the soul wings and begins our flight back to God, culminating in union with our beloved.

This idea of ‘openness’ as a prerequisite for learning is something that goes back at least to medieval spirituality. The virtue of docilitas (the Latin word where we get our word docile), is a posture of being open to learn. It is a recognition that there are things that I need to learn, and that other people play a large role in our education. One who is ‘closed’ cannot learn.