From the Deacon's Desk

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. (from Matthew 18:21-35)

BE PATIENT WITH ME: This may be the most humbling thing we can say to God in our daily prayer, “Be patient with me.”

When we say this, we acknowledge our brokenness. We are not only sinners, but repeat sinners – serial sinners. We desire to do better and have every intention to act on that desire. Then old habits return, we give in to temptation. When we go to confession, we find ourselves confessing many of the same sins we confessed last time. In our Act of Contrition, hadn’t we said, “I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin”? Yet, here we are.

There is hope. We are blessed to have a God that is slow to anger and rich in kindness; he is compassionate and merciful. Most importantly, he is patient.

We should show humility in our prayer. We should consider starting our daily prayer with, “Be patient with me.”