Lord, help me to realize more how much you love me. Theoretically, I know you died for me. And I’m sorry if even that doesn’t always melt the coldness of my heart. Help me to know that you didn’t die only for humanity as a whole but personally also for my sake.
The saints say that you would have died even for just one person. That means that you would have died even if just for me. Help me to believe that. That you would leave the ninety-nine sheep behind just so you could look for me.
Let me know that you love me uniquely and that you see me and care about me personally…intimately. Help me remember that gaze of love in your eyes…how you see me and know me through and through, even the very depths of my heart.
Your love is so wide, Lord, that encompasses all being. But your love is also deep, intimate and personal. Your love for me is so full that it could never be lessened by any creature in the whole of creation. Let me dwell always within you and may my heart be worthy enough so you may also dwell within me. Amen.
“O thou Omnipotent Good, thou carest for every one of us as if thou didst care for him only, and so for all as if they were but one!” – St. Augustine
“What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?”- Matthew 18:12 (NRSVCE)
“Jesus would have died for one person, for one sinner.” – Mother Teresa
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"