PRESENT WEEK'S GLIMPSE OF GOD

GLIMPSE OF GOD FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 11, 2026

The conclusion of the Prayer of Saint Francis

SUNDAY - Oh Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,…

What distractions keep us from consoling another? Is it pride, ego or our need to be the center of attention? Do we feel that we need to be stronger in trust or a greater disciple of faith, hope and trust since we find it difficult offering consolation? We feel as if we will say or do the wrong thing? It is okay to seek consolation when we are distressed, sorrowful or grieving, God is not going to deny us that grace or gift or the people to offer it to us. But when we find our self seeking to be consoled knowing that there is another who is suffering and in need of consolation, that can be a momentary distraction of selfishness. When we thoughtlessly turn our attention to our self, then the devil is placing a distraction before us. It is then that we need to recognize that it is only with and by the grace of God that we will be able to put it aside. What distraction is being placed before you that you find that you are more often selfishly seeking to be consoled rather than selflessly offering consolation to another?

Prayer for today: Lord, grant me the grace so that I may seek more to offer consolation than to be consoled.

MONDAY - To be understood as to understand,….

and WOW, that short prayer says so much. How many times or how often do we find ourselves saying that someone did not understand us? What does that mean or look like? How do you feel after the comment emerged? Angry, frustrated, discouraged, confused? When we seek to be understood, we are usually looking for someone to identify or empathize with us and in our needs. We share with others we trust our concerns during times of stress, worry, illness, or family or work struggles. In our trust of those we open ourselves up to, we hope and expect that they will understand us and extend some form of encouragement and support. AND when that understanding or support is not met or we feel as if our concerns were dismissed, that hurts. Yet we are called to forgive and not seek to get even by ignoring the other or dismissing their concerns when they come to us.

When we seek to better understand another we are acting through, with and in Christ. Those that Jesus walked with, healed, touched, and ministered to, despite His unconditional love for them, did not accept His message and chose to walk in the other direction.

The devil placed before them ignorance and fear, so that they could not surrender to and accept their need for conversion and transformation.  Their understanding for spiritual fulfillment and their hunger being satisfied was misguided by the devils lie that he understood their needs better than Jesus, and that he could fulfill them without any spiritual conversion or transformation, since these were not necessary.

In our life today, the devil is still misleading God’s people to believe the same thing. That he understands us and others better than God. Only with God can we seek to understand others and others to understand us, because we cannot do it ourselves. God places others in our life and us in other’s life so that we can mutually be empathetic, sympathetic, compassionate, kind and be selfless when life challenges and cross experiences are shared and a genuine need to know God’s will is desired. What distractions keep you from understanding others and not always seeking their sympathy, compassion, or support?

Prayer for today: Lord, grant me the grace so that I may seek more to be understanding than to be understood. 

TUESDAY - To be loved as to love,….

Being loved. A prayer and need that we all have and desire. To be loved, to be cared for, to be needed, all of these are essential or part of the weaving of our human nature. These needs or desires, among many other needs and desires, all gifts from God, enable and empower us to want to grow to be our best self, the person that God created us to be and have the potential to become. So why is the prayer stress as to love? Easy but challenging answer. To me, when we are loved, we are called to share that love with a genuine and authentic heart, and not superficially. God consoles us, understands us, and loves us unconditionally and it is that very gift of consolation, understanding and love that we are called to share with others. Although our consolation, understanding and love are imperfect, our wanting to share these gifts is a sign of our love for God, others and self, and God knowing our heart makes up for what is lacking in us as we seek to be His instrument of peace, love, compassion, and mercy to others. Do you love yourself and what does that mean? How do we love others if we do not feel loved or love our self? God loves you and me unconditionally and He showed His love for you and me when He chose Mary to be the Mother of His Son, a woman, our Blessed Mother who could understand all that we experience and can guide us toward Her Son. He showed the depth of His love when His only Son, Jesus Christ, who chose to endure His passion, suffer and die on the cross, and rise from the dead. You were in and on His heart when He did this, He did this for you. You were not exempt from these acts of love. You are God’s beloved son or daughter, His greatest creation, loved unconditionally and without reserve or cost. When we love our self, others, and God, it is then that we reflect the love that God has planted in our heart because it has permeated our very being.  It is then that we respond to the prayer as to love.

Prayer for today. Love yourself, be good to yourself, forgive yourself, pamper yourself, be kind to yourself. That is God. 

WEDNESDAY - For it is giving that we receive,….

What are we giving away, giving up, giving into, and what will we receive, get back, hold onto? We give of our self by giving our gift of presence to those in need of an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, a hand to raise up. Presence is a gift that is meant to be given to those in need.

We might not know what to say at a given time, but the Holy spirit will fill our mind and heart when the time is right and if words are meant to be spoken or silence is meant to be reverenced.  

What we receive back is the grace to be God’s presence, His instrument of peace to those He places on our spiritual and earthly journey. So, back to the first questions. What are we giving away? Perhaps our time for others whose time is being occupied by daily stresses, worries, concerns, illness and our time with them brings them a sense of belonging, peace, comfort and encouragement. What are we giving up, perhaps selfishness? We can think of so many things that we need to do, to check off of our list, and yet when another who is need calls upon us, that check list becomes secondary and being present to another becomes our primary concern.

What will we receive, get back or hold onto? The gift and consolation, courage, inspiration, encouragement, and strength knowing that the grace of God was given to us so that we can be His instrument when another needed to hear from Him through us.

Prayer for today: look at what you have been given or received and seek to let go of those things that these gifts replaced. 

THURSDAY - It is pardoning that we are pardoned,….

Only when we pardon another can we seek pardon from God. I often say that we can get to heaven with cancer, but not with holding a grudge, being resentful or unforgiving. When we seek to forgive another, we are seeking to bring about peace, to build up the Kingdom of God here on earth and to be God’s instrument of mercy and compassion. If we seek to hold onto a grudge, and choose not to forgive another or our self, we are not allowing the love of God to enter into our being. By these actions, we are choosing to be self-centered and self-righteous, and greater than God. As Jesus died on the cross, He said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” Who was He referring to, who was the Them? Those who crucified Him, those who betrayed Him, those who rejected Him, those who denied Him, those who abandoned Him? If they were the ones He was referring to, then we can consider us in that same company of sinners. Don’t we abandon, reject, deny, betray Him when we abandon Him by casting aside the needs of those abandoned by society, when we judge them as less than human. Don’t we reject Him when we discard or reject those who are less fortunate, prisoners to addiction, less educated, poor, homeless, yet we all are God’s children. Even with that knowledge, we still find justification when we reject their needs to fulfill our own need of feeling or being superior or stronger and not weak?

Don’t’ we crucify Him by placing the nails of prejudice, hatred, bias, intolerance and injustice in the hands and feet of those who are different, whose life choices are not ours, who we deem as sinners, and we do not seek to understand or accept them for their choices or differences? Forgive them for they know not what they do…..When we seek to not pardon another, do we really know what we are doing and how it will affect our spiritual journey now and in the life to come?

Prayer for today: seek pardon from someone you have injured and pardon one who has injured you so that you can forgive yourself, and God can renew your hope, shower you with His gift of peace, fill you with His love and mercy so that you can share it joyfully. 

FRIDAY - It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

As we live and walk our earthly journey, we are not being promised tomorrow. We are given the grace of each day, each moment so that we can give glory to God in and through our life. To know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this life so that we can be happy with Him in the life to come. Sound familiar? Yet it is a short summary that tells the whole story. We are not given each day to live selfishly, but rather to die to self so to live for God. How does dying to self unfold in our life? That answer comes in and through your prayer as God reveals what dying to self means for you at that time. We die to self every time we are selfless and place the needs of others before our own. We die to self when we accept our cross without complaining and when we can unite our suffering to Christ and seek His strength so that we do not quit. We die to self when we surrender to His will, let go of the things of this world that we have allowed to possess us and choose instead to possess the attributes, attitudes and characteristics that are Christ like. We die to self when we realize that we are in the world but not of the world.

So, as we live each day dying to self and living for Christ, so that we can inherit eternal life, what is holding you back from being more in the world and not of the world?

Prayer for today: seek to let go of one thing that you are holding on to that is keeping you from dying to self and being more selfless. 

SATURDAY – AMEN

I believe, after this week of reflecting on the distractions that keep us from truly being or becoming instruments of God’s peace, I hope that have you been able to recognize that the momentary distractions have helped you to focus more, and with a greater intensity, and steadfast spirit what God is calling you to, and how you are being and living as His instrument of peace. Do you believe that? I do, and so can you, after all God knows your heart better than you do, and He knows that you want to be your best self, the person that He created you to be and have the potential to become. You are living up to your potential as you continue to strive to be His instrument of peace amid the distractions that come right in the middle of your prayer, and you have put them aside and stayed the course.