Friday in the Octave of Easter
Help me, Jesus, to recognize you wherever you are present in my world. I want to be like John, the disciple whom you loved, who easily identified you from afar as the Risen Lord, standing on the shore, promising more than a full day’s catch.
Help me, Jesus, to recognize you in whoever is in my world. Sometimes, my eyes, like Mary Magdalene’s, are brimming with tears, and I mistake my beloved Teacher, newly risen from the dead, as the gardener!
Help me, Jesus, to recognize you in the challenges I face in my world. Even as I travel along the way, I am like the disciples on the road to Emmaus; I’m full of talk, speculation, information, and empty of the humility required to see spiritually, to know that it is the world’s Savior, liberated from death forever, walking at my side.
Help me, Jesus, to recognize you in all faces I see in my world, especially in those I least expect – those whom I secretly, unconsciously, surmise are disconnected from the True Vine, when in fact, your Kingdom is their sure inheritance.
—Rachael Griggs