Discipleship Habit #5:  Serve the Least Regularly
 
Week 24   Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me. 

Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise You.  You are all-powerful, yet still humble and compassionate. 
Just as You did for Your disciples at the Last Supper, You bend low in humble service to wash our feet, and invite us to follow Your example of sacrificial love.  Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to see that the poor are created in Your image.  In Your Scripture You tell us, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40)  Thank You for coming to us in the distressing disguise of the poor and showing us such a concrete way to give You our love.  Help us to know that You long to love the poor through us.  Help us to love You by loving the lonely, the suffering, and the outcast.  Give us the desire to serve You in the least of our sisters and brothers.  Jesus, we trust in You.  We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
AMEN
 
 
Reflection:
We practice the habits of discipleship to become more like Jesus.  If we want to be more like Jesus, we seek to do what He did, and to value what He valued.  The habits of discipleship help us find our essential God-given identity.  Our fifth habit of discipleship is to “Serve the Least Regularly”.
 
Who are the least?  Not much has changed since Jesus’ time.  Our world is still filled with people who are marginalized, oppressed, lonely, grieving, physically ill, mentally ill, addicted, hungry, living in poverty, and dying.  We find them in our own neighborhoods, in nursing homes, in prisons, in our work places, in hospitals, in unwanted pregnancies, in the pew at church…
 
We follow Jesus to the broken places of life because that is where He spends most of His time.  In His earthly life and ever since, He is constantly trying to bring the Good News of His life and teaching to the people who need it the most.  Jesus loves and serves them so, as His disciples, we seek to love and serve them.
Name someone who you personally know who might be considered “least”.  How might you, in union with Jesus, seek to love and serve them?

 
Reflect on Scripture:  Matthew 25:31 - 46
 
Jesus said:
 
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit upon His glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before Him.  And He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
 
Then the king will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
 
For I was hungry, and you gave Me food, I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink, a stranger and you welcomed Me, naked and you clothed Me, ill and you cared for Me, in prison and you visited Me.’  Then the righteous will answer Him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You?  When did we see You ill or in prison, and visit You?’
 
And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’
 
Then He will say to those on his left, “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
 
For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink, a stranger and you gave Me no welcome, naked and you gave Me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for Me.’  Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to Your needs?’
 
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for Me.’  And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
 

Reflection Questions
 
As you read these passages from Scripture, what strikes you?
 
 
Who does Jesus say will inherit the kingdom and why?
 
 
According to these passages, who does Jesus refer to as the least?
 
 
How does Jesus respond to the hurting, the hungry, the sick, and the broken?
 
 
Who are the least in your midst? 
 
 
How does Jesus invite you to change your life through this Scripture passage? 
 
 
What are you going to do differently this week?

 
Closing Prayer
 
Make us worthy, Lord,
to serve others throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger.
Give them through our hands this day their daily bread,
and by our understanding love,
give peace and joy.
Amen.
 
                                                                                                         St. Teresa of Calcutta
​

​Discipleship Habit #5:  Serve the Least Regularly 
Week 23   Those Who are Last, are Truly First 
 
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise You.  You are all-powerful, yet still humble and compassionate. 
Just as You did for Your disciples at the Last Supper, You bend low in humble service to wash our feet, and invite us to follow Your example of sacrificial love.  Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to see that the poor are created in Your image.  In Your Scripture You tell us, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40)  Thank You for coming to us in the distressing disguise of the poor and showing us such a concrete way to give You our love.  Help us to know that You long to love the poor through us.  Help us to love You by loving the lonely, the suffering, and the outcast.  Give us the desire to serve You in the least of our sisters and brothers.  Jesus, we trust in You.  We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
AMEN
 
 
Reflection:
This session we encounter the habit of serving the least of our brothers and sisters.  As disciples, we do as Jesus does.  Jesus spent most of His earthly life with those who were unwanted, who were cast-off, who were broken, sick, injured, who were the scourge of society.  In the eyes of Jesus, those who are last are truly first.  Those who are the outcast are the dearest and most precious.
 
This can be very challenging to us.  We can be easily lulled into believing that everything we have is a result of our own efforts.  We can begin to draw comfort in our prayer and our relationship to Jesus.  But our action is central to faith.  Everything we have is a gift to be used in the service of others.  Even our very relationship with God, through Jesus, calls us out of our comfort zone into seeking out the least of our world, finding the lost, and serving those in need.
 
 
Create a list of gifts that you’ve received from God.  How many of these gifts could be shared with others?  Identify one of them and give it to someone in need this week.
 

 
Reflect on Scripture:  John 15:12-17
 
Jesus said:
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 
 
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are My friends if you do what I command you.  I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. 
 
You did not choose me, but I chose you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask Him in My name. 
 
I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
 
 
In what ways has Jesus shown His love for you?
 
 
Who does Jesus treat as friends?  How might Jesus’ friends be different than those we would consider friends?
 
 
What does it mean to lay one’s life down for one’s friends?
 
 
Recall a time when you served those in need.  What was that experience like for you?  How did that experience impact you?
 
 
How do you think Jesus is calling you to love the least of His brothers and sisters?
 
 
How are you going to respond?

Reflections from Dorothy Day
 
Dorothy Day, coming into her faith after years of atheism, found God in the streets among the destitute and homeless and then invited them into her own “houses of hospitality” for food, shelter, and care.  She co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement and opened houses of hospitality for the poor across the country.  Below is an excerpt from “8 Spiritual Heroes:  Their Search for God” by Brennan R. Hill.
 
 
Day, as a Catholic Christian, saw her God incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ.  Christ for her was God made human and, therefore, was the way for living human life….Christ was a real presence to her…Jesus was the worker, the poor man without a place to lay his head, and Day was able to see the Lord in the homeless person, the worker trying to get a just wage or without a job.  Jesus’ commitment to the outcast was the model for Day’s dedication to alcoholics, prostitutes, drug addicts, and convicts.  This was the way to making life better for people here on earth.  “We are not expecting utopia here on this earth.  But God meant things to be much easier than we have made them…”  Christian love was not romantic or sentimental for Day.  It meant laying down her life for her neighbor; it meant sacrificing “our bread, our daily living, our rent, our clothes.”  She was convinced that the only way we can know that we love God is to show love for other people.  She believed that love makes us want to give…
 
 
What strikes you from this passage?
 
 
What do you find most challenging about this passage?  Why?
 
 
How would it change your life if, like Dorothy Day, you saw Christ in all those you encounter?

 
Closing Prayer
 
Merciful Creator of us all,
in Christ Jesus, Your Son, our Risen Savior,
You have brought light to the blind, comfort to the afflicted,
and Good News to the Poor.
 
We now remember with heartfelt thanksgiving
the generosity of spirit manifest in the life and labors
of your devoted servant, Dorothy Day.
 
In times of unrelieved hardship and economic depression,
as well as in widespread prosperity and abundance,
she spent herself in dedicated partnership with the privations and disdain
felt by the homeless and the unwanted as a champion of their rights.
 
An early, often lonely, witness in the cause of peace and conscience,
at once fearless and gentle, she braved the disapproval of the powerful,
rejection by the many who did not understand, and even imprisonment.
 
Grant that we, in turn, may be moved by Your Holy Spirit, Father,
to share her compassion and concern as true disciples of the Lord Jesus,
giving ourselves as she did to the love and care
of the neediest members of Christ’s Body
and committing our lives, our means, even our homes,
to bring the light and hope, the justice and peace of the gospel
to all your people.
 
This we pray in the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
 
Amen.
 
                                                                           Claretian Fathers and Brothers, Chicago, IL
​

Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise You, for You are merciful.  You died on the cross for our sins and rose to restore us to fullness of life in You.  Forgive us for the times we’ve turned away from You and others and did not earnestly seek You.  In Your Scripture You tell us, “the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14b)  Thank You for giving us Your mercy and healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Help us to know that You long to shower us with Your mercy.  Give us the courage to face that which alienates us from You and allow You to tear down the walls that separate us from You.  Help us to seek You often in Your Sacrament of Mercy.  Jesus, we trust in You.  We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
AMEN
 
 

 
Reflection on Mercy:  Insights from Pope Francis
It is not easy to entrust oneself to God's mercy, because it is an abyss beyond our comprehension.  But we must! ... "Oh, I am a great sinner!"  "All the better!  Go to Jesus:  He likes you to tell Him these things!"  He forgets, He has a very special capacity for forgetting.  He forgets, He kisses you, He embraces you and He simply says to you:  "Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more" (Jn 8:11).
— Homily on March 17, 2013
 
Jesus' attitude is striking:  we do not hear the words of scorn, we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, which are an invitation to conversation.  "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."  Ah!  Brothers and Sisters, God's face is the face of a merciful Father Who is always patient.  Have you thought about God's patience, the patience He has with each one of us?  That is His mercy.  He always has patience, patience with us, He understands us, He waits for us, He does not tire of forgiving us if we are able to return to Him with a contrite heart.  "Great is God's mercy," says the Psalm.
                                                                           — Angelus on March 17, 2013
 
 
Spend a few minutes reflecting on Pope Francis’ words.  What thoughts or feelings emerge?
 
 
Read the quotes aloud slowly.  What word or phrases stand out for you?  Spend a few minutes quietly reflecting on that.
 
 
Read the quotes aloud slowly again.  Notice how your body is responding.  Share with God what you are experiencing.

 
Reflections on Sin
 
Below are two reflections on the topic of sin by different theologians.  Choose one or both and, after reading and reflecting on the passage, spend time talking with God.
 
 
“[We] may understand sin as whatever lessens humanity, decreases the capacity to love, or gets in the way of developing [our] potential as an image of God.  Sin ultimately goes against [our] own being, for its roots are relational.  Thus, sin includes both individual and social responsibility.”
                              Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert in The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed
 
 
How true do these words resonate with your own life experience? 
 
 
Where is your humanity lessened? 
 
 
Your capacity to love diminished? 
 
 
Your potential as an image of God marred?
 
 
“I propose…that sin originates in a lack of sufficient believable unconditional love…
The way out of sin is to see through the falsehood, to be really convinced that someone else is sustaining you, that you don’t have to sustain yourself, that you are already given more affirmation, nurturance, respect, love, life, joy than you can even imagine desiring.  If you can really believe that someone else is sustaining you, then all the self-defense operations which result in sins are going to evaporate, because they are no longer needed.”
                                                                                          Beatrice Bruteau in Radical Optimism
 
 
How do these words resonate with your own life experience? 
 
 
In what ways do you believe the falsehood that you are not unconditionally loved?

           

Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise You, for You are merciful.  You died on the cross for our sins and rose to restore us to fullness of life in You.  Forgive us for the times we’ve turned away from You and others and did not earnestly seek You.  In Your Scripture You tell us, “the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14b)  Thank You for giving us Your mercy and healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Help us to know that You long to shower us with Your mercy.  Give us the courage to face that which alienates us from You and allow You to tear down the walls that separate us from You.  Help us to seek You often in Your Sacrament of Mercy.  Jesus, we trust in You.  We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
AMEN
 
 
Reflection:
For some Catholics, the Sacrament of Reconciliation has been intimidating, almost scary.
 
“In our day and age, the word ‘sin’ is so prone to be misunderstood that it has become quite useless.  The reality once called sin is still with us; however, and so our time had to find its own term for it.  What other ages called sin, we call alienation…Alienation suggests an uprootedness from one’s true self, from others, from God…The word ‘sin’, too, suggests uprooting and separation.  It is related to the word ‘asunder’.  Sin tears asunder the wholeness in which all belongs together.  Sin alienates.  An action is sinful to the degree to which it causes alienation.  Without alienation there is no sin…‘Working out our salvation’ means overcoming alienation in all its forms.  The contemporary term for salvation is belonging.  The path from alienation to belonging is the path from sin to salvation.”
                                             Brother David Steindle-Rast, O.S.B. in Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer
 
The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, like the Sacrament of the Eucharist, is a “sacrament of the journey”.  Both Eucharist and Reconciliation feed us and keep us on the right path.  Just as disciples receive Eucharist often, disciples receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation often.
 
How often should disciples go to confession?  That may vary from person to person.  The key is the regular, intentional examination of one’s life – and receiving the sacramental grace of healing and absolution.
 
Like the woman at the well who encountered Jesus, we seek living water.  Like the Samaritan woman, we long to know we are loved and forgiven by the Lord.  We want to share with Jesus everything that troubles us.  We need His healing touch in our lives.
 
This month consider attending the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Notice any feelings or experiences, and how Jesus may be calling you.  How might you seek reconciliation often?

 
Praying with Scripture
 
This week we are going to again read the story of the Woman at the Well, but this time we will take a little different approach.
 
Go to the Gospel reading on the following page and reread the passage aloud…
 

We are wired for God.  We have an infinite desire for Him but instead of filling ourselves with God, we get hooked on something less, on worldly things.  We get a little buzz from these worldly things and when the buzz wears off, we get “thirsty” again.  Gradually that buzz becomes addictive desire.  The “jar” in this story represents these wayward, skewed desires.  The woman must keep filling her water jar (i.e., creating the buzz) to quench her thirst, just as we keep going back to our various addictions to fulfill our desires. 
 
 
What is the water jar in your life?  What are those things in your life that you thought were going to satisfy you?
 
 
In ancient Jewish culture, the husband governed a woman’s life.  When Jesus tells her to “call her husband”, He is really asking her to tell Him who is in charge of her life.  Think of the various points in your life, five years ago, or ten years ago, or now. 
 
 
How would you have answered Jesus’ question if He asked it of you at these various points in your life?  How would you answer it now?
 
 
What makes it difficult for you to set down the old water jar you are carrying?
 
 
Where, in your life, do you need forgiveness and healing?
 
 
Spend time talking with God.
 
Reflecting with Scripture
John 4:5 – 19, 25b – 26, 28 – 30, 39 - 42
 
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there.  Jesus, tired from His journey, sat down there at the well.  It was about noon.
 
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.  Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”  His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.  The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How can You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”  (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and Who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
 
[The woman] said to Him, “Sir, You do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can You get this living water?  Are You greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”  Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
 
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”  Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.”
 
The woman answered and said to Him, “I do not have a husband.”  Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.  What you have said is true.”
 
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I can see You are a prophet…I know that the Messiah is coming, the One called the Anointed; when He comes, He will tell us everything.”  Jesus said to her, “I am He, the One who is speaking with you.”
 
…The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done.  Could He possibly be the Messiah?”  They went out of the town and came to Him…Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.”  When the Samaritans came to Him, they invited Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
 
 
 
Praying Visio Divina
 
While Lectio Divina is a method of praying with Scripture, Visio Divina (Latin for "divine seeing") is a method for praying with images or other media.  Visio Divina invites us to see at a more contemplative pace; to see all there is to see, exploring the entirety of the image; to see deeply, beyond first and second impressions, below initial ideas, judgments, or understandings; to be seen, addressed, surprised, and transformed by God Who is never limited or tied to any image, but speaks through them.

As your prayer begins, take a few moments to open your heart and mind to God. When you are ready, slowly look and notice the image below, taking your time to let feelings and thoughts come to you as you take in forms, figures, colors, lines, textures, and shapes.  What does it look like, or remind you of?  What do you find yourself drawn to?  What do you like and not like?  What are your initial thoughts? What feelings are evoked?
 
 
Writing your name on one hand and a meaningful name for God for you on the other.  Is there a word you can write between the hands that brings them together?
 
 
How does this connect with what we already reflected on in Scripture?

 
Closing Prayer
 
Lord Christ,
I wish I could offer You
a reasonably clean
and swept house to dwell in,
but I can’t.
I can say - and know the meaning of -
“I am not worthy to have you come
under my roof…”
But You are already there!
Living among the once flourishing idols.
The floor is dirty
And at times the room is airless -
even for me.
 
I am ashamed of Your presence there,
yet You slept in a cave
and on a donkey’s back at night
under the desert stars.
So, if I can’t change Your accommodations
let me rejoice all the same
that You are present.
I must believe strongly, Lord,
that I can’t question this:
that You are at home with sinners -
and my greatest sin Lord Christ,
is that I don’t want to be a sinner!
Nor do I easily accept it - still,
the evidence is overwhelming.
But hope is like a green shoot
in the midst of an airless, disordered world.
And that hope comes from Your Spirit.
I rest in that hope, Lord.
                                                                                         
William Breault, S.J.