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Pause

“Christ has no body now but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
yours are the eyes through which he looks
with compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which
he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands with which
he blesses all the world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582)

Listen

True devotion, the kind that is pure and faultless before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their difficulties and to keep the world from contaminating us.

James 1:27

Think

Reach out. Reach out to those in difficulty. “Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world,” St. Teresa says.

Paintings of Jesus never portray him with his arms crossed or his hands behind his back. He is always reaching out, touching a child, holding a lamb, blessing those around him.

What do pictures of us look like? Are we reaching out to those in difficulty?

Today’s Bible passage says that when we reach out, we are showing our devotion, our love for God. When our aim is devotion, we keep from becoming contaminated or corrupted by the world’s ways. You’ve often heard: We are to be IN the world, not OF the world. Let us not stay isolated and insulated; instead, let us be devoted to God and to showing God’s care for others.

Let us continually reach out as the loving, pure, caring hands of Christ.

Gail Jackins

Pray

I am devoted to you, gracious God. Help me show my devotion in my actions. May I be a blessing to the world in your name. Amen.

Go

Let’s put our love into action.

“They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Peter Scholtes, “They’ll Know We Are Christians,” 1966