Thought For The Month
To Be Christ In The World
Dear Lord,
Help me to spread my fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with thy spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of thine.
Shine through me,
and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with
may feel thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me -
but only thee, O Lord!
Stay with me,
then I shall begin to shine as thou dost;
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Lord, will be all from thee,
none of it will be mine,
it will be thou shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise thee
in the way thou dost love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach thee without preaching,
not by words but by my example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love
my heart bears to thee. Amen
- John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)