Journey to Jerusalem Day 8

Wednesday, February 24 Psalm 25:11-15
11 For your name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
13 His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
“Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.” (v. 16)

I submit that sums it up for more than few of us: the desire to be met with graciously on the part of another.
Just here, the text addresses the solution to this dilemma. To fear the Lord who stretches his arms out to us from a cross is hardly to enmesh oneself in an emotional paralysis.

Rather, the fear of the Lord is to be open to his guidance, one from above and beyond, along the way of our pilgrimage back to him. It is an awed acknowledgement that the most effective address of sorrows does not flow horizontally, that no other recourse overcomes the isolation and the grief besetting us here below.

O Blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in you.
Let your mighty calmness reign in me.
Rule me, O king of gentleness, king of peace.
Amen.
--St. Teresa of Avila