Awaken Love: The 2023 Prayer Pledge // Day 22

They went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. // John 8:9

What might have been going through the woman’s mind at this point? She was left alone with Jesus after He had rescued her from those that sought to condemn her for the sin of adultery. Every other man she had been left alone with had used her. 

But Jesus was different. Not only had he rescued her, he deflected the men’s lusting after her and distracted them by writing on the ground. He didn’t continue to write on the ground after the men went away; the Gospel makes a point to tell us that “He straightened up” to speak to the woman (John 8:10). He stands by the woman as He opens her heart to the freedom she didn’t deserve by the law. By all rights in the last few minutes she had been expecting to be stoned to death and now Jesus was gazing at her telling her she was free, He did not condemn her, and that she had the grace to sin no more. 

The freedom she was not expecting alters the trajectory of her life. Thrown at the feet of Jesus, she expects stones, and instead receives gems. She encounters Love and finds herself beloved. 

What happens next? Scripture doesn’t tell us, but our feminine hearts can surmise she needs to process the radical encounter she has just had with the Man she calls “Sir” but suspects to be so much more. Does she find a friend and share what happened? Does she take a walk or write or paint? Does she follow that Man from a distance, unable to stay away? Whatever the rest of her day looked like, her heart was at rest. 

Jesus invites your heart to that rest today too. Your Heart awakened to and at rest in Him: there is nothing that delights Him more than that. 

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Closing Prayer //

O my crucified God, behold me at Your feet; do not cast me out, now that I appear before You as a sinner. I have offended You exceedingly in the past, my Jesus, but it shall be so no longer. Before You, O Lord, I place all my sins; I have now considered Your own sufferings and see how great is the worth of that Precious Blood that flows from Your veins. O my God, at this hour close Your eyes to my want of merit, and since You have been pleased to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for them all, that I may no longer feel the burden of my sins, for this burden, dear Jesus, oppresses me beyond measure. Assist me, my Jesus, for I desire to become good whatsoever it may cost; take away, destroy, utterly root out all that You find in me contrary to Your holy will. At the same time, I pray to You Lord Jesus, to enlighten me that I may be able to walk in Your holy light. Amen.

// prayer composed by Saint Gemma

Reflection Questions //

How will you rest in the Beloved today? 

How will you rest in being beloved today?