Holy Spirit, soften my heart with your love beyond the faults of others…

 
Psalm 95, Ezek 33:7-9, Romans 13:8-10 & Matt 18:15-20

 
My soft-heartedness allows me to know God more clearly, love Him more dearly and follow Him more nearly – and to witness the myriad of miracles God’s love produces in our lives.  So often it is the faults of other that trip me up, hardening my heart with self-righteous criticism, judgement and unforgiveness. Hard-heartedness so gained, stops the flow of God’s love throughout my being and so withdraws the love of God that I could have passed along to others. God has ways of releasing our hard-heartedness and softening our hearts to know and to serve him.  Speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, God encourages us to be driven by his love, not our own judgement, to be able to explain to others the paths of repentance and of life.  St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that we are always called to love, and that love does no wrong – no judgement –to a neighbour. And Jesus in the passage from Matthew counsels us how to be reconciled with one who wrongs us.  Rather than plugging up my heart and soul with bitterness and resentments, Jesus guides us to  go and speak to the person who sins against us, alone, with another person, or with the church, to be reconciled  together. And he opens a door for peace if the other person’s heart is closed to reconciliation: prayerfully set a boundary and move on in life –within the love and peace of Christ. Will the Lord find in me a heart that is unrelenting and hard, or a heart that is open and schooled by love, despite the errors and faults of others?  Holy Spirit, soften my heart beyond the faults of others.
 
O that today you would listen to God’s voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.  (Psalm 95:8-9)
 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation. With a spirit of fervor sustain me, that I might teach transgressors your ways, and sinners might return to you.
Psalm 51:12-13
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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