Sermon Text 

Galatians 5:13-26

Questions (feel free to select only a 1 or 2 questions)

• What do you think and feel as you read it?
• What connections do you see between the Galatians’ and our cultural moments?
• What was significant to you as Melissa provided an introduction to the series?
• Describe a few ways we might actively commit and participate as Melissa challenged us?
• How does self-control look in your own life? Share some stories and experiences.

Challenge

Consider Melissa’s admonishment: “GOD is calling us to commit to a new cultivating work.” Our call is not only – or even primarily – to individual growth, but to allowing the HOLY SPIRIT to shape our community, our church. To shape us into SPIRIT-led, SPIRIT-shaped people in the trenches of brokenness. “Let us commit to actively participate with the work of the HOLY SPIRIT in bearing this kind of fruit for the good of others.” 

Take some time to process in community and conversation how you will step into this commitment. Especially as we are repenting of racism, what is it that the SPIRIT is stirring up in us even now? What is the freedom CHRIST is calling us into right now? “For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters…” (Galatians 5:13). 

Further Scriptures to Engage Together

• Psalm 1
• John 15:1-17
• Luke 11:37-54
• Titus 2

What if we moved away from thinking about self-control only for our individual morality? How would we be different if we broadened our gaze to see how God might be forming and shaping us to be self-controlled responding in love and action?

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 1 Timothy 1:7

Read the following passages in tandem. As you read, ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see how obedience, walking in step, refraining, and love are intertwined and for you and your neighbor.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:5-13

“Blessed is the one

    who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

    or sit in the company of mockers,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

Not so the wicked!

    They are like chaff

    that the wind blows away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” Psalm 1

Be attentive to anything stirred up within you in response to reading John 15 and Psalm 1. Ask how the Lord might have you participate in the cultivating work of self-control.

In conclusion, open up your Bible and read the following passage: 

Galatians 5:13-25

Lament

• Running from pain or denying pain can be a source that leads us to lack self control. Richard Rohr writes, “If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.” Lament names the pain in our lives, our neighbor, and in our world. 

• “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:8-10

• We can take steps to practice the way of lament. Look at the three suggested experimental practices below and decide what practice you want to commit to this week. You can choose one practice or try all.

Exercise 1: Fasting to Lament

Take steps to lament by forgoing normal comforts. Fasting is a traditional way to express grief – grief over loss, grief over injustice or grief over personal guilt. We often finds way to avoid or deny our pain and regrets, numbing ourselves with distractions. Limiting creature comforts for a time can provide space to process our feelings and to wrestle over questions and new decisions. 

“When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:16-18

What is the struggle, pain or question that makes you want to fast?

What will you fast to help you be aware of grief in your life? 

Exercise 2: Praying the Lament Psalms

• Pick out a lament psalm, and use it as a “liturgy” to give voice to your prayers. 
• Here’s some great examples: Psalm 10, 13, 60, 79, or 80. 
• Don’t just read/pray it and move on. Sit in the discomfort and let God comfort you. Don’t be scared to feel, even to feel deeply, and to meet God in that emotional pain. 

Exercise 3: Journaling Lament

• Get a journal if you don’t already have one. 
• Make a list of unanswered prayers in your life. 
• Go over each one, just hovering for a moment, and see if the Spirit stirs anything in your heart. 
• Write out how it feels to live with unanswered prayer. It’s helpful to write your journal to God, like a letter, just getting everything off your chest.

Questions (feel free to select only a 1 or 2 questions)

• Dialogue about how Dave defined love in terms of the New Testament. 
• What are some practical ways you’ve encountered ‘enemy-love’?
• How would you explain the difference between enemy-love and being a doormat to injustice? 
• How do we come to embody the love of JESUS? 
• How does the SPIRIT bear the fruit of love in our lives? 

Challenge

Consider Dave’s admonishment: “JESUS loves the oppressor by calling them to conversion.” In a cultural moment where injustice is being called out and where enemy-making seems to be just as popular, disciples of JESUS are freed to trust the power and promise of love in JESUS. But we are learning to walk a fine line between condemning and rebuking, between denouncing and loving justly.

As Dave quoted James Cone, “Often times these words of ‘loving your enemy’ can actually be weaponized by oppressors… You use the term ‘love your enemy’ and it is used to deploy and defend all manner of oppression and abuse … More accurately, to shame and silence any resistance on the side of the persecuted… ‘Love your enemies’ often gets translated ‘bear your suffering in silence.'” 

The challenge for us is to encourage one another in a new way and in a new future in JESUS CHRIST so that we may all come to experience the redemptive power of love. How will you and your community both preach grace and good news to the oppressor as well as lift up the cry and the voice of the oppressed? 

Further Scripture to Engage Together

• Psalm 133
• 1 John 3:16-24
• 1 Corinthians 13
• 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
• Galatians 5:13-26 

Action Flowing from Love

To start, read the following verse:

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 2 Corinthians 5:14

Sit still meditating on this verse and allow the love of Christ to compel you towards prayerful action and intercession.

Pray for anyone that comes to mind, or has been on your heart. Also specifically pray for people of color at Missio Dei who are processing the racial injustices of our country in a multitude of different ways. Practice what it means to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15).

Moving forward, read the following passage:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  Matthew 5:43-48

In response to Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, think of people in your life who you would consider enemies (racist/prejudice mentalities, toxic personality traits, etc.) and pray for them in the way that Jesus has instructed us to.

• Pray also for the family members, old friends, or co-workers that are inadvertently or directly contributing to or benefitting from racist systems in America. 
• Remember that Father God welcomes back the prodigal son and goes out to entreat the hypocritical older brother to join into His own heart’s plans (Luke 15:11-32)

In closing pray aloud and declare the following:

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We can take steps to embody the fruit of love that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Below are two practices to explore as ways to help us exercise the love within. You can choose one or try all three. 

Love Your Enemy

An enemy is sometimes someone hostile to you, or feels threatened by you. They may be someone who sees themselves as part of a group that is opposed towards your well being and flourishing. In a twist, Jesus once suggested even that his radical way of love might make family members into enemies (Matt 10:36). An enemy may be more subtle: someone you find difficult to love or someone who has demonstrated prejudice towards you or they remind you of a past pain in your life. 

Step 1: Make a list of people you might consider to be an enemy. 

Step 2: Commit to pray for the people on your list each day this week. (Luke 6:28) Write out a blessing for each person. 

Step 3: Identify one person from your list you can show kindness to this week and commit to a tangible act of love. (Romans 12:20) 

Step 4: Reflect on your experience. What did praying for them go? How did the person respond? What other perspectives helped you love your enemy? 

Uphold the Cause of the Oppressed

The fruit of love involves advocating for the rights and safety of the oppressed. (Isaiah 1:17). We may hesitate to speak out because we are afraid of getting it wrong, know it disrupts the status quo, or we fear retaliation. Take steps to uphold the cause of the oppressed this week. 

Step 1: Right now, our country is coming to a greater awakening as to how the black community has been pressed down by systemic racism. Reflect on the state of our country for a moment. Reflect on any prejudices within yourself. Check your ego if you are sensing resistance to speak up for the oppressed. What is there causing resistance within? 

Step 2: Select one issue to focus on and brainstorm ways you could take a stand with the poor and oppressed (i.e, write a letter to elected representatives, inform yourself on police reform policies, confront racism when manifested among your friends and family, participate in protest or march, etc)

Step 3: Commit to one action step this week.

Step 4: Reflect on your experience. Journal the following. What made this a step of risk for you? What helped you have the courage to take the step? If white, do you have more of a growing consciousness in your everyday life in how people of color experience the world? If a person of color, how did speaking up make you feel on behalf of your ethnicity or another?  For all, has your awareness of white supremacy and white privilege changed? 

Questions (feel free to select only a 1 or 2 questions)

• How would you explain the difference between how you experience happiness versus joy? 
• How has the peace of CHRIST effected your life this past week? 
• How will/do you remain near the fountain of the SPIRIT so that it can “infect” you? 
• What do you see, hear or feel the SPIRIT doing in you and in our church?

Challenge

Consider David’s admonishment: “The fruit of the spirit is inevitable.” The marvelous gift is the promise of peace and joy in the life of the one who’s life is in CHRIST. It is simultaneously true that HE has already accomplished reconciliation for us, and that we are invited to remain and abide, to put ourselves near the source of life and joy and peace in order to be made to thrive. 

As it says in 2 Corinthians 5, “HE reconciled us to HIMSELF…” (v. 18), and “be reconciled to GOD…” (v. 20). The challenge and the call to the disciple of JESUS is to live and breathe this reality and mystery. Repent and believe the good news that we have been reconciled! Remain in HIM, always return to HIM, and accept the freedom HE has given you.

Further Scripture to Engage Together

• Psalm 16 + 73
• Luke 7:36-50
• Romans 15:1-13
• 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5

Joining the Cultivating Work of the Holy Spirit: Peace & Joy

“We must pray in the Spirit, in the Holy Ghost, if we would pray at all. Lay this, I beseech you, to heart. Do not address yourselves to prayer as to a work to be accomplished in your own natural strength. It is a work of God, of God the Holy Ghost, a work of His in you and by you, and in which you must be fellow-workers with Him-but His work notwithstanding”

–Archbishop Trench

John 10:10-12

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 

Missio Dei Humboldt Park Pastor, David Wagner, mentioned the difference between joy and happiness. He described happiness as an elation that focuses on the blessing instead of the Blesser. 

To start, spend some time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal and point out ways in which you have subscribed to happiness, the counterfeit of joy in Christ. Leave open space to listen to the Holy Spirit’s answer.

In a posture of turning towards true joy in our Shepherd that brings peace and calls us to abide in his love pray aloud the following:

Psalm 23: 5-6

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

forever.

(Feel the freedom to repeat lines / let your mind envision the imagery described)

Continue in turning towards joy by praying aloud the following:

Psalm 47

Clap your hands, all you nations;

shout to God with cries of joy.

For the Lord Most High is awesome,

the great King over all the earth.

He subdued nations under us,

peoples under our feet.

He chose our inheritance for us,

the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.

God has ascended amid shouts of joy,

the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.

Sing praises to God, sing praises;

sing praises to our King, sing praises.

For God is the King of all the earth;

sing to him a psalm of praise.

God reigns over the nations;

God is seated on his holy throne.

The nobles of the nations assemble

as the people of the God of Abraham,

for the kings of the earth belong to God;

he is greatly exalted.

After reading and praying through the Psalm 23:5-6 & 47, consider the relationship between finding our peace in and through God and our experience of joy. 

Pray that our congregations would join the Holy Spirit in cultivating peace and joy in this season!

The Ignatian Examen is a prayer that helps us to identify and pay closer attention to God’s activity in everyday life. When fully adopted, the Examen becomes a habit, a daily inventory of the ways God has been at work in our lives and of the ways that we either have or have not responded to this activity of God.

Pick a time of day

If you are going to pray the Examen once each day, the most helpful times tend to be in the morning, at midday or at night. Whatever time of day you choose, consider making it a part of your routine so that you don’t forget.

Steps of the Examen

As you begin, invite God into your prayer and ask for the grace to see yourself honestly as you review your day. Then, at a meditative pace, review your day using the five steps below as a guide. You can prayerfully meditate on your responses or journal as you move through the reflections.

• Express gratitude: Recall your day and name anything for which you are particularly grateful. Thank God for these gifts.
• Review the day: Review the events of your day. Move from morning to night and notice where you felt God’s presence. (No detail is too small or too mundane.*) Were there any invitations to grow in faith, hope or charity? How did you respond to these invitations?
• Name your sorrows: Name those things from the day for which you are sorry. Include both actions and regrets, things you did or did not do.
• Seek forgiveness: Ask God to forgive you. If there is someone you may have hurt and with whom you should reconcile, resolve now to reconcile with them and ask their forgiveness.

Ask for grace for tomorrow: Conclude by thanking God for the gift of your life and this day. Then, ask for the grace you need to see God’s presence more clearly and to conform yourself to Jesus Christ more closely tomorrow.

Questions (feel free to select only a 1 or 2 questions)

• How do you experience and use time?
• How would you say you’ve been shaped by our culture’s value of time? 
• What strikes you about the patience of JESUS? 
• In what ways has the patience of CHRIST been built up in you? 
• How is the good news of JESUS bearing the fruit of patience in you?  

Challenge

Consider Brian’s admonishment: “GOD is calling us to patience. Maybe GOD’s not calling us to success, but to failure. The giving up of our life to co-suffer with others.” Let the crack of your imperfection be the place where the light comes in as you endure and wait for GOD’s faithfulness. In this way, welcome the work of GOD to conform us into the image of CHRIST.

Talk of virtues and becoming like JESUS can so easily morph into moralism and self-justification. It is imperative that we hear, yet again, that the good news being proclaimed here is that as we are helplessly dependent upon our MAKER and REDEEMER, HIS very likeness evermore radiates through us as light through a prism.

Further Scriptures to Engage Together

• Genesis 37-45
• Psalm 13
• Proverbs 25:15
• James 5:7-10

Reflect

To start off the time of prayer, spend a few moments in silence before God. 

After, journal or mentally catalog ways in which you are experiencing  anxiety, desire for  instant gratification, or any general feelings of impatience. 

Looking at your list. Invite the Holy Spirit into the places you are experiencing rush, impatience, and (or) anxiety. 

Participate

Cultivating patience, or any of the fruit of the Spirit, requires active persistence and our total dependence on the Holy Spirit to provide the growth of a spiritual harvest.

As we actively wait and long for better days in our city, nation, and world we rest in the finished work of Jesus. All of the work and growth then is joining God in his plan for the renewal of this world. 

So, in an act of joining God in this work of cultivating the spiritual fruit of patience in our community, open your Bible and read aloud the following: 

Psalm 146 

(Alternate with Psalm 147 throughout the week)

*allow space to re-read verses, words, or phrases that catch your attention.

Read aloud the collect for July 5 from The Book of Common Prayer:

O GOD, 

YOU have taught us to keep 

all YOUR commandments 

by loving YOU and our neighbor:

Grant us the grace of YOUR HOLY SPIRIT,

that we may be devoted to YOU 

with our whole heart, 

and united to one another with pure affection;

through JESUS CHRIST our LORD,

who lives and reigns

with YOU and the the HOLY SPIRIT, 

one GOD, for ever and ever. Amen.

In closing, write on a notecard, or sticky note card these topics to be in prayer over. Try and place the list somewhere  in your home that you pass often to stay persistent in prayer throughout the week.

Reflect on your response to suffering: 

• Spend 15-30 minutes this week journaling about your response to unjust suffering that you have experienced. When have you suffered while trying to do the right thing? Did you transmit or transform the pain? Try to reframe or retell the story in a way that helps you transform the pain. How might what you experienced be part of the larger cosmic struggle between good and evil? 
• What has made you angry this week? Where might God be asking you to channel your anger into an energy of the Spirit that creates a new and redemptive reality?
• What is beyond your control? What do you need to surrender to God?

Questions (feel free to select only a 1 or 2 questions)

• What can I do to develop more of a kindness attitude?
• What blocks the practice of kindness in my life? How can I make kindness function better, stronger, and faster, even in times of uncertainty and stress?
• How can I make Kindness function better, stronger, and faster, even in times of uncertainty and stress?

Further Scriptures to Engage Together

• Genesis 39:21-23
• Ruth 2:8-16
• Luke 7:2-6

RECEIVE

Our world, and we ourselves, are craving the kindness and gentleness of God. As followers of Jesus we must receive nourishment of the good news found through the kindness and gentleness of God. To receive in this way is to experience and participate in God’s renewal of this world.

Start off by spending some time in silence and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where in your heart and mind you can receive the kindness and gentleness of God. Journal the things that come to mind.

After, open your Bible and meditate and pray through the following passages:

Lamentations 3:19-27

Matthew 11:28-30

Psalm 23

Go back to what you journaled at the start of the time. How does the truth of God’s gentleness and compassion to you speak to you? Whatever you are feeling, bring it before the Lord in prayer.

POUR OUT

In response to experiencing the kindness and gentleness of God through the Scriptures and in prayer–ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind someone in your life that you could bless with words of encouragement, blessing, or even gentle rebuke. Send a few texts or talk to people around you. See what the Lord does through an intentionality to listen and a simple “yes” to what He prompts.

CLOSING PRAYER

HOLY SPIRIT, will YOU bear this fruit of kindness and gentleness? 

Convict us in times ahead where we’ve fallen for false seeds.

Do let anything choke out the full version of that which YOU are cultivating in our midst. 

May we, YOUR church, be agents of YOUR peace and reconciliation. showing love, kindness, and gentleness to a world around us that is hungry for more of YOU. 

Amen.

*Adapted from Melissa Pillman’s closing prayer from the July 12 service

The Ignatian Examen is a prayer that helps us to identify and pay closer attention to God’s activity in everyday life. When fully adopted, the Examen becomes a habit, a daily inventory of the ways God has been at work in our lives and of the ways that we either have or have not responded to this activity of God.

Pick a time of day

If you are going to pray the Examen once each day, the most helpful times tend to be in the morning, at midday or at night. Whatever time of day you choose, consider making it a part of your routine so that you don’t forget.

Steps of the Examen

As you begin, invite God into your prayer and ask for the grace to see yourself honestly as you review your day. Then, at a meditative pace, review your day using the five steps below as a guide. You can prayerfully meditate on your responses or journal as you move through the reflections.

• Express gratitude: Recall your day and name anything for which you are particularly grateful. Thank God for these gifts.
• Review the day: Review the events of your day. Move from morning to night and notice where you felt God’s presence. (No detail is too small or too mundane.*) Were there any invitations to grow in faith, hope or charity? How did you respond to these invitations?
• Name your sorrows: Name those things from the day for which you are sorry. Include both actions and regrets, things you did or did not do.
• Seek forgiveness: Ask God to forgive you. If there is someone you may have hurt and with whom you should reconcile, resolve now to reconcile with them and ask their forgiveness.
• Ask for grace for tomorrow: Conclude by thanking God for the gift of your life and this day. Then, ask for the grace you need to see God’s presence more clearly and to conform yourself to Jesus Christ more closely tomorrow.

Questions (feel free to select only a 1 or 2 questions)

• How does Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s story hit differently now than when you were younger?
• What are some things your faith in JESUS has cost you? 
• What is it about JESUS that makes this cost worthwhile? 
• How would you explain Christian faithfulness based on your experience? 
• Do you allow yourself, culture, or JESUS to shape your faithfulness? 

Challenge 

Consider Dave’s admonishment: “Faithfulness happens when we are filled with the HOLY SPIRIT… when we abide in JESUS we will be filled with the HOLY SPIRIT… If you want to be faithful, you must pursue JESUS with all that you have, and you will be filled.”

In other words, JESUS’ faithfulness is the only thing we can rest in. Only then are we filled with the HOLY SPIRIT unto a life of faithfulness. In this way, taking faithfulness seriously is the bedrock of the Christian life. Faithfulness is submitting ourselves fully and freely to JESUS CHRIST, HIS love and finished work in death and resurrection, not molding HIM into what works for and makes sense to us. 

On your own or as a group, spend some time processing the questions above as well as the tension you feel in conversations about faithfulness like this one. How are we to actually be faithful? What is at stake? How are we doing? What are the implications of your dialogue? 

Further scriptures to engage with

• Joshua 24:14-28
• Psalm 26
• Proverbs 3:3
• Daniel 3
• Acts 20:17-28

Receive 

This week we will be joining in the cultivation of faithfulness by testifying to God’s faithfulness and giving Him praise. Nothing makes a human faithful but remembering the faithfulness of God and abiding in Him. 

Consider the opening 3 verses of Psalm 107:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

Open your Bible and read through the rest of Psalm 107. 

There are a lot of different situations where people in dire circumstances cried out to the Lord and He answered them in really unique ways. Does one stand out to you more than the rest? 

Praise

Write down testimonies of God’s faithfulness you’ve experienced personally or in your community. You can add your own stanza(s) to Psalm 107! Practice the language of praise by remembering those stories and praying aloud the following refrain in response:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.

Intercede

Pray prayers of intercession for those you know who are in the middle of a very real battle to be faithful or to remain in the faith. 

Instead of praying that they would have all of their questions and doubts answered, ask the Holy Spirit to fill them with the love of Christ. In doing so may God be glorified and may the people who are struggling experience a new measure of grace.

The Ignatian Examen is a prayer that helps us to identify and pay closer attention to God’s activity in everyday life. When fully adopted, the Examen becomes a habit, a daily inventory of the ways God has been at work in our lives and of the ways that we either have or have not responded to this activity of God.

Pick a time of day

If you are going to pray the Examen once each day, the most helpful times tend to be in the morning, at midday or at night. Whatever time of day you choose, consider making it a part of your routine so that you don’t forget.

Steps of the Examen

As you begin, invite God into your prayer and ask for the grace to see yourself honestly as you review your day. Then, at a meditative pace, review your day using the five steps below as a guide. You can prayerfully meditate on your responses or journal as you move through the reflections.

• Express gratitude: Recall your day and name anything for which you are particularly grateful. Thank God for these gifts.
• Review the day: Review the events of your day. Move from morning to night and notice where you felt God’s presence. (No detail is too small or too mundane.) Were there any invitations to grow in faith, hope or charity? How did you respond to these invitations?
• Name your sorrows: Name those things from the day for which you are sorry. Include both actions and regrets, things you did or did not do.
• Seek forgiveness: Ask God to forgive you. If there is someone you may have hurt and with whom you should reconcile, resolve now to reconcile with them and ask their forgiveness.
• Ask for grace for tomorrow: Conclude by thanking God for the gift of your life and this day. Then, ask for the grace you need to see God’s presence more clearly and to conform yourself to Jesus Christ more closely tomorrow.