“What a man takes in by contemplation, that he pours out in love.” – Meister Eckhart

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Listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation by clicking HERE.

For a deeper reflection, listen to my song “The Way You Are” on YouTube by clicking HERE

My albums and books Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

Thank you!

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Luke 5:15-16

The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

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Today’s passage follows the healing of a man said to be “full of leprosy.”

He had fallen at Jesus’s feet and begged him to make him clean.

Jesus then touched the man, said that he did will that the man be made clean.

And we’re told that it happened immediately.

Jesus didn’t want the man to tell anyone what happened but told him, “Show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them” (Luke 5:14).

This had to do with laws in Leviticus that detailed instructions for purification for someone who had been excluded due to leprosy.

Jesus wanted wholeness for the man not only in health but in community.

A side note is that by touching the man, Jesus would have made himself “unclean” in the eyes of the law.

We see here how Jesus would easily disregard the law in deference to love.

He was more concerned with the community’s wholeness than the law.

He saw beyond any illnesses or struggles people had.

These did not define them in his eyes.

When he looked at anyone, he saw their belovedness in God.

This is lesson number one for us.

Second lesson: we see that Jesus “would withdraw to deserted places to pray.”

Jesus would do many good works, but he balanced those actions with solitude.

He communed with God in silence.

Jesus practiced what he told his followers: Go to your inner room and pray to God in secret (Matthew 6:6).

Some form of meditation such as Centering Prayer is very helpful.

Jesus showed us the importance of always being rooted in a deep relationship with God, our loving Source.

It’s the only way we can live authentically as our true whole self.

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Listen to the song of the day “The Way You Are” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Purchase my albums/CDs and books by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Remember: God loves you!