Prayer to start the day: Be patient!

Start your day with the following sentence: "Patience is a way in which God responds to our weakness to give us time to change. With that in mind, move on to the prayer for the day! 

Prayer of the day

Lord Jesus Christ, 

I have often been impatient.

I wanted to give up everything, I wanted to give in to the pain.

I wanted to choose the easy way out: despair.

You never lost your temper.

You have endured a lifetime and suffered

To save me too. 

I bring you my pain: fill me with your joy.

I bring you my loneliness: place your presence in me.

I bring you my conflicts: put your peace in me.

I bring you my failures: make your future germinate in me.

Amen.

Message and thought of the day

Simeon," St. Luke reveals, "was waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Lk 2:25). Reaching the Temple, at the moment when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus, he welcomes the Messiah into his arms. He who recognizes in the Child who appears to bring light to the people is an old man who has waited patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled. He waited patiently.

Considering the patience of the old man Simeon, all his life he waited and exercised a patient heart. In prayer, he learned that God does not come in extraordinary situations, but proceeds in his work in a monotonous way, on a daily basis, in the sometimes tiring rhythm of activities, in the little things that we continue to do with tenacity and humility as we seek to do his will. 

In order to walk patiently, Simeon was not downcast by the passage of time. He is now an old man, but the flame in his heart is still burning; in his long life he has sometimes been hurt, disappointed, and yet he has not lost hope; he patiently keeps his promise, - keeps his promise - without letting himself be invaded by the bitterness of the past or by that resigned melancholy that arises when one reaches the twilight of life. 

The hope of expectation was expressed in him in the daily patience of one who, despite everything, remained vigilant, until finally "his eyes saw salvation" (cf. Lk 2:30).

Simeon's patience is therefore a mirror of God's patience. From the prayer and history of his people, Simeon learned that God is patient. With his patience, he "exhorts us to conversion" (Rom 2:4).

This is the reason for our hope: God is waiting for us without ever getting tired. God waits for us. When we drift away He picks us up, when we fall He lifts us up, when we return to Him after being lost He waits for us with open arms. He is patient.