“At the morning meeting, anonymous characters spoke about the topic of resentment being the number one offender.”

Whatever difficulty is facing us today, we may have to deal with it ourselves, but we do not have to be alone while we do it. We can reach out for support while we do what we must. This difficulty is part of being human and drives us to reach deep down for an inner strength and love, and to see more fully who we are. Today, I pray for the courage to face my adversity with inner strength and love, to grow in faith and to learn who I really am.

The first task of spiritual life is learning to see our own reactions clearly: how quickly anger justifies itself, how easily fear pretends to be wisdom, how our ego disguises itself as courage. Silence exposes that, not to shame us, but to free us. It takes boundaries around attention. It takes communities that tell the truth to one another gently and directly. It takes prayer, silence and honest reflection that clears our emotional distortion before it hardens into a false identity. The goal is freedom; to stay rooted, practiced in humility and courage. To stay shaped by love more than by fear.

I must keep calm and unmoved in the vicissitudes of life. I must go back into the silence of communion with God to recover this calm when it is lost, even if for just one moment. I will accomplish more by this calmness than by all the activities of a long day. At all costs I will keep calm. I can solve nothing when I am agitated. I will keep away from things that are upsetting emotionally; and ask for His help to run on an even keel and not get tipped over by emotional upsets. I will seek for things that are calm and good and true and stick to those things.