Friday 16th June: Love Your Enemies

The Sign of the Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Scripture

Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
—MATTHEW 5:44–45

Why should we reward those who wound us? Why should God? C. S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less” (Mere Christianity).

Jesus is telling us a great secret—loving those who are unlovable is the way of perfection, the way of God.

 How could I love others more today, whether I feel it or not?

Loving Father, help us to love others with no expectation for anything in return. Help us to love others whether we feel like it or not. Help us to love those who we feel we cannot love.

We make this prayer in the name of Jesus.

 Amen.

Dear Father in heaven,

Thank you for the gift of life you have given us. Thank you for the people you have made us to be. Help us to live our lives to the full.

Open our hearts to receive your love so that we, in return, can show love and respect to everyone in our school community, our families and our friends.

Send us your Holy Spirit so we can achieve excellence in our learning and do our personal best in all areas of school life.

May we always live, love and learn through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Lady Queen of Peace pray for us.

St Joseph pray for us

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.