Dear Father, As I wrote down the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath for today’s reflection, I was reminded that You should always come first in everything we do. In the story, You turned her hardship around because she listened to the prophet. In the days of the Old Covenant, the first fruits were brought to You, and today it should be no different. In fact, with the light of the New Testament and the coming of Your Son, we recognize You and Your love even more clearly. May the first and last words of each day be consecrated to You. We are always called to lift our eyes to You, as Your beloved Son did. He glorified You in everything.
This is the right way to transform our lives so that we always live as children of our Father, looking up to You in all things. Then it will become second nature to us—just as You keep Your eye on us. This will also be true for our friends, the angels. They always keep their eyes on You, and it brings them joy.
We still have to learn this because we are easily preoccupied with other things, especially ourselves. It would be a great gain if we could practice this during Holy Lent, waking up and going to bed each day with thanksgiving. Then we will walk through the day holding Your hand, always looking to You first to see whether You are pleased with what we are doing. We will easily sense Your subtle corrections when we lose sight of You. Our spirit and soul will remind us! Our spirit will draw us to look to the Father first, and our soul will quietly lament if we do not. It cannot perceive the comforting and strengthening presence of our Father. But as soon as we turn back to the Father, it is at peace!