Reflection for Sunday, February 5, 2012

RELIGION     

by  Vincent B. Silliman

Let religion be to us life and joy.  

Let it be a voice of renewing challenge to the best we have and may be; let it be a call to generous action. 

Let religion be to us a dissatisfaction with things that are, which bids us serve more eagerly the true and right.

 Let it be the sorrow that opens for us the way of sympathy, understanding, and service to suffering humanity. 

Let religion be to us the wonder and lure of that which is only partly known and understood: 

An eye that glories in nature’s majesty and beauty, and a heart that rejoices in deeds of kindness and of courage. 

Let religion be to us security and serenity because of its truth and beauty, and because of the enduring worth and power of the loyalties which it engenders; 

Let it be to us hope and purpose, and a discovering of opportunities to express our best through daily tasks: 

Religion, uniting us with all that is admirable in human beings everywhere; 

Holding before our eyes a prospect of the better life for human-kind, which each may help to make actual.