This Sunday’s Scripture passages draw me to think about the themes of light and darkness. It makes me think of a dark, clear, cold January sky and how the stars seem to shine more brightly in the darkest days of winter. The new moon is this weekend, so the sky will be extra dark without the brightness of the moon.
Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12), and we who have received His light have the responsibility to carry it to others. The light we shine is not our own. The light is from Christ, the “only Light of my soul,” as St. John Henry Newman put it. This prayer is from the Fragrance Prayer that St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) prayed with her Missionaries of Charity each day. It is adapted from a writing by Newman. As you read it, imagine Jesus within you, radiating from within you to others.
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
Fragrance Prayer
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me
that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.
It will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching,
not by words but by my example,
by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.
Sometime tonight or tomorrow, if it’s not cloudy or too bitterly cold, go outside after dark and look up at the stars in the deep, dark sky. See how they shine in the darkness. Resolve to let the light of Christ shine through your soul to others.
Jesus, You are the Light for everyone who is in darkness or gloom. You are the Light for all who yearn for your truth and goodness. Help me to be Your light in every circumstance.