“Goodbye dear friend and all you dear friends. My prayer is that your love will never cease to grow and overflow. I give you my blessing.”  (Letter To Father Mille, at Billens, May 30, 1832:  423:VIII in Oblate Writings)

Eugene’s letter was about business and obedience and practical day-to-day things for the men at Billens but it was the very end of the letter that caught me; “My prayer is that your love will never cease to grow and overflow.”  I find myself just wanting to sit and experience this gift that Eugene sends to his men.

What a beautiful thought – my prayer is that your love will never cease to grow and overflow.  It is a prayer that lifts another up to soar in the heavens of life.  I find myself responding with a thought of ‘yes – with that kind of love I cannot fail.’  Everything will all come from that.

I want to paste this as a big sign over my desk so that whenever I approach it I will read it and most assuredly the image of a person(s) will be there.  Could anyone ever ask for anything more than that.  This is the prayer of love – of totally letting go of self.  This is the prayer that I shall say as I hold the other at the foot of the Cross until Jesus takes him or her from me and sends me out for another.   This then is the 2^nd half of the equation to where my reflection yesterday led me.

I am sure that St. Eugene will not mind that I borrow and share his words –  for what better gift to make it through the day.  Today my prayer is that your love will never cease to grow and overflow.