“Love turns work into rest.”

"When the Sisters are exhausted, up to their eyes in work; when all seems to go awry, they spend an hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. This practice has never failed to bear fruit: they experience peace and strength." — Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Gospel text (Mt 11: 28-30): Jesus said, «Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For my yoke is good and my burden is light».

In our culture, we are taught that we must earn or be "worthy" of love, or meet someone else's standard in order to be lovable. We learn to hide a lot inside because we believe that if people really know who we are they won't love us. We learn to "fit in", imitate popular people, and conform to what others expect. In other words, we constantly wear masks or put on a show as we attempt to be accepted and, most of all, loved.

We often carry that over to God. We believe God is waiting to pounce on our every misdeed and constantly judges us as falling far short of the divine standard. Yet scripture tells us that the God of all the universe, the One who put the stars in their place, the ultimate, infinite God loves each one of us personally and completely.

We find the fulfillment of the prophet's words in Jesus. «Come to me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you» (Mt 11:28). In the Lord, in his loving heart, we all find the necessary rest and strength not to lose spirit and, thus, to wait for him with renewed love, while our souls do not stop blessing him and our memories never forget his favors.