Reflect back to how you were thinking before you started your service work. If someone had asked you at that point, how would you have defined or explained what service is? Now that you have done it, would your definition change? What experience from your service stands out in your mind as being influential in the change?
I shall pass through this world but once.
Therefore,any good I can do,
any kind act that i can perform for any creature,
let me do it now.
Let me not delay, not omit it,
for I shall not pass this way again.
-Attributed to Etienne DeGrellet, eight century
What gifts did I bring to my service experience? Are there any specific obstacles that stood in the way of being open to this experience?
God, give us eyes that we might see that work can be done by us.
God, give us ears that we may hear the cries of those that need us near.
God, give us lips that we might speak comfort and peace to all who seek.
God, give us a mind that we might know to help the ones who need us.
God, give us hands that we might do some large or simple task for you.
God, give us prayer that we may pray for help and guidance every day.
And this all else above, God, give us a heart that we might love as you love.
Did anything I witnessed in my service lead me to reflect on the tension between the mandate that each person has worth? If yes, what? What, if anything, have i observed this past week that reflects society's opinions about which members of society have dignity?