Father, I thank you for this thirty day experience.

You led me into my own human reality where I met my potential and my limitations, my desires and my fears, my secrets and my frankness.

With all this I felt, Father, that you welcomed me, accepted me, trusted me and above all loved me.

I felt this most powerfully expressed when you put your hands on my shoulders which made me feel truly free, free, free, free........

You then invited me to accompany Jesus, who took me along into the desert where you gave him his personal vocation which changed him from son of Mary into son of 'God is Love'.

With him I saw the vision of a kingdom of love which is not of this world and to which he fully committed himself by going around  doing good and showing that if we allow 'love to find a way' into every corner of our being-human, it heals us, liberates us, redeems us, empowers us and makes us rise beyond ourselves. Through this I experienced you personally calling me, Albert, to commit myself in this love to that kingdom which is not of this world but must be realised in this world.

Father, I became deeply aware of the demands made by this commitment when you asked Jesus to live this love to the very limit. By doing so freely he demonstrated the real power of this love: beyond death's door you made me experience him alive and loving, inviting me to participate in his mission of love.

Father, I commit myself to follow him so that I may be a channel of that love.

Albert Ketelaars