"Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift" --Matthew 5:23-24

When we come to worship the Lord, we must not be offering Him gifts with our hands while our minds and hearts are caught up in resentment or pride. It is only by humbling ourselves to others that we can come humble before God. If we have not come to love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, how then can we love and serve our God? Loving and serving our brothers and sister in Christ must begin in our own families. Families imprint themselves within our consciousness. So many of our patterns of interaction with others are governed by our personality's reaction conditioned by familial relations. But these reactions are not our personalities, and if we humble ourselves before our families and seek to act in a love personalized by our personalities rather than the stung pride, we will come to love our families. The warmth of that love will seep into our interactions with all people, a warmth that will allow us to stop huddling within ourselves and open to God. Then, through opening and receiving we can offer the gift of ourselves to the Lord, who will enter and make us new.