For weekend 9.24.2016

Musing recently on that old saw “you only get one chance to make a first impression”, I was drawn to the image of Pope Francis and how he invites us to something else.

Firstly, if that were true, every time I messed up meeting someone for the first time in my life the relationship would not be mended. How often do we think back to first meeting and it turns out they were NOT the first impression at all? It happens all the time.

Pope Francis is the epitome of invitational spirituality, where he welcomes someone without judging, opens his arms, his heart and shows us the invitation itself, never ends. There is always an opportunity to invite the first time, and if that doesn’t work, then to re-invite again. If we didn’t greet the clerk in the store with a smile from our heart, or just plain ignored them, we can change our invitation the next time we are there. The friend we are trying to get off the phone because they go on too long, the child asking for more time with us, those we have ignored but should have not in our day.

So it seems there is always a chance to make a second, third and fourth impression, Pope Francis makes every impression count. Noticing all in his world.