awakening, day 1

Come to Stillness:

Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:

Lord, awaken me, you whose love burns beyond the stars; light the flame of my lantern that I may always burn with love. (A Traveler Toward the Dawn by John Eagan)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 28

Scripture for the Day: Genesis 28:10-22

Reading for Reflection:

It can therefore be said that the aim of prayer is to awaken the Holy Spirit within us, and to bring our hearts into harmony with His voice, so that we allow the Holy Spirit to speak and pray within us, and lend Him our voices and our affections that we may become, as far as possible, conscious of His prayer in our hearts. (Spiritual Direction and Meditation by Thomas Merton)

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade

the presence of God.

The world is crowded with Him.

He walks everywhere incognito.

And the incognito is not always hard to

penetrate.

The real labour is to attend.

In fact, to come awake.

Still more, to remain awake.

(Letters to Malcom by C. S. Lewis)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Crown Him With Many Crowns

Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

Crown him the Lord of love, behold his hands and side,
those wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends his burning eye at mysteries so bright.

Closing Prayer:
O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things.  The world has been too much with me.  You have been here and I knew it not.  I have been blind to Your presence.  Open my eyes that I may behold You in and around me.  For Christ’s sake, Amen. (The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer)