devotion, day 1

Come to Stillness:

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

Opening Prayer:

 

Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!  And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I rushed headlong into the well-formed things that you have made.  You were with me, and I was not with you.

 

                                                                             ~St. Augustine

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 86

Scripture for the Day: Colossians 2:1-7

Reading for Reflection:

Philosopher William James said: "In some people religion exists as a dull habit, in others as an acute fever."  Jesus did not endure the shame of the cross to hand on a dull habit.  If you don't have the fever, dear reader, a passion for God and His Christ, drop to your knees, and beg for it; turn to the God you half-believe in and cry out for His baptism of fire. (The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning)

 

 

If you are weary of some sleepy form of devotion, probably God is as weary of it as you are.

 

                                                                                     ~Frank Laubach

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Lord Most High

From the ends of the earth
From the depths of the sea
From the heights of the heavens
Your name be praised

From the hearts of the weak
From the shouts of the strong
From the lips of all people
This song we raise, Lord

Throughout the endless ages
You will be crowned with praises,
Lord Most High
Exalted in every nation
Sovereign of all creation
Lord Most High, Be magnified


Closing Prayer
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)