the way, day 2

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

Opening Prayer:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 25

Scripture for the Day: John 14:1-21

Reading for Reflection:

So how are we to live now?  Can we bear the light of Christ into the darkness of our time?  Jesus gave several directions that serve as signposts to guide us on that narrowing path of obedience.  Though Jesus’ “Follow me” opens up a set of decisions for each one of us, all of us are called to trust, to relinquish whatever we cling to that is not of God, to seek ongoing guidance, and to be “sober and watchful” (1 Peter 5:8) as we attempt to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8).   Openness to surprise is one mark of a spiritual life vibrantly lived—and there will be surprises: every path has forks and hairpin turns.  Jesus didn’t map out a way—he said “I am the way” (John 14:6).  Our road map lies in relationship.  We set out on our journeys, though, with very clear instructions, simple, but impossible without the help of the Spirit. (Where the Path Narrows by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, Weavings, Volume XXV, Number 3)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Come and Welcome

From the cross uplifted high
Where the Savior deigns to die
What melodious sounds I hear
Bursting on my ravished ear
Love¹s redeeming work is done
Come and welcome, sinner, come.

Sprinkled now with blood the throne
Why beneath thy burdens groan
On my pierced body laid
Justice owns the ransom paid
Bow the knee and kiss the Son
Come and welcome, sinner, come.

Spread for thee the festal board
See with richest dainties stored
To thy Father¹s bosom pressed
Yet again a child confessed
Never from His house to roam
Come and welcome, sinner, come.

Soon the days of life shall end
Lo, I come, your Savior, Friend
Safe your spirit to convey
To the realms of endless day
Up to my eternal home.
Come and welcome, sinner, come.
Come and welcome, sinner, come.


Closing Prayer:
May those without hope take heart in you, O Christ. May those with no home find shade at your right hand. May those near the end see beginnings; may those at the last become first. At the foot of your cross, O Christ, I come in prayer. O Christ, be my help, O Christ, be my hope. Amen. (Pamela Hawkins, Weavings Volume XXVI, Number 2)