wilderness, day 5

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

Opening Prayer:

Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it, to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults,
O Lord, and spare Your servant from strange sins.

                                ~St. Augustine of Hippo


Psalm for the Week: Psalm 78

Scripture for the Day: Matthew 11:7-19

Reading for Reflection:

What more could you have given me than the gift of your very self?...You are a fire always burning but never consuming; you are a fire consuming in your heart all the soul’s selfish love [self-love]; you are a fire lifting all chill and giving light….without this light I would be walking in the dark…You willed to bend down to my need. (The Dialogue by Catherine of Sienna)

The spiritual journey is not a career or a success story.  It is a series of humiliations of the false self that become more and more profound.

                                                                               ~Fr. Thomas Keating


Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah


Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven,
Feed me now and evermore;
Bread of heaven,
Feed me now and evermore.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing waters flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.
Strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death, and hell's destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan's side.
Songs of praises, I will ever give to Thee;
Songs of praises, I will ever give to Thee.

Ending:
Land me safe on Canaan's side
Bid my anxious fears, bid my anxious fears
Land me safe on Canaan's side
Bid my anxious fears, bid my anxious fears, goodbye.


Closing Prayer:
     Lord I so want to make all of me ready and attentive and available to you. Please help me to clarify and purify my intentions. I have so many contradictory desires. I get preoccupied with things that don’t really matter or last.

     I know that if I give You my heart whatever I do will follow my new heart. In all that I am today...all that I try to do...all my encounters, reflections, even the frustrations and failings and especially in this time of prayer...in all of this...may I place my life in Your hands. Lord I am Yours...make of me what you will.

 

                                                                  ~Ignatius of Loyola