wilderness, day 7

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: Psalm 84

Reading for Reflection:

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Weeping,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

(Psalm 84:5-7)

 

This Lenten journey is very much a pilgrimage. It is the time where we, like Jesus, set our face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51 ESV). It is a journey to the cross; a journey that passes through the Valley of Weeping, but ultimately ends up at a place of springs—of new life, of resurrection. So what does it look like to set my heart on this pilgrimage? Does it mean to follow wherever the hard and lonely path may lead, trusting that Jesus knows the way to life? Does it mean to embrace, rather than avoid or deny, the struggle and pain and brokenness of the season—and my own heart—knowing that this is the soil in which new life is born? Does it mean simply putting one foot in front of the other as we willingly follow our Savior into a scary and vulnerable land—the land of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following him? Does it mean being stripped down to the core of who we really are, and who He really is, in order that we may really become all that He desires us to be? Does it mean a putting off of all that is false within us, in order to put on all that is genuinely true? Does it mean the putting to death of the false self, that we may live and be the true self we were intended/created/dreamt to be? If that is indeed what it means, then by all means, O Lord, set my heart of pilgrimage—as you set your face to go to Jerusalem—that I may really know, and really love, you and you alone.

                                                                        ~Jim Branch

                                                                         Lent 2012

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