a life of ministry, day 7

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

Opening Prayer:
Dear Jesus,

     Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.  Flood our souls with your Spirit and life.  Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.  Shine through us and so be in us that every soul we come I contact with may feel your presence in our soul.  Let them look up and see no longer us but only You.  Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be light to others.  The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.  None of it will be ours.  It will be you shining on others through us.  Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us.  Amen.  (The Daily Prayer of Mother Teresa)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 145

Scripture for the Day: Acts 8:26-40

Reading for Reflection: 

     God wants not only to be God for us, but also to be God with us.  That happens in Jesus, the Emmanuel who walks with us, talks with us, and dies with us.  In sending Jesus to us, God wants to convince us of the unshakable fidelity of the divine love.  Still there is more.  When Jesus leaves he says to us, "I will not leave you alone, but will send you the Holy Spirit."  The Spirit of Jesus is God within us.  Here the fullness of God's faithfulness is revealed.  Through Jesus, God gives us the divine Spirit so that we can live a God-like life.  The Spirit is the breath of God.  It is the intimacy between Jesus and his Father.  It is the divine communion.  It is God's love active within us.

     This divine faithfulness is the core of our witness.  By our words, but most of all by our lives, we are to reveal God's faithfulness to the world.  (Here and Now by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

It seems to me that it is very likely the true essence of ministry has more to do with being to another than with some act or deed which we have come to believe we must be doing to, or for, them.  Perhaps the deepest, kindest thing we can do for anyone is to just be there for them in such a way that all they are and all the gifts they possess will be released and affirmed. (He Speaks Softly by Bob Benson)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Be Thou My Vision

 

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

 

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true Word;

I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father, I thy true son,

Thou in me dwelling and I in thee one.

 

Riches I heed not, nor all empty praise;

Thou mine inheritance, now and always;

Thou and thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

 

High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

 

 

Closing Prayer:

Almighty God, cause your good gifts to flow in and through my life and ministry this day and always.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer by Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck)