prayer, day 3

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

Opening Prayer:
Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me.
                                                                  ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 84

Scripture for the Day: John 17:1-26

Reading for Reflection:

How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing?  By quiet, persistent practice in turning of all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward Him who calls in the depths of our souls.  Mental habits of inward orientation must be established.  An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady, after weeks and months and years of practice and lapses and failures and returns.  It is as simple as Brother Lawrence found it, but it may be long before we achieve any steadiness in the process.  Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair, to offer your whole selves, utterly and in joyful abandon, in quiet, glad surrender to Him who is within.  (A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly)


Prayer is being loved at a deep, sweet level.  I hope you have felt such intimacy alone with God.  I promise you it is available to you.  Maybe a lot of us just need to be told that it is what we should expect and seek.  It feels presumptuous.  We can’t trust that such a love exists.  But it does. (Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Praise to the Lord the Almighty


Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
The King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Closing Prayer:
You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Confessions by St. Augustine)