shaped by the word, day 2

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

Opening Prayer:
Saving God, you set your heart on us and made us your own.  May we listen with the ear of our hearts to the many ways your Word and your love will be present to us and formed in us this day.  We ask this through Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Amen.  (The Work of God)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 1

Scripture for the Day: Psalm 119:1-16

Reading for Reflection:

My beginning advice to you is this: Always read the Scriptures with a heart ready to repent.  Receive the storm that repentance brings.  Let the holy winds toss you to and fro.  You will be awakened to new depths as you wrestle with the life forces within.  What seems like violence at first will lead you gently into the eye of God where all is calm and quiet, like the eye of a hurricane.  When you finally surrender and stop fighting the winds, you will be carried into the eye of God.  There, you will rest in peace and learn to see like God.  It will be the great harvest of contemplation—through the storm into the quiet. (A Tree Full of Angels by Macrina Wiederkehr)

If we would dance our way into some deeper communion with God, we must stop working on the Word, wherever it is found, and let the Word begin to work on us. (Living Prayer by Robert Benson)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Lord, Speak to Me

Lord, speak to me that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou hast sought, so let me seek
Thy erring children lost and lone.

O lead me, Lord, that I may lead
The wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, Lord, that I may feed
Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.
 
O teach me, Lord, that I may teach
The precious things Thou dost impart;
And wing my words, that they may reach
The hidden depths of many a heart.
 
O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
Until my very heart o’erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.

 

O use me, Lord, use even me,
Just as Thou wilt, when, and where,
Until Thy blessed face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.
 
Lord, speak to me that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone.

Closing Prayer:
O Lord, Thou didst strike my heart with Thy Word and I loved Thee.
                                                                               ~St. Augustine