dying to self, tuesday

Tuesday, March 18

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 8:31-38

Reading for Reflection:

Christians need to understand that bearing the cross does not in the first place refer to the trials which we call crosses, but to that daily giving up of life, of dying to self, which must mark us as much as it did Jesus, which we need in times of prosperity almost more than in adversity, and without which the fullness of the blessing of the cross cannot be disclosed to us. (Like Christ by Andrew Murray)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Here I am, Dear Lord, desperately in need of your Holy Spirit.  Give me your Holy Spirit, according to your promise.  I don’t know how to ask rightly, so I just sit here and allow you to pray in me, asking for what you most want to bestow, which is your own Holy Spirit—with the Gifts through which the Holy Spirit takes over more and more of my life.

                                                                                    ~Fr. Thomas Keating