seeing, wednesday

Wednesday, April 30

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

Opening Prayer: Then run, faithful souls, happy and tireless, keep up with your Beloved who marches with giant strides from one end of heaven to the other.  Nothing is hidden from His eyes.  He walks alike over the smallest blade of grass, the tallest cedars, grains of sand or rocky mountains.  Wherever you go He has gone before.  Only follow Him and you will find Him everywhere. (The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre De Caussade)

Scripture Reading for the Day: 2 Chronicles 16:7-9

Reading for Reflection:

     For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God.  I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life—pray always, work for others, read Scriptures—and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself.  I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

     Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, to love me.  The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by Him?”  The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?”  And finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?”  God is looking in the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.

     It might sound strange, but God wants to find me as much as, if not more than, I want to find God.   (The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        

Closing Prayer: My gracious Heavenly Father, with gratitude I bow before you today.  I rejoice in the little, ordinary things which so often are accepted by me unrecognized and which so frequently pass by unnoticed.  For life itself I give You thanks.  For the breath which I borrow from You, I am grateful.  For the strength to pursue a course of active labor, I offer my gratitude.  That the lily of the field and the sparrow of the air are under Your guiding and protecting hand, remind me.  In the name of Your Son, my Savior, I pray.  Amen. (Daily Prayer Companion by C. Ralston Smith)

seeing, tuesday

Tuesday, April 29

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

Opening Prayer: Then run, faithful souls, happy and tireless, keep up with your Beloved who marches with giant strides from one end of heaven to the other.  Nothing is hidden from His eyes.  He walks alike over the smallest blade of grass, the tallest cedars, grains of sand or rocky mountains.  Wherever you go He has gone before.  Only follow Him and you will find Him everywhere. (The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre De Caussade)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Job 42:1-6

Reading for Reflection:

What comes into your mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us…the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                          

Closing Prayer: O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things.  The world has been too much with me.  You have been here, and I knew it not.  I have been blind to Your presence.  Open my eyes that I may behold You in and around me.  For Christ’s sake, Amen. (The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer)

seeing, monday

Monday, April 28

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

Opening Prayer: Then run, faithful souls, happy and tireless, keep up with your Beloved who marches with giant strides from one end of heaven to the other.  Nothing is hidden from His eyes.  He walks alike over the smallest blade of grass, the tallest cedars, grains of sand or rocky mountains.  Wherever you go He has gone before.  Only follow Him and you will find Him everywhere. (The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre De Caussade)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 9:1-10

Reading for Reflection:

It is not enough that we behave better; we must come to see reality differently.  We must learn to see the depths of things, not just reality at a superficial level.  This especially means we need to see the nonseparateness of the world from God and the oneness of all reality in God: the Hidden Ground of Love in all that is.  Prayer is a kind of corrective lens that does away with the distorted view of reality that, for some mysterious reason, seems to be my normal vision, and enables me to see what is as it really is. (Silence on Fire by William H. Shannon)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        
Closing Prayer: O living and eternal God, you are more ready to give than we to ask.  Grant us a new vision of yourself, that seeing you as you are, we may desire you, and desiring you, may surrender our lives to you.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever.  Amen. (The Little Book of Hours)

seeing, sunday

Sunday, April 27 (Second Sunday of Easter)

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

Opening Prayer: Then run, faithful souls, happy and tireless, keep up with your Beloved who marches with giant strides from one end of heaven to the other.  Nothing is hidden from His eyes.  He walks alike over the smallest blade of grass, the tallest cedars, grains of sand or rocky mountains.  Wherever you go He has gone before.  Only follow Him and you will find Him everywhere. (The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre De Caussade)

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 1:35-51

Reading for Reflection:

     The emphasis is on seeing.  Jesus said to Nathanael, ”Before Philip came to call you, I saw you under the fig tree,” and after Nathanael’s response:  “You are the Son of God.”  Jesus remarked, “You believe that just because I said I saw you under the fig tree.  You will see greater things than that…you will see the heaven laid open, and above the Son of man, and the angels of God ascending and descending” (John 1:49-51). 

     The story speaks deeply to me since it raises the questions: “Do I want to be seen by Jesus?  Do I want to be known by Him?”  If I do, then a faith can grow which proclaims Jesus as Son of God.  Only such a faith can open my eyes and reveal such a heaven.

     Thus, I will see when I am willing to be seen.  I will receive new eyes that can see the mysteries of God’s own life when I allow God to see me, all of me, even those parts that I myself do not want to see.

     O Lord, see me and let me see. (The Road to Daybreak  by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        

Closing Prayer: O Lord Jesus, I look at you, and my eyes are fixed on your eyes.  Your eyes penetrate the eternal mystery of the divine and see the glory of God.  They are also the eyes that saw Simon, Andrew, Nathanael, and Levi, the eyes that saw the woman with the hemorrhage, the widow of Nain, the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the hungry crowd, the eyes that saw the sad, rich ruler, the fearful disciples on the lake, and the sorrowful women at the tomb.  Your eyes, O Lord, see in one glance the inexhaustible love of God and the seemingly endless agony of all people who have lost faith in that love and are like sheep without a shepherd.

     As I look into your eyes, they frighten me because they pierce like flames of fire my innermost being, but they console me as well, because these flames are purifying and healing.  Your eyes are so severe yet so loving, so unmasking yet so protecting, so penetrating yet so caressing, so profound yet so intimate, so distant yet so inviting.

     I gradually realize that I want to be seen by you, to dwell under your caring gaze, and to grow strong and gentle in your sight.  Lord, let me see what you see—the love of God and the suffering of people—so that my eyes may become more and more like yours, eyes that can heal wounded hearts. (Intimate Moments with the Savior by Ken Gire)

risen, saturday

Saturday, April 26

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 21:1-25

Reading for Reflection:

     “The way of possibility is the way of going through.”

                                                                                    ~John S. Dunne

     It’s a good thing Easter is a season and not just a day because some resurrections take time. Like the coming of spring, some resurrections happen gradually; they are not overnight sensations. And yet somehow, we need to experience these as miracles too.

     Fortunately, the Easter season (fifty days, eight Sundays, seven weeks—however you want to look at it) is longer than Lent because there are some areas of our lives where resurrection takes longer than dying. The Church calendar itself teaches us that “the implications of the resurrection—its explosive force—call for an extended period of exploration and appropriation.”  For us mere mortals. Easter cannot be done in a day. (When Resurrection Takes Time by Ruth Haley Barton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        
Closing Prayer: Almighty Father, who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples with the sight of the risen Lord: give us such knowledge of his presence with us, that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (A Collect for Easter, Oremus)

risen, friday

Friday, April 25

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

               

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 16:1-8

Reading for Reflection:

     One of the consequences of having been sick enough to die once myself is that I am now much more interested in any celebrations regarding being raised from the dead than I once was.

     For some years, I prepared for Easter by attending a Good Friday service and watching the cross go out the back door, its ominous and unsettling black veil flowing in the breeze, trying to summon up the courage to imagine and to face some semblance of the sense of loss the disciples must have felt on that day, trying to come to grips with what it means if there is another word after good-bye and what it means if there is not.  Being close to being draped in black and carried out the same door myself has, shall we say, made the whole thing a bit easier for me to imagine.

     I was in the hospital around Easter, and the doctors gave me a pass to go to church on Easter morning.  My sister came to pick me up and help me get there.  Sitting in the pew that morning, barely two blocks from the hospital where I was told I might well have been dead instead of alive on this Easter morning, it came to me that the resurrection is a theological concept that may well be ignored unless one’s death cannot be.

     It follows that forgiveness is not much of a concept without something for which to forgive and be forgiven.  Healing has no meaning in the absence of illness.  Peace is no treasure at all to those who have known no war and no strife.  Saying hello has no joy in it without the saying of good-bye. 

     I am coming to believe that the thing God said just before “Let there be light” was “Good-bye, dark.”  And that Noah could not say hello to the rainbow without first having said good-bye to the world as it disappeared beneath the waters of the flood.  And that something deep and mysterious about saying good-bye from the bottom of the pit made the hello that Joseph spoke to his father all those years later all the more wondrous.  “Good-bye, Egypt” turned out to be another way for the Israelites to say “Hello, Canaan.”

     “Good-bye, Jesus of Nazareth,” whispers Mary through her tears at the foot of the cross on Friday afternoon.  “Hello, Lord of the Universe,” she murmurs to the one she mistakes for a gardener, on Sunday morning. (Between the Dreaming and the Coming True by Robert Benson)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        

Closing Prayer: Living God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection have delivered us from the power of our enemy: grant us so to die daily unto sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (A Collect for Easter, Oremus)

risen, thursday

Thursday, April 24

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Luke 24:13-34

Reading for Reflection:

It is not enough to say that God is on the cross, sharing our pain—unique and redemptive though that sharing is.  God is also the God of resurrection.  In fact, the Resurrection not only followed the crucifixion but was inherent in it all along.  This inherency is what Jesus explains to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-27).  The wounds of Christ are not swallowed up and forgotten; they become radiant centers of deep love and healing.  Within the Christian experience, the cross and the Resurrection cannot be divided. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                         
Closing Prayer: In the Paschal Mystery, Almighty God, You established the new covenant of reconciliation.  Grant, we pray, that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in our lives what we profess by our faith.  Amen. (Daily Prayer by Robert Benson)

risen, wednesday

Wednesday, April 23

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Matthew 28:1-20

Reading for Reflection:

     But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well.  And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the Cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God.  In the end, his will, not ours, is done.  Love is the victor.  Death is not the end.  The end is life.  His life and our lives through him, in him.  Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared dream.  Christ our Lord has risen. (The Magnificent Defeat by Frederick Buechner)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        

Closing Prayer: Go forth now as God’s servant.  Remember God’s presence often and draw strength from the knowledge that the One who calls and sends also sustains.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer by Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck)

risen, tuesday

Tuesday, April 22

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Luke 24:1-12

Reading for Reflection:

There was one resurrection; there are four narratives of it.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell the story, each in his own way.  Each narrative is distinct and has its own character.  When the four accounts are absorbed into the imagination, they develop rich melodies, harmonies, counterpoint.  The four voices become a resurrection quartet.

     Yet many people never hear the music.  The reason, I think, is that the apologetic style for years has been to “harmonize” the four resurrection stories.  But it never turns out to be harmonization.  Instead of listening to their distinctive bass, tenor, alto, and soprano voices, we have tried to make the evangelists sing the same tune.  Differences and variations in the resurrection narratives are denied, affirmed, doubted, and “interpreted.”

     There is a better way.  Since we have four accounts that supplement one another, we can be encouraged to celebrate each one as it is, and to magnify the features that make it distinct from the others.  Instead of melting them down into an ingot of doctrine, we can burnish the features that individualize them.

     When we do that, our imagination expands, and the resurrection acquires the sharp features and hard surfaces of real life.  Through the artistry of the four evangelists, the particularity and detail of local history, the kind we ourselves live in, becomes vivid. (Subversive Spirituality by Eugene Peterson)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        

Closing Prayer: Lord of all life and power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him: grant that we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, may reign with him in glory; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be praise and honour, glory and might, now and in all eternity. Amen. (A Collect for Easter, Oremus)

risen, monday

Monday, April 21

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 20:19-31

Reading for Reflection:

Why did Jesus still have wounds on His risen body?  The traditional answer is that the wounds proved it was really he and not an imposter.  Carrying and revealing the wounds were acts of swift, discerning mercy for his friends who were in a condition of mixed confusion and suspicion.  But I believe the wounds had a deeper meaning with radically transforming implications that affect us through the ages.  I believe the wounds were the sure sign that the eternal God through Jesus has never and will never ignore, negate, minimize, or transcend the significance of human woundedness.  The risen Jesus is not so swallowed up in glory that he is beyond our reach, beyond our cries.  He is among us, carrying wounds, even in a body of light.  His every word and act shining forth the meaning and heart of God means that God’s heart carries our wounds.  God suffers with us. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                         

Closing Prayer: Father, heal my wounds and make them a source of life for others, as you did with your Son Jesus.  In whose name we pray. Amen.

easter sunday

Easter Sunday, April 20

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

Opening Prayer: Power of Love, shining through the risen Jesus, radiantly shine in the dark places of my pain.  Let their power to infect me be broken and drawn into your heart. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 20:1-18

Reading for Reflection:

                                               easter  by Jim Branch

the silence was deafening

that early morning as she stood,

gripped by a love that would not release her

everyone else was gone

back to their homes and their families

     “how could they forget so quickly?” she thought

           as she stood in the first light of dawn,

     tears streaming down her cheeks

     “did they not feel it too…the love?”

     “if they did, how could they leave?”

her heart would not allow her to go

so she stayed—as near to him as she knew how

was she waiting?

was she hoping?

or was she simply doing the only thing she could—

to be near the place he was last near

she would rather be near him than anyone or anything

so she stayed…and cried

longing to hear her name from his lips once more

and then suddenly the voice…it startled her

looking through the tears she could not see who it was

     “have you seen him?” she asked

     “do you know where he is?”

it wasn’t until he uttered her name

that she recognized his voice

and at its sweet sound

everything in her was raised to life again

it was easter you see…and he had risen

and because of that

so had she

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                       

Closing Prayer: O God, who by your One and only Son has overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life; grant, we pray, that those who have been redeemed by his passion may rejoice in his resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.

                                                            ~Gelasian Sacramentary

holy week, saturday

Holy Saturday, April 19

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

Opening Prayer: By your cross, O Lord, you show the extravagance of your love for us.  Love than knows no limits, no boundaries.  Love that pours down upon us from every wound of your beloved Son.  More love than we could ever ask for or imagine.  When we are tempted to doubt the depths of your heart for us, let our eyes immediately look to Jesus crucified—and may all doubt be taken away.  In His name.  Amen.

Scripture Reading for the Day: Matthew 27:57-66

Reading for Reflection:

The cross, the primary symbol of our faith, invites us to see grace where there is pain; to see resurrection where there is death.  The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads to new life. (Turn My Mourning into Dancing by Henri Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                         
Closing Prayer: Grant, Lord, that we who are baptized into the death of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ may continually put to death our evil desires and be buried with him; and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass to our joyful resurrection; through his merits, who died and was buried and rose again for us, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (A Collect for Easter Eve, Oremus)

good friday

Good Friday, April 18

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

Opening Prayer: By your cross, O Lord, you show the extravagance of your love for us.  Love than knows no limits, no boundaries.  Love that pours down upon us from every wound of your beloved Son.  More love than we could ever ask for or imagine.  When we are tempted to doubt the depths of your heart for us, let our eyes immediately look to Jesus crucified—and may all doubt be taken away.  In His name.  Amen.

Scripture Reading for the Day: Matthew 26:47-27:54

Reading for Reflection:

     You might like to read one of the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, allowing the text to stimulate your imagination.  Or you may find the following prompts helpful:

     * Build up in your mind’s eye the scene of the crucifixion.  There is a small hill outside the walls of Jerusalem.  There are three crosses.  Focus on the middle one, and see Christ stretched out on it.  He is there for you.

* Now fill in the fine detail.  He is crowned with thorns, which are tearing his skin.  Blood is dripping down.  See his face, contorted with pain.  Let your eyes move to his hands, nailed to the cross.  The ugly wounds of the nails are slowly dripping with blood.  It is a terrible sight, and you find it difficult to take in.

* Hear the crowds shouting out “Come down from the cross!  Save yourself!”  Yet he stays there and saved us instead.  There is no limit to his love for us.  He gave everything so that we might live.

Once you have built up this mental picture, ask why this is taking place.  He is doing this for us.  He didn’t have to; he chose to.  We matter so much to him.  Anyone who suffers from low self-esteem needs to take this insight to heart.  You matter to the greatest one of all!  For Martin Luther, meditating on the wounds of Christ was a superb antidote for any doubt we might have concerning the love of God for us.  He was wounded for us.  Each of those wounds is a token of the loving care of a compassionate God.  Can you see how this changes the way we think about ourselves?  We are of such importance to him that he chose to undertake that suffering, pain, and agony.

     Form a mental picture of those wounds.  Cherish them.  It is by them that we are healed.  Each of them affirms the amazing love of God for us.  Each nail hammered into the body of the savior of the world shouts out these words—“He loves us!”  How can we doubt someone who gave everything for us? (The Journey by Alister McGrath)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                      

Closing Prayer: Almighty Father, look with mercy on this your family for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross; who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (A Collect for Good Friday, Oremus)

maundy thursday

Maundy Thursday, April 17

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

Opening Prayer: By your cross, O Lord, you show the extravagance of your love for us.  Love than knows no limits, no boundaries.  Love that pours down upon us from every wound of your beloved Son.  More love than we could ever ask for or imagine.  When we are tempted to doubt the depths of your heart for us, let our eyes immediately look to Jesus crucified—and may all doubt be taken away.  In His name.  Amen.

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 13:1-38

Reading for Reflection:

Try to imagine the scene.  You are sitting at the table with Jesus and his friends on the night before he died.  A confusing sorrow overshadows you.  Yet a mysterious hope has settled in your heart.  Suddenly Jesus is standing in front of you.  He looks into your eyes and immediately you are filled with an awareness of your tremendous worth.

                                       

                                          Supper was special that night

                                          There was both a heaviness and a holiness

                                                hanging in the air

                                          We couldn’t explain the mood

                                          It was sacred, yet sorrowful.

                                          Gathered around the table

                                                eating that solemn, holy meal

                                                seemed to us the most important meal

                                                we had ever sat down to eat.

 

                                          We were dwelling in the heart of mystery

                                          Though dark the night

                                          Hope felt right

                                                as if something evil

                                                was about to be conquered.

                                          And then suddenly

                                          the One we loved startled us all

                                          He got up from the table

                                          and put on an apron.

                                          Can you imagine how we felt?

                                          God in an apron!

                                          Tenderness encircled us

                                                as He bowed before us.

                                          He knelt and said,

                                                “I choose to wash your feet

                                                 because I love you.”

                                          God in an apron, kneeling

                                          I couldn’t believe my eyes.

                                          I was embarrassed

                                                until his eyes met mine

                                          I sensed my value then.

                                          He touched my feet

                                          He held them in his strong hands

                                          He washed them

                                          I can still feel the water

                                          I can still feel the touch of his hands.

                                          I can still see the look in his eyes.

                                          Then he handed me a towel

                                                and said,

                                          “As I have done

                                           so you must do.”

                                          Learn to bow

                                          Learn to kneel.

                                          Let your tenderness encircle

                                          everyone you meet

                                          Wash their feet

                                                not because you have to,

                                                because you want to.

                                          It seems I’ve stood two thousand years

                                                holding the towel in my hands,

                                          “As I have done so you must do

                                                keeps echoing in my heart.

                                          “There are so many feet to wash,”

                                                I keep saying

                                          “No,” I hear God’s voice

                                                resounding through the years

                                          “There are only my feet

                                          What you do for them

                                                You do for me.”

                                          (Seasons of the Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        
Closing Prayer: God our Father, you have invited us to share in the supper which your Son gave to his Church to proclaim his death until he comes: may he nourish us by his presence, and unite us in his love; who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.  Amen.  (A Collect for Passion Week, Oremus)