given, saturday

Saturday, July 12

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

Opening Prayer: Our Father, here I am, at your disposal, your child, to use me to continue your loving the world, by giving Jesus to me and through me, to each other and the world.  Let us pray for each other as we allow Jesus to love in us and through us with the love with which His Father loves him. (Seeking the Heart of God by Mother Teresa)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Luke 14:1-14

Reading for Reflection: To suffer with another person does not mean to drown oneself in the other’s suffering; that would be as foolish as jumping into a pool to save a sinking swimmer only to drown oneself.  More to the point, I doubt that it is even possible to enter fully into another person’s pain, for suffering is a profoundly solitary experience.  To suffer with another person means to be there in whatever way possible, to share the circumstances of the other’s life as much as one can—not to add to the world’s pool of suffering, but to gain intimate understanding of what the other requires.

     What we usually learn, once we are there, is that there is no “fix” for the person who suffers, only the slow painful process of walking through the suffering to whatever lies on the other side.  Once there, we learn that being there is the best we can do, being there not as a cure but as a companion to the person who suffers on his or her slow journey.  There is no arm’s-length “solution” for suffering, and people who offer such only add to the pain.  But there is comfort and even healing in the presence of people who know how to be with others, how to be fully there. (The Active Life by Parker Palmer)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

            

Closing Prayer: Disturb us, Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

     Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

     Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wilder seas where storms will show Your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.  We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push back the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.  This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.

                                                                           ~Sir Francis Drake