ordinary, monday

Monday, July 28

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

Opening Prayer: Our Father, help us to see you today in all that we come into contact with, knowing that you use ordinary things to give us an extraordinary sense of your presence in our lives.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen. 

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 2:1-11

Reading for Reflection:

 

     The implications of the name Immanuel are both comforting and unsettling.  Comforting, because He has come to share the danger as well as the drudgery of our everyday lives.  He desires to weep with us and to wipe away our tears.  And what seems most bizarre, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, longs to share in and to be the source of the laughter and the joy we all too rarely know.

     The implications are unsettling.  It is one thing to claim that God looks down upon us, from a safe distance, and speaks to us (via long distance, we hope).  But to say that He is right here, is to put ourselves and Him in a totally new situation.  He is no longer the calm and benevolent observer in the sky, the kindly old caricature with the beard.  His image becomes that of Jesus, who wept and laughed, who fasted and feasted, and who, above all, was fully present to those He loved.  He was there with them.  He is here with us…

     He is with us in the midst of our daily, routine lives…in the middle of cleaning the house or driving somewhere in the pickup.  Often it’s in the middle of the most mundane task that He lets us know He is there with us.  We realize, then, that there can be no “ordinary” moments for people who live their lives with Jesus. (The Name of the Promise is Jesus by Michael Card)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

            

Closing Prayer: Holy God, faithful and unchanging: enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. (A Collect for Ordinary Time, The Church of England)