recognizing, thursday

Thursday, August 7

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

Opening Prayer: Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!  You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.  In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.  You were with me, but I was not with you.  Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all.  You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.  You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.  You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.  I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.  You touched me, and I burned for your peace. (The Confessions of St. Augustine)

Scripture Reading for the Day: 1 Samuel 3:1-11

Reading for Reflection:

     I believe that we know much more about God than we admit that we know, than perhaps we altogether know that we know.  God speaks to us, I would say, much more often than we realize or than we choose to realize.  Before the sun sets every evening, he speaks to each one of us in an intensely personal and unmistakable way.  His message is not written out in starlight, which in the long run would make no difference; rather it is written out for each of us in the humdrum, helter-skelter events of each day; it is a message that in the long run might just make all the difference.

     Who knows what he will say to me today or to you today or into the midst of what kind of unlikely moment he will choose to say it.  Not knowing is what makes today a holy mystery. (The Magnificent Defeat by Frederick Buechner) 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Lord, teach me to listen.  The times are noisy and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them.  Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, “Speak, for thy servant heareth.”  Let me hear Thee speaking in my heart.  Let me get used to the sound of Thy voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of Thy speaking voice.  Amen.  (The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer)