Opening Prayer: O
Christ Jesus; when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your
protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry
us, for, living close to You, we shall see your hand, Your purpose, Your will
through all things. Amen. ~St. Ignatius
of Loyola
Scripture: Matthew
26:36-46
Journal: What
would it have been like to be with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? How would you have felt if you were one of
the disciples? What would you want to
say to him? What do you want to say to
him now? What is your response to the
willingness of Jesus?
Reflection:
Jesus
in His prayers on earth, in His intercession in heaven, in His promise of an
answer to our prayers from there, makes this His first objective—the glory of
His Father. Is it so with us too? Or are not, in large measure, self-interest and
self-will the strongest motives urging us to pray? Or, if we cannot see that this is the case,
have we got to acknowledge that the distinct, conscious longing for the glory
of the Father is not what animates our prayers?
Not as if the believer does not at times
desire it. But he has to mourn that he
has so little attained it. And he knows
the reason for his failure too. It was,
because the separation between the spirit of daily life and the spirit of the
hour of prayer was too wide. We begin to
see that the desire for the glory of the Father is not something that we can
awake and present to our Lord when we prepare ourselves to pray. No! It
is only when the whole life, in all its parts, is given up to God’s glory, that
we can really pray to His glory too. (With
Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray)
Prayers
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