Opening Prayer: Help us not, O Lord, spend our time and our
energy working for that which is not bread and ultimately does not
satisfy. But help us, O God, to come
to you and eat what is good, that our souls might delight in the richest of
fare. Through Jesus. Amen.
Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-5
Journal: What are spending your “labor” on these days? Is it satisfying you? What does God’s invitation to “Listen
diligently to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the
richest of fare” do within you? How
will you feast on him today?
Reflection:
We stand in the midst of nourishment and we
starve. We dwell in the land of plenty,
yet we persist in going hungry. Not only
do we dwell in the land of plenty; we have the capacity to be filled with the
utter fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19). In
the light of such possibility, what happens?
Why do we drag our hearts? Lock
up our souls? Why do we limp? Why do we straddle issues? Why do we live feebly, so dimly? Why aren’t we saints?
Each of us could come up with individual
answers to all these questions, but I want to suggest here a common cause. The reason we live life so dimly and with
such divided hearts is that we have never really learned how to be present with
quality to God, to self, to others, to experiences and events, to all created
things. We have never learned to gather
up the crumbs of whatever appears in our path at every moment. We meet all of these lovely gifts only half
there. Presence is what we are all starving
for. Real Presence! We are too busy to be present, too blind to
see the nourishment and salvation in the crumbs of life, the experiences of
each moment. Yet the secret of daily
life is this: There are no leftovers.
There is nothing—no thing, no person, no
experience, no thought, no joy or pain—that cannot be harvested and used for
nourishment on our journey to God.
What I am suggesting here is that
everything in your life is a stepping-stone to holiness if only you recognize
that you do have within you the grace to be present to each moment. Your presence is an energy that you can
choose to give or not give. Every
experience, every thought, every word, every person in your life is a part of a
larger picture of your growth. That’s
why I call them crumbs. They are not the
whole loaf, but they can be nourishing if you give them your real
presence. Let everything energize
you. Let everything bless you. Even your limping can bless you. (A
Tree Full of Angels by Macrina Wiederkehr)
Prayers
Closing Prayer: Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts, Thou Fount
of life, Thou Light of men,
from the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to Thee again. Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood; Thou savest those that on Thee call; to them that seek Thee Thou art good, to them that find Thee all in all. We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread, and long to feast upon Thee still; we drink of Thee, the Fountainhead, and thirst our souls from Thee to fill. Our restless spirits yearn for Thee, wherever our changeful lot is cast; glad when Thy gracious smile we see, Blessed when our faith can hold Thee fast. O Jesus, ever with us stay, make all our moments calm and bright; chase the dark night of sin away, shed over the world Thy holy light. ~St. Bernard of Clairvaux
from the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to Thee again. Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood; Thou savest those that on Thee call; to them that seek Thee Thou art good, to them that find Thee all in all. We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread, and long to feast upon Thee still; we drink of Thee, the Fountainhead, and thirst our souls from Thee to fill. Our restless spirits yearn for Thee, wherever our changeful lot is cast; glad when Thy gracious smile we see, Blessed when our faith can hold Thee fast. O Jesus, ever with us stay, make all our moments calm and bright; chase the dark night of sin away, shed over the world Thy holy light. ~St. Bernard of Clairvaux
No comments:
Post a Comment