meditate

Opening Prayer: Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

Scripture: Psalm 1:1-6

Journal: What are you meditating on day and night these days?  What fruit is it producing in your heart and soul?  What would it look like to meditate on God’s word today?

Reflection: Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake. . . .  Meditative prayer is a stern discipline, and one which cannot be learned by violence.  It requires unending courage and perseverance, and those who are not willing to work at it patiently will finally end in compromise.  Here, as elsewhere, compromise is only another name for failure.

    To meditate is to think.  And yet successful meditation is much more than reasoning or thinking.  It is much more than “affections,” much more than a series of prepaid “acts” which one goes through.

    In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with his mind and lips, but in a certain sense with his whole being.  Prayer is then not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart—it is the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration.  All good meditative prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God.  (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:103-105)