made in his image, sunday

Sunday, September 7

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

Opening Prayer: Loving Creator, I have no quarrel with the way you have so carefully designed me in your image.  Truly I am your work of art.  Take me deeper today.  Show me my virtues—the wonders of your design for my life.  Help me not to be afraid to look into the depths of myself and believe in what I see—for I am the work of your hands.  If I can believe in what I see, then I can rejoice in what I see.  Precious in your sight, I am your work of art. Continue to create me in your image.  Amen. (Behold Your Life by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Genesis 1:26-31

Reading for Reflection:

 

In the mysteries of eternity past, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelled in unsurpassed union and intimacy.  The Holy Three have always existed as a divine dance of romance, a whirlwind of affection and pleasure and love unending.  It was from this pulsating intimacy that God created humanity and the natural order.  Though we will always remain the creation, He formed humanity to enter into relationship with the Trinity, the Godhead.  In His great mysterious heart was a desire to bring human beings into the holy river of affections known between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to share in this Divine communion with them.  The Father desired a family, and the Son desired a bride.  From this overflow of burning desire, humanity was brought forth. (Deep Unto Deep by Dana Candler)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                      

Closing Prayer: Blessed are you, God of all creation.  Let us who are made in your image and are sustained by your hand reflect you in all that we do, that in all things you may be glorified, forever and ever.  Amen.  (Work of God)

soil of the soul, saturday

Saturday, September 6

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

Opening Prayer: Father, allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart.  Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus.  Amen.

                        

Scripture Reading for the Day: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Reading for Reflection:

 

     When you meditate or abide in your quiet times of communion, you do not charge in and do something, like saying, “I will now be good and move mountains by my act of faith.”  No, you water your garden, knowing that these ideas are growing into a heavenly garden; the indwelling spirit doeth the work, not you: you merely water it.  Do you not see the comfort there is in that?  I can tell you in primer language that a very gentle, calm, unemotional, selfless, and patient attitude toward your spiritual growth is essential—such as all old gardeners know.  They know that patience, hoeing, watering, and certain order, a quiet rhythm, bring a heavenly beauty. (Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood edited by Mary Strong)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                      
Closing Prayer: Lord God, give me the wisdom, the strength, and the faithfulness to continually water this soul you have planted within me.  It belongs to you and I am to be the best keeper and steward of it that I can possibly be.  You have promised to bring the growth, if I will be faithful to tend it well.  Help me to do just that.  Amen.

soil of the soul, friday

Friday, September 5

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

Opening Prayer: Father, allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart.  Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus.  Amen.

           

Scripture Reading for the Day: Isaiah 5:1-7

Reading for Reflection:

 

     Spiritual disciplines are like garden tools.  The best spade and hoe in the world cannot guarantee a good crop.  They can only make it more likely the growth will be unobstructed.  The mystery of maturation lies in the heart of the seed, the outcome of planting depends largely on the vagaries of weather.  Still, tools are important in helping to ensure that planted seeds will bear fruit.  Tools can remove stones and roots, aerate the soil, weed and water the garden.

     Disciplines like prayer, scriptural reflection, and hospitality have the character of garden tools.  They keep the soil of our love clear of obstruction.  They keep us open to the mysterious work of grace in our heart and our world.  They enable us not only to receive but to respond to God’s love, which in turn yields the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. (Soul Feast by Marjorie J. Thompson)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                   

Closing Prayer: O Lord, our God, thank you that we are the garden of your delight and that you long for us to be a plush and fruitful place.  May we always be a vineyard that would bring you great joy and never one that is dry and barren and fruitless.  Help us to tend our soil, and thus our souls, well.  For your glory.  Amen.

soil of the soul, thursday

Thursday, September 4

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

Opening Prayer: Father, allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart.  Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus.  Amen.

        

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 12:20-28

Reading for Reflection:

            I find you there in all these things

            I care for like a brother.

            A seed, you nestle in the smallest of them,

            and in the huge ones spread yourself hugely.

 

            Such is the amazing play of powers:

            they give themselves so willingly,

            swelling in the roots, thinning as the trunks rise,

            and in the high leaves, resurrection.

            (Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

          

Closing Prayer: O God of life, in times and in seasons where I tend to be focused only on what is dead and dying, either within me or around me, help me to always know that, in your economy, death always leads to life.  Give me faith to believe that the season of unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies is always followed by the season of if it dies it produces many seeds.  Thank you for that truth.  Amen.

soil of the soul, wednesday

Wednesday, September 3

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

Opening Prayer: Father, allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart.  Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus.  Amen.

        

Scripture Reading for the Day: Matthew 13:24-30

Reading for Reflection:

 

     Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.  For just as the winds carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men.  Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of liberty and desire.

     The mind that is the prisoner of its own pleasure and the will that is the captive of its own desire cannot accept the seeds of a higher pleasure and a supernatural desire.

     For how can I receive the seeds of freedom if I am in love with slavery and how can I cherish the desire of God if I am filled with another and opposite desire?  God will not plant His liberty in me because I am a prisoner and I do not even desire to be free.  I love my captivity and I lock myself in the desire for things that I hate, and I have hardened my heart against true love. (Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

          

Closing Prayer: To Thee, O Lord, we cry and pray: bless this sprouting seed, strengthen it in the gentle movement of soft winds, refresh it with the dew of heaven, and let it grow to full maturity for the good of body and soul.  Amen. (Blessing of the Sprouting Seed)

soil of the soul, tuesday

Tuesday, September 2

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

Opening Prayer: Father, allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart.  Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus.  Amen.

          

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 4:30-32

Reading for Reflection:

 

When it comes to the practice of heart prayer, give up all concerns about success and failure.  What you are doing in these times is planting prayer within yourself so that it will be there through the rest of the day.  It is indeed very much like planting a seed in the ground.  You just put it there and let it take its natural course.  Don’t keep digging it up to see how it is growing.  Don’t try to manipulate or control it; just notice it, appreciate it.  Entrust its care to God. (The Awakened Heart by Gerald G. May)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

          
Closing Prayer: O God, who brings mighty works out of tiny beginnings, work your work in me this day.  Grow that little seed of faith within me into a mighty tree of trust; one that you can somehow use for your kingdom and your glory.  Amen.

soil of the soul, monday

Monday, September 1

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

Opening Prayer: Father, allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart.  Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus.  Amen.

                                                      

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 4:26-29

Reading for Reflection:

 

     Living things need an appropriate climate in order to grow and bear fruit.  If they are to develop to completion, they require an environment that allows their potential to be realized.  The seed will not grow unless there is soil that can feed it, light to draw it forth, warmth to nurture and moisture that unlocks its vitality.  Time is also required for its growth to unfold.

     Meditation is the attempt to provide the soul with the proper environment in which to grow and become.  In the lives of people like St. Francis or St. Catherine of Genoa one gets a glimpse of what the soul is able to become.  Often this is seen as the result of heroic action lying beyond the possibility of ordinary people.  The flowering of the human soul, however, is more a matter of the proper spiritual environment than of particular gifts or disposition or heroism.  How seldom we wonder at the growth of the great redwood from a tiny seed dropped at random on the littered floor of the forest.  From one seed is grown enough wood to frame several hundred houses.  The human soul has seed potential like this if it has the right environment.  Remember that only in a few mountain valleys were the conditions right for the Sequoia gigantean, the mighty redwood, to grow.

     For both the seed and the soul, these things all take time.  In both cases there is need for patience.  Most of us know enough not to poke at the seed to see if it is sprouting, or to try to hurry it along with too much water or fertilizer or cultivation.  The same respect must be shown for the soul as its growth starts to take place.  Growth can seldom be forced in nature.  Whether it is producing a tree or a human personality, nature unfolds its growth slowly, silently. (The Other Side of Silence by Morton T. Kelsey)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

         

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you are always at work in the soil of my soul whether I can see it or not.  Give me wisdom and discernment to know how to give your seed the most fertile soil possible for it to grow.  And then let me trust you to do the rest.  Grow your life in me.  Through Jesus.  Amen.