hunger and thirst, day 5

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

Opening Prayer:
You called, You cried, you shattered my deafness.  You sparkled, you blazed, You drove away my blindness.  You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for You.  I tasted and now I hunger and thirst.  You touched me, and now I burn with longing for your peace. (Confessions by St. Augustine)

 Psalm for the Week: Psalm 81

Scripture for the Day: Jeremiah 2:11-13

Reading for Reflection:

We have to acknowledge that our hunger for God comes from Him and will not be completely satisfied on earth.  The deepest pleasures of life don't satisfy—they point us forward. (Finding God by Dr. Larry Crabb)

 

     Each of us, for instance, carries around inside himself, I believe, a certain emptiness—a sense that something is missing, a restlessness, the deep feeling that somehow all is not right inside his skin. (The Magnificent Defeat by Frederick Buechner)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: All Who are Thirsty

 

All who are thirsty
All who are weak

Come to the fountain

Dip your heart in the stream of life

Let the pain and the sorrow

Be washed away

In the waves of his mercy

As deep cries out to deep (we sing)

 

Come Lord Jesus come (3x)

 

Holy Spirit come (3x)

Closing Prayer:
O God of tender mercies, I know I’ve kept you at arm’s length.  I’ve kept you safe in heaven.  But heaven has leaned down to the earth and I’ve been touched anew.  Like thirsty ground I long for you.  Forgive my casualness about your Love.  Forgive my shallow life.  I am finished with shallowness.  I used to pray that I be saved from eternal death, but now I pray to be saved from shallow living.  Eternal death?  Shallow living?  Is there a difference?  O God, deliver me from shallow living! (A Tree Full of Angels  by Macrina Wiederkehr)