prayer, day 7

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

Opening Prayer:
Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me.
                                                                  ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 84

Scripture for the Day: I Thessalonians 5:16-24

Reading for Reflection:

When you enter into the spiritual life through the gateway of prayer, you would do well to see yourself as one who has set out to create a garden.  This garden is a place wherein our Lord wants to come and walk and take pleasure.  But just now, the soil is barren—except for the places that produce clots of weeds.  His Majesty wants to uproot the weeds and plant in his garden many fruitful and fragrant blossoming plants.  You may take it for granted that the Lord is already afoot, walking in His garden, if you have any desire to seek Him in prayer, for He always calls to us first and it is His voice we hear when we think it is our desire to pray.

      If we want to be good gardeners of this new-sown soul, we must, with God's help, see to it that the good plantings are tended and grow—and I am speaking now of godly virtues.  At very least, we must see that these good things are not neglected and die. Rather, we tend our souls carefully so that the first blossoms appear.

      These are the spiritual “fragrances” that begin to rise from our lives—the fragrances of faith, goodness, self-control, love, and the like.  By them, many, many others are refreshed in spirit and attracted to the Lord (2 Cor. 2:14-16).

     Then the Lord, Himself comes to walk in the midst of our garden.  And it is all our joy to sense that He is there, taking pleasure in the lovely virtues.

                                                                             ~Teresa of Avila

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
The King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Closing Prayer:
You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Confessions by St. Augustine)