broken, monday

Monday, March 31

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

Opening Prayer: O persistent God, deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle.  Pressure me that I may grow more human, not through the lessening of my struggles, but through the expansion of them…Deepen my hurt until I learn to share it and myself openly, and my needs honestly.  Sharpen my fears until I name them and release the power I have locked in them and they in me.  Accentuate my confusion until I shed those grandiose expectations that divert me from the small, glad gifts of the now and the here and the me.  Expose my shame where it shivers, crouched behind the curtains of propriety, until I can laugh at last through my common frailties and failures, laugh my way toward becoming whole. (Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)

Daily Scripture Reading: Genesis 32:22-32

Reading for Reflection:

“Heel grabber” is what Jacob’s name means, a name you would expect of a wrestler.  Jacob’s entire life up till now was spent calculating his next move and maneuvering to a position of advantage so he could pry from God’s hands so many of the blessings that God in time had wanted to give him anyway.

     Now it was God’s turn to grab Jacob’s heel, to wrestle with this fundamental flaw in his nature, and touch him in a way so he would never forget the encounter.  Through the ordeal, Jacob learned that God’s blessing comes not from grabbing but from clinging.

     There is something of Jacob in all of us, I think.  If so, there must be a night of reckoning for us as well.  A night when God finds us alone, grabs us, throws us to the ground, and wrestles with that fundamental flaw in our character.  In that dark night of the soul, though He cripples us in the dawn He blesses us. 

     For some of us, the crippling is the blessing. (Reflections on the Word by Ken Gire)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                      
Closing Prayer: My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.  (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

broken, sunday

Sunday, March 30 (Fourth Sunday of Lent)

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

Opening Prayer: O persistent God, deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle.  Pressure me that I may grow more human, not through the lessening of my struggles, but through the expansion of them…Deepen my hurt until I learn to share it and myself openly, and my needs honestly.  Sharpen my fears until I name them and release the power I have locked in them and they in me.  Accentuate my confusion until I shed those grandiose expectations that divert me from the small, glad gifts of the now and the here and the me.  Expose my shame where it shivers, crouched behind the curtains of propriety, until I can laugh at last through my common frailties and failures, laugh my way toward becoming whole. (Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)

Daily Scripture Reading: Isaiah 53:1-12

Reading for Reflection:

     Jesus was broken at the cross.  He lived his suffering and death not as an evil to avoid at all costs but as a mission to embrace.  We too are broken.  We live with broken bodies, broken hearts, broken minds, or broken spirits.  We suffer from broken relationships.

     How can we live our brokenness?  Jesus invites us to embrace our brokenness as he embraced the cross and live it as part of our mission.  He asks us not to reject our brokenness as a curse from God that reminds us of our sinfulness but to accept it and put it under God’s blessing for our purification and sanctification.  Thus, our brokenness can become a gateway to new life. (Bread for the Journey by Henri Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Now, O Lord, calm me into a quietness that heals and listens, and molds my longings and passions, my wounds and wonderings into a more holy and human shape. (Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)

undone, saturday

Saturday, March 29

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Lamentations 3:1-29

Reading for Reflection:

     Indeed, when we understand the true nature of His love for us, we will prefer to come to Him poor and helpless.  We will never be ashamed of our distress.  Distress is to our advantage when we have nothing to seek but mercy.  We can be glad of our helplessness when we really believe that His power is made perfect in our infirmity. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                        
Closing Prayer: Here in the presence of Almighty God, I kneel in silence, and with a penitent and obedient heart, confess my sins, so that I may obtain forgiveness by your infinite goodness and mercy.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

undone, friday

Friday, March 28

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Revelation 1:9-18

Reading for Reflection:

The surest sign that we have received a spiritual understanding of God's love for us is the appreciation of our own poverty in light of His infinite mercy. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: You alone, Almighty God, bring order to the unruly wills and affections of sinners; may we love what you command, and desire what you promise, we pray, so that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true love may be found.  In the name of the one who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. (Daily Prayer by Robert Benson)

undone, thursday

Thursday, March 27

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Hosea 6:1-6

Reading for Reflection:

So now the house [my identity] is in place, shiny and bright.  I have applause and esteem.  They congratulate me for my flexibility and leadership and enthusiasm and what I’ve done and am doing.  But this house of mine is somehow askew: it’s my house, not the Lord’s house.  “In vain do the builders build.”  And yet I know in my heart that each step was taken because it was right and seemed to be the Lord’s way.  Yes, it was, but he had something else in mind for it.

     Then another image rose spontaneously as I walked along.  It was the Lord as an artillery captain who came in front of my fine house dragging his cannon and proceeded deliberately and systematically to shoot the whole damn thing apart.  Story by story, wall by wall, brick by brick he gunned down the house that took me twenty-five years to build until only rubble was left, pieces of masonry on the ground, and I'm standing there with the debris of my life at my feet looking at the ruins.

     The strange thing was this big wide grin on the Lord’s face as he gunned it apart in high glee.  It’s as though he said to me: now watch the top story while I blow it apart.  There!  Now watch the second story: there it goes!  Isn’t that great?  Now watch the back wall: hooray!  Now the side walls, now finally the front and it’s all gone.  Isn’t that marvelous!  And he turned to me with joy and warmth and smiled on me with much encouragement. (A Traveler Toward the Dawn by John Eagan)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                 
Closing Prayer: O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in trust shall be our strength: by the power of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

undone, wednesday

Wednesday, March 26

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Job 42:1-6

Reading for Reflection:

     Spiritual poverty is the door to freedom, not because we remain imprisoned in the anxiety and constraint which poverty of itself implies, but because, finding nothing in ourselves that is a source of hope, we know that there is nothing in ourselves worth defending.  There is nothing special in ourselves to love.  We go out of ourselves therefore and rest in Him in Whom alone is our hope. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: O God, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices you desire are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  Have mercy on me.  Amen.

undone, tuesday

Tuesday, March 25

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: 2 Samuel 12:1-25

Reading for Reflection:

     Sin is the refusal of spiritual life, the rejection of the inner order and peace that come from our union with the divine will.  In a word, sin is the refusal of God’s will and of his love.  It is not only a refusal to “do” this or that thing willed by God, or a determination to do what he forbids.  It is more radically a refusal to be what we are, a rejection of our mysterious, contingent, spiritual reality hidden in the very mystery of God.  Sin is our refusal to be what we were created to be—sons of God, images of God.  Ultimately sin, while seeming to be an assertion of freedom, is a flight from the freedom and the responsibility of divine sonship. (Life and Holiness by Thomas Merton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Lord God, I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  By the power, and the blood, of Jesus.  Amen.

undone, monday

Monday, March 24

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Luke 5:1-11

Reading for Reflection:

The man of broken spirit is one who has been emptied of all vain-glorious confidence, and brought to acknowledge that he is nothing.  The contrite heart abjures the idea of merit, and has no dealings with God upon the principle of exchange.  Where the spirit has been broken and the heart has become contrite, through a felt sense of the [holiness] of the Lord, a man is brought to genuine fear and self-loathing, with a deep conviction that of himself he can do or deserve nothing, and must be indebted unconditionally for salvation to Divine mercy. (Heart Aflame by John Calvin)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  All because of your son, Jesus.  Amen.

undone, sunday

Sunday, March 23 (Third Sunday of Lent)

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Isaiah 6:1-8

Reading for Reflection:

                                          undone by Jim Branch

years and years of hard work

diligently putting it all together

piece by piece

thinking all is well

progress is being made

but then you

come and scramble the whole picture

leaving pieces scattered everywhere

                            

you smile lovingly

as i sit in the middle of the mess

knowing that i don’t know

knowing that i’m undone

and thinking to yourself

now that’s progress

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

dying to self, saturday

Saturday, March 22

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Romans 6:1-14

Reading for Reflection:

It is easy at times to get mixed up and start believing that I can actually rid my life of sin by trying to eliminate it at the surface rather than dealing with it at its core.  When I try to take my actions, behaviors, or patterns and simply try to stop doing them, I am fighting a losing battle.  I can cut them off at the surface, but since they are rooted much more deeply, they will grow right back.  Paul knew this well and reminds us of it right here in Romans 6.  If we really want to rid our lives of its "slavery to sin" we must do it at its core.  We must crucify the old self, rather than just trying to crucify our sinful behavior.  This crucifying of the old self involves a much deeper work.  It involves naming that self, recognizing where and how we have believed that that is who we truly are, and determining to kill the false names we live by in order to truly believe, be convinced of, and live according to, the new self (true name) that God has bestowed upon us.  This false self, whatever his or her name may be, must die; it must be nailed to the cross with Jesus.  Then, and only then, will this body of sin be done away with, and we will have the possibility of no longer being slaves to sin.  That is the dying that we are invited to during this Lenten season—dying to the old self that we might live anew in Christ.

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to truly die to self, that I may truly live in you.  Amen.

dying to self, friday

Friday, March 21

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Colossians 3:1-17

Reading for Reflection:

When you undertake some special endeavor, do not concentrate your attention and heart on it, but look upon it as something secondary; and by entire surrender to God open yourself up to God's grace like a vessel laid out ready to receive it." (The Art of Prayer)

Only when we are open and empty will we ever be truly able to receive whatever it is that God is longing to give us of himself.  When our hands, and thus our hearts, are full of agendas and plans, expectations and demands, then we are indeed too full of ourselves to ever be able to see or to notice, much less receive, the gift of God's peace and His presence.  Somewhere a surrender must take place, a giving up and a giving over of all that so often fills our hearts and our souls.  A dying, an emptying of self in order to make room for God's Spirit and God's grace to do its work in us.

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer:  Thank you, O God that we have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in you.  Thank you that when Christ, who is our life, appears, we will appear with him in glory.  All for your love’s sake.  Amen.

dying to self, thursday

Thursday, March 20

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Reading for Reflection:

Each time you break open the Word of God you are invited to die a little.  It is a dying that is full of living, a death that is life-giving.  Unlock the door of your heart.  Open the eyes of your soul.  Allow yourself to be vulnerable to the hallowed words. These words will wound you even as they heal you.  They will challenge you in the same moment they bless you.  They summon you to move into the growing places. They call you to trust an invisible Source of Life.  They draw you, like a magnet, to the Divine. 

     Don’t be afraid of your death.  When that time comes, “I will draw my breath and your soul will come to me like a needle to a magnet.”  In these revealing mystical words, God speaks directly to the heart of Mechtild of Magdenburg.  These words are also for you—whoever you may be—for the great death at the end of our lives is not the only death.  There are little deaths along the way.  Each death has the potential of drawing you into the Holy One.  Your breath is not your own; it has been borrowed from God.  Each breath draws you into greater intimacy with the Divine.

     If God has spoken to Mechtild in such beautiful, mystical language, rest assured this message is also for you.  You too have the heart and soul of a mystic.  On your pilgrim path through the hours of the day you will encounter many life-giving deaths.  Each surrender is a little dying.  Every act of love is full of life and death.  Each covenant promise requires a bittersweet yielding of the will.  Every leaning toward God is a little conversion in which you are drawn, like a magnet, to the Divine.

     You are being drawn!  Between your first breath and your last breath the poem of your life unfolds.  Every step is a dance step.  The dance of birth!  The dance of life!  The dance of death!  Surrender your need for certainty as you fall into your soul space.  You will not know whether you have found life or death as you gaze into the face of God. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Father, thank you that, as difficult as some days can be, we can always live with the assurance that somehow you are mysteriously using these struggles to mold us into your image, for your glory.  May we always fix our eyes firmly on you, rather than the ever-changing circumstances around us.  Amen.

dying to self, wednesday

Wednesday, March 19

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: John 12:20-36

Reading for Reflection:

                                               
     alive by Jim Branch

     the view
     from this side
     of the stone
     now rolled away
     takes my breath
     in awestruck wonder
     who would've believed it

     a new world received
     spacious and free
     fruitful and abundant
     rich and full
     alive

     but o how difficult the terrain
     and how long the journey
     in arriving at this place
     who could've imagined
     in the midst of the pain
     and the struggle
     and the cross
     that this new land
     could be so beautiful

     something had to die
     in order for
     something new
     to be born

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O God, that spring always follows winter, that Easter always follows Good Friday, that resurrection always follows death!!!  We thank you that death does not have the final word—life does.  We praise you, O God of life!!!

dying to self, tuesday

Tuesday, March 18

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 8:31-38

Reading for Reflection:

Christians need to understand that bearing the cross does not in the first place refer to the trials which we call crosses, but to that daily giving up of life, of dying to self, which must mark us as much as it did Jesus, which we need in times of prosperity almost more than in adversity, and without which the fullness of the blessing of the cross cannot be disclosed to us. (Like Christ by Andrew Murray)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer: Here I am, Dear Lord, desperately in need of your Holy Spirit.  Give me your Holy Spirit, according to your promise.  I don’t know how to ask rightly, so I just sit here and allow you to pray in me, asking for what you most want to bestow, which is your own Holy Spirit—with the Gifts through which the Holy Spirit takes over more and more of my life.

                                                                                    ~Fr. Thomas Keating

dying to self, monday

Monday, March 17

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Galatians 2:19-21

Reading for Reflection:

The paschal mystery, the dying and rising of Jesus, is the core of our lives as Christians.  We live our lives in between the dying and rising.  We have not fully experienced the dying.  Nor have we lived the fullness of the risen life.  We linger somewhere in between.

     You and I, like Paul, have experienced moments of rising—of being grasped by Christ.  We have known moments of crying out in the silence of our hearts, “all I want is to know Christ!”  We have desired to live our lives in such a way that Christ will be our greatest wealth.  We have prayed for the grace to die to our false selves and rise anew to life in Christ….

     This waiting between dying and rising is like being in the tomb.  It is a waiting room that is essential for spiritual growth.  In this quiet tomb-place we feel, once again, that ancient tugging at the heart.  We experience being drawn, like a magnet, to the divine. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself (insert Mission info here)

Closing Prayer:

Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults,
O Lord, and spare Your servant from strange sins.

~St. Augustine

dying to self, sunday

Sunday, March 16 (Second Sunday of Lent)

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

Opening Prayer: You, O Christ, are my wealth.  All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you.  They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence.  How difficult it has been to come to this moment!  The moment of letting go!  I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control!  Now I want only to be grasped by you.  All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you.  O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender.  Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ.  Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth.  Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

Scripture Reading for the Day: Philippians 3:7-16

Reading for Reflection:

          Nothing that has not died will be resurrected.

                   ~C. S. Lewis

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Closing Prayer:

Dear God,
     Please untie the knots that are in my mind my heart and my life.  Remove the have nots, the can nots, and the do nots I have in my mind.  Erase the will nots, may nots, the might nots that may find a home in my heart.  Release me from the would nots could nots and should nots that obstruct my life.  And most of all, remove from my mind my heart and my life, the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back especially the thought that I am not good enough.  Amen. (Author unknown)