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