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.