silence, monday

Monday, June 2

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

Opening Prayer:

 

Uncrowd my heart, O God,

until silence speaks

in your still small voice;

turn me from the hearing of words,

and the making of words,

and the confusion of much speaking,

to listening,

waiting,

stillness,

silence.

                        ~Thomas Merton

Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 1:29-39

Reading for Reflection:

 

Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger.  Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, without distance closeness cannot cure.  Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our actions quickly become empty gestures.  The careful balance between silence and words, withdrawal and involvement, distance and closeness, solitude and community forms the basis of the Christian life and should therefore be the subjects of our most personal attention.  Let us therefore look somewhat closer, first at our life in action, and at our life in solitude. (Out of Solitude by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

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

                                         

Closing Prayer:

In the quietness of life,

When the flowers have shut their eye,

And a stainless breadth of sky

Bends above the hill of strife,

Then, my God, my chiefest Good,

Breathe upon my lonelihood:

Let the shining silence be

Filled with Thee, my God, with Thee.

(Petition and Communion, by Percy C. Ainsworth, Weavings,

Volume XXII, Number 4, July/August 2007)