solitude, thursday

Thursday, May 7

Opening Prayer: Loving Father, I surrender to you today with all my heart and soul. Please come into my heart in a deeper way. I say, “Yes” to you today. I open all the secret places of my heart to you and say, “Come on in.”  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 22:39-46

Journal: Solitude is not the easiest place to step into.  In fact, at times what we encounter there is terribly difficult.  Maybe that is why we shy away from solitude so often.  Is there a difficult place that Jesus is wanting you to come face to face with in solitude?  What is it?

Reflection:

 

In solitude we can listen to the voice of him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone.  It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the result of our efforts.  In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared. (Out of Solitude by Henri J. Nouwen)

Prayers

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)