solitude, wednesday

Wednesday, May 6

Opening Prayer: I pause, Father, to commune with you.  Help me to be still and know that you are God.  Ease awhile any tense muscles or strained nerves or wrought-up emotions.  Let me be relaxed in body and calm in spirit so that I may be more responsive to your presence.  I pause, Father, to commune with you.  Amen. (Daily Prayer Companion by Roy E. Dickerson)

Scripture: Galatians 1:11-24

Journal: Why do you think Paul went to Arabia?  What do you think happened to him/in him there?  What is the intent of Arabia?  What might God want to do in you in Arabia?  What might he want to be preparing you for?

Reflection:

 

     There are two movements which must be plainly present in every complete spiritual life.  The energy of its prayer must be directed on the one hand towards God; and on the other towards people.  The first movement embraces the whole range of spiritual communion between the soul and God; in it we turn toward the Divine Reality in adoration, bathing, so to speak, our souls in Eternal Light.  In the second we return, with the added peace and energy thus gained, to the natural world; there to do spiritual work for and with God for others.  Thus prayer, like the whole of the inner life, “swings between the unseen and the seen.”  Now both these movements are of course necessary in all Christians; but the point is that the second will only be well done where the first has the central place.  The deepening of the soul’s unseen attachments must precede, in order that it may safeguard, the outward swing towards the world. (Concerning the Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill)

Prayers

Closing 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