a gentle interiority

Opening Prayer: Every time your name comes up in my prayers, I say, “Oh, thank you, God!” I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the Master Jesus, which brims over to other believers. And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of it. Friend, you have no idea how good your love makes me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow believers.  (Philemon v. 4-7, The Message)

Scripture: Philemon (v. 4-7)

Journal: What is the state of your inner space right now?  What effect is it having on those around you?  On your prayers?

Reflection: Today I imagined my inner self as a place crowded with pins and needles.  How could I receive anyone in my prayer when there is no real place for them to be free and relaxed?  When I am still so full of preoccupations, jealousies, angry feelings, anyone who enters will get hurt.  I had a very vivid realization that I must create some free space in my innermost self so that I may indeed invite others to enter and be healed.  To pray for others means to offer others a hospitable space where I can really listen to their needs and pains.  Compassion, therefore, calls for a self-scrutiny that can lead to inner gentleness.

    If I could have a gentle “interiority”—a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone, a room with some spots on which one might walk barefooted—then God and my fellow humans could meet each other there.  Then the center of my heart can become the place where God can hear the prayer for my neighbors and embrace them with his love. (The Genesee Diary by Henri J. M. Nouwen) 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. (Philemon v. 4-7, ESV)