getting ready

Opening Prayer: O Lord, my God, as I come to you in this hour I realize that I am not ready to pray.  My heart and my mind are still so full of noise and distractions.  Settle me, O God.  Calm my mind and still my soul.  Plant me by the stream and let me become still and quiet and aware of your love and your presence.  Then I will be ready to be with you.  Then I will have fully arrived to this time and place.  Then my soul will finally be at home and at rest.  Help me to be still and know that you are God.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 1

Journal: How does Psalm 1 prepare you to pray?  How does it help you to pray?  What words or images are most helpful for you?  Why?

Reflection: The text that teaches us to pray (the Psalms) doesn’t begin with prayer.  We are not ready.  We are wrapped up in ourselves.  We are knocked around by the world.  The ways in which we are used to going about our business, using the language, dealing with our neighbors, and thinking about God don’t exactly disqualify us from prayer, but neither do they help much.

     The nonpraying world is a pushing, shoving, demanding world. Voices within and without harass, insisting that we look at this picture, read this headline, listen to this appeal, feel this guilt, touch this charm.  It is asking too much that we move from this high-stimulus world into the quiet concentrations of prayer without an adequate transition.  

     The nonpraying world is also an intimidating world.  We wake each day to a world noisy with braggadocio, violent with guns, arrogant with money.  What use is prayer in the face of governments, armies, and millionaires?  What motivation can we muster to pray when all the obvious power is already allocated to heads of state and barons of industry?

     In prayer we intend to leave the world of anxieties and enter a world of wonder.  We decide to leave an ego-centered world and enter a God-centered world.  We will to leave a world of problems and enter a world of mystery.  But it is not easy.  We are used to anxieties, egos, and problems: we are not used to wonder, God, and mystery. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side.  Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.  Leave to thy God to order and provide.  In every age he faithful will remain.  Be still my soul thy best, thy heavenly friend.  Through thorny ways lead to a joyful end.