pray

Opening Prayer: Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me. ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Journal: What is your experience and practice of prayer like these days?  How can it be deeper and richer?  What does God desire for you in your prayer life?  How, where, and when will you pray this week?

Reflection: I have a sneaking suspicion that prayer is much larger than most of us realize.  Just look at these verses in 1 Timothy for example.  In them Paul uses not one, but four different words to describe the practice of prayer, each with its own image, emphasis, and definition.  And that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg.  There are so many different forms of prayer described in scripture, so many different ways to connect with God and to open ourselves so that he can, in turn, connect with us.  Which makes prayer not just some dry, dutiful ritual, but a wonderfully intimate and unique adventure.  And for that I am eternally grateful.  The key is to just do it.  Henri Nouwen once said that “The only way to learn how to pray is to pray.  And the only way to pray well is to pray much.”  So in order to pray, we must simply begin.  And as we become more familiar with the ways of prayer we will become more familiar with the One to whom we pray.  Then prayer will flow much more naturally due to the intimacy of our relationship with him.

     Maybe that’s why, in The Message, Eugene Peterson translates these verses: “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.”  Let’s do that!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Look upon us, O Lord, and let all the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of thy brightness.  Fill us with holy love, and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom.  All our desire is known unto thee, therefore perfect what thou hast begun, and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer.  We seek thy face, turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory.  Then shall our longing be satisfied, and our peace shall be perfect. ~St. Augustine

zeal and fervor

Opening Prayer:

I ask you, Lord Jesus,

to develop in me, your lover

an immeasurable urge towards you,

an affection that is unbounded,

longing that is unrestrained,

fervor that throws discretion to the winds!

The more worthwhile our love for you,

            all the more pressing does it become.

Reason cannot hold it in check,

            fear does not make it tremble,

            wise judgment does not temper it.

(The Fire of Love by Richard Rolle)

Scripture: Romans 12:11

Journal: What do the words zeal and fervor do within you?  Do they describe your spiritual life?  Do they describe anything in your life?  How would you describe your spiritual life right now?  How do you increase your spiritual zeal and fervor?

Reflection: To kindle in his heart such a divine love, to unite with God in an inseparable union of love, it is necessary for a man to pray often, raising the mind to Him.  For as a flame increases when it is constantly fed, so prayer, made often, with the mind dwelling ever more deeply in God, arouses divine love in the heart.  And the heart, set on fire, will warm all the inner man, will enlighten and teach him, revealing to him all its unknown and hidden wisdom, and making him like a flaming seraph, always standing before God within his spirit, always looking at Him within his mind, and drawing from this vision the sweetness of spiritual joy. —The Inner Closet of the Heart by St. Dimitri of Rostov, from The Art of Prayer, Igumen Chariton of Valamo

Prayer

Closing Prayer:

O living flame of love

That tenderly wounds my soul

In its deepest center!  Since

Now you are not oppressive,

Now Consummate! If it be your will:

Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

O sweet cautery,

O delightful wound!

O gentle hand!  O delicate touch

That tastes of eternal life

And pays every debt!

In killing you changed death into life.

O lamps of fire!

In whose splendors

The deep caverns of feeling,

Once obscure and blind,

Now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,

Both warmth and light to their beloved.

How gently and lovingly

You wake in my heart,

Where in secret you dwell alone;

And in your sweet breathing,

Filled with good and glory,

How tenderly you swell my heart with love.

—John of the Cross

he cares

Opening Prayer: O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of your presence, your love, and your strength.  Help us to have perfect trust in your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to you, we shall see your hand, your purpose, your will through all things. ~St. Ignatius

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Journal: What words or images from today’s scripture capture your heart for some reason?  Why?  What does God want to say to you today?  What do you want to say to him?

Reflection: It is often my tendency, due to fear, to white-knuckle life rather than to live it in trust and in peace.  I start to worry that God may never show up, that I am really on my own, and I immediately try to manage, control, and manipulate life instead of simply living it—which, in turn, creates even more anxiety and insecurity.  In fact it seems that the harder I try, the more anxious I become.

     Luckily, that’s where Isaiah comes in; to remind me that God is both willing and able to care for me, and my family, and my job, and my world.  My job is not to rigidly control things or try and make things happen.  My job is merely to open my hands, to let go, and to wait on the Lord.  My job is to trust and to pray.  God will come; in his own time and in his own way.  And when he does gladness and joy will overtake us, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: In Thy will, O Lord, is my peace.  In Thy love is my rest.  In Thy service is my joy.  Thou art all my heart’s desire.  Amen. (A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie)

genuine love

Opening Prayer: Our Father, here I am, at your disposal, your child, to use me to continue your loving the world, by giving Jesus to me and through me, to each other and the world.  Let us pray for each other as we allow Jesus to love in us and through us with the love with which His Father loves him. (Seeking the Heart of God by Mother Teresa)

Scripture: Romans 12:9-10

Journal: What does it mean for you today to let love be genuine?  How will you do that?

Reflection: “Let love be genuine.”  The Greek word used here for “genuine” is anypokritos.  It means without hypocrisy or disguise; unpretentious.  Thus, we are called upon to love each other truly, from the heart.  True community is a thing of beauty.  When we choose to live openly and honestly with each other, in loving transparency and vulnerability, it does something powerful both within us and among us.  It touches and transforms.  It creates a safe space where we can come out of hiding and truly be ourselves, and thus be truly loved.  True community ignites something beautiful deep within us that can be ignited in no other way.  For the Spirit of God is present and active in genuine community in a dynamic and powerful way.  A way that gives each of us a little taste of what the kingdom of God is all about.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: God of our creation and re-creation, you who are constantly at work to shape me in the wholeness of Christ, you know the hardness of the structures of my being that resist your shaping touch.  You know the deep inner rigidities of my being that reject your changing grace.  By your grace soften my hardness and rigidity; help me to become pliable in your hands.  Even as I pray this, may there be a melting of my innate resistance to your transforming love.  Amen. (Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.)

thy will

Opening Prayer:  Thy will be done, O God, and not my own.  Amen.

Scripture: Romans 8:26-30

Journal: How would you describe God’s will and God’s work in your life?

Reflection: There are religious men who have become so familiar with the concept of God’s will that their familiarity has bred an apparent contempt.  It has made them forget that God’s will is more than a concept.  It is a terrible and transcendent reality, a secret power which is given to us, from moment to moment, to be the life of our life and the soul of our own soul’s life.  It is the living flame of God’s own Spirit, in Whom our own soul’s flame can play, if it wills, like a mysterious angel.  God’s will is not an abstraction, not a machine, not an esoteric system.  It is a living concrete reality in the lives of men, and our souls are created to burn as flames within His flame.  The will of the Lord is not a static center drawing our souls blindly toward itself.  It is a creative power, working everywhere, giving life and being and direction to all things, and above all forming and creating, in the midst of an old creation, a whole new world which is called the Kingdom of God.  What we call the “will of God” is the movement of His love and wisdom, ordering and governing all free and necessary agents, moving movers and causing causes, driving drivers and ruling those who rule, so that even those who resist Him carry out His will without realizing that they are doing so.  In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and seek Him and who strive to bring their own freedom under obedience to His divine purpose.  All that is done by the will of God in secret is done for His glory and for the good of those whom He has chosen to share in His glory. (No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O God, accomplish your divine purposes in my life and in your world this day.  And give me the wisdom and the grace to know how I can be a part of that.   For your kingdom and your glory we pray.  Amen.

our own efforts

Opening Prayer: Lord God, forgive us when we take matters into our own hands and try to live our lives on our own.  Anytime we do this we are destined for failure and confusion.  Help us, O God, live in constant dependence on, and surrender to, you.  In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9

Journal: How are you trying to control life these days?  How are you trying to live by your own efforts?  What would it mean to surrender to God, and to his will, instead?

Reflection: In our own daily lives, in our efforts to do right, what is decisive is that we accept and live by and surrender ourselves to a strength which is not our own, to the piercing white light of God’s love.

     When we experience this love we turn away from the notion that we initiate and God responds; that we, by our religious efforts, can set something in motion that God must obey in response.  To believe that by an effort of will we can mount nearer to God or add one cubit to our stature is as unchristian as the belief that we have no task as Christians for the mundane affairs of this world.  Both beliefs have the same root—the pride that seeks to climb its way to God—and produces the same kind of confusion as the ancient attempt to build the tower of Babel.

     The direction to which our wills must be put is in obedience to God’s will in response to the breaking in of the Spirit.  Then something decisive happens for this earth. (Yielding to God by Philip Britts)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, there are some lessons in this life of grace I seem to have a hard time remembering, or at least accepting. My limits and insufficiency are certainly two of them. The magnetic pull of the “cult of competency” is always lurking. Forgive me for not wanting to need the gospel, your Spirit, and community as much as you say I do.

     So, Father, as this day begins, I forsake the illusion of my competency and cast myself on you, the God who raises the dead—beginning with Jesus. I’m not facing deadly perils, but I am facing people I love that I cannot fix, injustices in the world that I cannot right, old lingering wounds that I cannot heal, stubborn addicts that I cannot rescue, an aging process that I cannot reverse, cold marriages that I cannot thaw, and my own heart that I cannot change.

     Grant me grace to accept my limits and faith to trust you more; and a greater willingness to let friends enter my struggles and carry my burdens. I know you to be the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; I want to know you that way much, much more. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ kind and grace-full name. ~Scotty Smith

ignite

Opening Prayer: Set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you God, I want more of you God. Set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you God, I want more of you God. I want more. (Set a Fire by Will Reagan and United Pursuit)

Scripture: Luke 3:7-17

Journal: What does the word repentance mean to you?  Where do you sense the need for it in your life?  What in your life needs to be chopped down or burned away?  How do you long for Jesus to ignite his fire in you?

Reflection: When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God’s judgment? It’s your life that must change, not your skin. And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as ‘father.’ Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.”

     The crowd asked him, “Then what are we supposed to do?”

     “If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.”

     Tax men also came to be baptized and said, “Teacher, what should we do?”

     He told them, “No more extortion—collect only what is required by law.”

     Soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

     He told them, “No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations.”

     The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?”

     But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.” (The Message)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Ignite a fire within me, O Lord, that burns away all that is not you.  Transform me, that I might be changed, more and more, into the person you created me to be.  Give me the power, the courage, and the grace to truly repent, whatever that may look like.  Make me more like you.  In the name of Jesus I pray.  Amen.