It is easy to be critical of what’s going on around you, at work, home, church, community or society in general, and to grumble about the shortfalls to anyone who’ll listen. It’s a much harder, but more impressive thing to be a person of blessings and to be an agent of transformation marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
It is easy to be critical of what’s going on around you, at work, home, church, community or society in general, and to grumble about the shortfalls to anyone who’ll listen. It’s a much harder, but more impressive thing to be a person of blessings and to be an agent of transformation marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
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My favorite meditation books. First on the list, The Bible. The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology. Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community. Baillie, John. A Diary of Private Prayer. Carmichael, Amy. Edges of Water. Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Chambers, Oswald. Still Higher for His Highest. Harter, Michael, ed. Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits. Harvey, Andrew & Ann Baring, compiled by. The Mystic Vision. Lewis, C. S. A year with C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Merton, Thomas. Through the Year with Thomas Merton. Tickle, Phyllis. The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime; for Summertime; for Autumn and Wintertime. "The Upper Room". Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart. One of my steadfast daily devotionals is Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community. In the Morning Prayer liturgy we are asked, Who is that you seek? The complete section is as follows. Give it a try. One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. Who is it that you seek? We seek the Lord our God. Do you seek him with all your soul? Amen, Lord have mercy. Do you seek him with all your heart? Amen, Lord have mercy. Do you seek him with all your mind? Amen, Lord have mercy. Do you seek him with all your strength? Amen, Christ have mercy. If this sounds familiar it may be because these same comprehensive words, soul, heart, mind, body, as well as the question of seeking, have been part of liturgies throughout the centuries. I like the invitation to ponder these every day. For example, when I take my walk I think about my commitment to seek God with all my strength by keeping my body healthy. Of course I don’t always do that; I eat the wrong thing, I slack off on exercise. But saying those words every day keeps the reminder present. One thing I love about the Christian story is that God gives us is continual resurrections. We may fall, but we can stand up again and again. Forgiveness, both our own and God’s, is not a one time opportunity. We can keep seeking. In fact, we have to do just that, and each time we do, we become stronger in faith and closer to God. How’s this for a New Year’s resolution? It was the entry for the last day of the year in Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community, a daily devotional that I’ve been reading for about ten years. I highly recommend it. I quote: Not to make judgments about other people’s light, but to obey the light given to you is all that concerns you. Lord, what shall this man do? ‘What is that to you? You follow Me!’ So cast down your imaginations—don’t try and work it out. It wont’ be like what you read in books. Be real with God. Don’t try to re-live someone else’s journey. ‘What is that to you? You follow Me!’ Most mornings I read the daily office as presented in Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community. Within this rich book of worship are three sets of readings: Daily Office for Morning, Noon and Evening; Meditations for Each Day of the Month, and two Series of Daily Readings. Recently I’ve been focusing on the call questions and responses in the Opening Sentences of Morning Prayer. Call: Who is it that you seek? Response: We see the Lord our God. Call: Do you seek Him with all your heart? Response: Amen. Lord have mercy. Call: Do you see Him with all your soul? Response: Amen, Lord have mercy. Call: Do you seek him with all your mind? Response: Amen, Lord have mercy. Call: Do you seek him with all your strength? Response: Amen, Christ have mercy. I particularly resonate with the four ways of seeking God, heart, soul, mind and strength, because they are straightforward and clarify that usual threesome, mind, body, spirit. Mind is mind; strength is body; and spirit includes heart and soul, which are companions but not synonyms. I think of soul as that deepest place inside me where God resides, and heart as more on the surface and attainable in my everyday life. The way to tap into the soul, to be at one with God, is through the heart. The following is from Celtic Daily Prayer; Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community. Like the prayer that Jesus taught is, “It contains simple praise and intercession.” Notice that not once did Jesus make His disciples pray. He just kept praying until at last they could contain their hunger no longer and asked Him to teach them how to pray. The question came from the twelve, indicating that they were now ready to listen and to hear. Jesus must have jumped at the opportunity of holding before them His model of prayer. It is interesting to note that He gave them a formula, neat and tidy. It was almost as if He was getting them into practice so that later on their own prayer life could develop. It is also interesting to note that in this first prayer taught by Jesus there is no sentimentality, piousness or rhetoric. It is simple, direct and filled with nobility and sureness. It contains simple praise and intercession. Pat Lynch, Awakening the Giant This story from Celtic Daily Prayer has remained with me long after I first read it. I offer it without comment. The story is told of a man who tripped and fell off a cliff. Clutching at the grasses on the edge of the cliff he found himself for a moment or two able to hang on and delay his fall. ‘Is there anyone up there?’ he cried out desperately. ‘Yes,’ came the reply, but no further response. ‘Who are you? Why don’t you help me?’ shouted the man. ‘I’m God,’ said the Voice, ‘and I will help you. But you must do exactly as I say.’ ‘OK,” whispered the man, ’what have I to do?’ ‘First, let go!’ ‘is there anybody else up there?’ called out the man. |
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