When we discover that prayer is a means to fostering real relationship with God, the time shared becomes more personal and authentic. As we come to the Scriptures to listen for God’s voice – a Living Word that intersects with our real lives – we might respond to the Spirit’s nudging and invitations with genuineness and vulnerability. It takes courage and trust that we can actually have a conversation with God.
Sometimes, we pour out our hearts.
Sometimes, we cannot contain our gratitude.
Sometimes, we ask for the grace we need.
Sometimes, we just be together in wordless silence.
Always, God is with us, just as we are.
This week, a participant shares her experience of this individual and communal time of prayer:
Loving One
Loving One
Loving one, loving all
Loving me.
Spare us from the Grinch translators
whose hearts are three sizes too small.
Spare us from our perpetual measuring sticks.
Our incessant othering as we judge
who is in and
who is out. Who is worthy.
We’re all “out”.
We’re all, in you, “in”.
I’m putting down my scorekeeping chalk,
my tallies;
I’m packing away the scales
as I stand drenched in the warm light of your gaze.
You see it all.
All the mess. All the nasty, the petty, the damaged.
And yet….
You see the Beauty, my Beauty
that calls your name,
the name that rescues my soul,
that intertwines us, embracing each other for all time.
The sparrows and us and you.
Always.
Matthew 10:24-39 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
“A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, a phrase, image, or feeling that ‘shimmered’ as you listened? Allow it to land in your heart. Stay with it. Savor it.
Reflect on what you heard. What effect does it have on you? What meaning does it hold for you? What does the Holy Spirit seem to be conveying to you?
Talk it over in your prayer. Perhaps you want to draw or color your prayer or journal the conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some moments of quiet with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.
