How did you begin your day in prayer?

At the crack of dawn this morning, I was sitting on the rectory deck with a cup of coffee in hand and my dog on my lap. Next to me was my prayer book, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the morning paper. In my morning prayer, I gave thanks to God for the beauty of the day. With each breath that I took, I was breathing in the Holy Spirit and breathing out the fears and anxieties that keep me from more completely trusting in God’s abiding love for me.

I begin each day in prayer thanking God for the faith we share as a parish community. In and through the human brokenness of each of us, we believe that God’s love for each of us is unending. May we always recognize our need for God’s healing grace, and God’s unconditional desire to share His love with us.

How did you begin your day in prayer this week?

To Live a More Balanced Life, Make These Four Assumptions:

• For the body, assume you’ve had a heart attack; now live accordingly.
• For the mind, assume the half-life of your profession is two years; now prepare accordingly.
• For the heart, assume everything you say about another, they can overhear; now speak accordingly.
• For the spirit, assume you have a one-on-one visit with the Lord Jesus every quarter; now live accordingly.

In what ways do you try to live a more balanced life?

A Summer Reflection

I sought my God and my God I could not find
I sought my soul and my soul eluded me.
I sought my brother/sister to serve in their need,
And I found all three – my God, my soul and thee.

There are many ways to discover God in the midst of life. For some, God is to be found in the stillness of our prayer. In the words of the psalmist: “Be still and know that I am God.” In the quiet of the morning before the busyness of the day, I seek to experience God in the morning sunrise. It provides a spiritual anchor for the day and places the whole day in the context of my discipleship of the Lord Jesus. For others, as suggested by the above reflection, God is found in the ways we love and serve others. In those times of service, we become aware of our God and the deepest meaning of our lives. The actions of service can lead us to the awareness of prayer. So too, the movements of prayer within us can lead us to lives of service.

Our spirituality can begin with action or with prayer. We need to be true to who we are. But the journey of faith must involve both dimensions of life: prayer can lead to service or service can lead us back to prayer.