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MEDITATION:

Written by Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1999), a Swiss theologian and Catholic priest. This is from his book “Prayer.”

We contemplate Christ, his world, his truth, in order to encounter God and “see” him. We do this with the eyes of faith, but they are genuine, objective eyes; and they are the eyes of our mind and senses, but they have been enlightened interiorly by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We have already spoken of this illumination. Now we are concerned with the object of our contemplation: God. Everything else, creation, humanity, salvation history, is considered within the context of God in order that we may find him there. But this finding is to be a spiritual and personal encounter in which, by faith, we become aware of the “life” which God gives to the believer objectively in the form of grace, i.e., in the form of a participation in the divine nature, with its triune exchange of life and love. 

PRAYER:

Written by Margaret Grun Kibben, contemporary Chaplain to the US House of Representatives and former Chief of Chaplains for the US Navy

We pray Your kindness to fall upon us, O Lord, that the work of our hands would have effect and that our well–intended actions serve Your ultimate purpose. May we in all that we encounter this day and all days, have the faith to proclaim, “the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever.”