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MEDITATION:

Written by Henry J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), a Dutch priest, professor, writer, and theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “Here and Now.”  

It requires a lot of inner solitude and silence to become aware of divine movements. God does not shout, scream, or push. The Spirit of God is soft and gentle like a small voice or a light breeze. It is the spirit of love. Maybe we still do not fully believe that God’s Spirit is, indeed, the Spirit of love, always leading us deeper into love. Maybe we still distrust the Spirit, afraid to be led to places where our freedom is taken away. Maybe we still think of God’s Spirit as an enemy who wants something of us that is not good for us. But God is love, only love, and God’s Spirit is the Spirit of love longing to guide us to the place where the deepest desires of our heart can be fulfilled. Often we ourselves do not even know what our deepest desire is. We so easily get entangled in our own lust and anger, mistakenly assuming that they tell us what we really want. The Spirit of love says: “Don’t be afraid to let go of your need to control your own life. Let me fulfill the true desire of your heart.”

PRAYER:

Written by John Baillie (1886-1960), a Scottish theologian and minister.

I am bitterly ashamed, O God, that I must always be confessing to you my forgetfulness of you, the feebleness of my love for you, the fitfulness and listlessness of my desire. How many plain commandments of yours have I disobeyed today? How many little services of love have I withheld from you, O Christ, in that I withheld them from the least of these, your brethren, with whom I have had to do!