Written by Stephen V. Doughty and Marjorie J. Thomson. This is an excerpt from their book “The Way of Discernment.”
The monk Thomas Merton once asked an earnest student a question that he immediately answered himself: “How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun.” The student, James Finley, thought long about that image and years later wrote, “A small green apple cannot ripen in one night by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, red, ripe, and juicy.” The apple just sits in the sun. It is naturally positioned to receive the daily nourishment it needs to ripen. This is similar to how we mature in the fullness of God’s life; except we are not naturally positioned like the apple. We must place ourselves where we can receive the light of God, and this is the purpose of spiritual disciplines. Through them we position ourselves to receive the sunlight of God’s grace.
Prayer:
Written by a member of the St. Francis church in the UK. Every evening at 7:00 p.m. the Youth and Children’s team post a Prayer and light a candle and share it on Facebook. This is one of those prayers.
Lord,
as daylight fills the sky,
fill us with your holy light.
May our lives mirror our love for you
whose wisdom has brought us into being,
and whose care guides us on our way.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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