Egregious Reader

Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint "St. Luke tells us that the moral of this parable is that men ought always to pray and not to faint. The word faint will, however, come to many people today as a surprise. We are so apt to interpret the meaning of prayer as if Jesus had said that men ought always to pray and not to work. That, I believe, is precisely the mistake that most of us make in our thinking about prayer: we think of it as an alternative to effort. We often speak as if there were two contrasted ways of facing the evils of our mortal lot—we may either fold our hands and pray about them, or we may pull ourselves together and do what we can to mend them. But it is quite plain that our Lord's way of looking at prayer is as different from this as the day is from the night. What He said was that men ought always to pray and not to faintor, as the modern versions have it, not to lose heart. That is to s...

From Prayers by Michel Quoist XIV Jesus is Laid In The Tomb ... Men tread in relays the Way of the Cross. The resurrection will only be completed when they have reached the end of the Way. I am on the road; I have a small share of your suffering and the others have theirs. Together we help you to carry the burden that you have as- sumed and made divine. There lies my hope, Lord, and my invincible trust. There is not a fraction of my little suffering that you have not already lived and transformed into infinite redemption. When the road is hard and monotonous, When it leads to the grave, I know that beyond the grave you are waiting for me in your glory. Lord, help me faithfully to travel along my road, at my proper place in the vastness of humanity. Help me above all to recognize you and to help you in all my pilgrim brothers. For it would be a lie to weep before your lifeless image if I did not follow you, living, on the road that ...

from the book Prayers by Michel Quoist: Its from a section called "All life would become a sign" saying "The father has put us into the world, not to walk through it with lowered eyes, but to search for him through all things, events, people ... Long prayers are not needed in order to smile at Christ in the smallest details of daily life." THE BABY The mother left the carriage for a minute, and I went over to meet the Holy Trinity living in the baby's pure soul. It was asleep, its arms carelessly laid on the embroidered sheet. Its closed eyes looked inward and its chest gently rose and fell As if to murmur: This dwelling is inhabited. Lord, you are there. I adore you in this little one who has not yet disfigured you. Help me to become like him once more, To recapture your likeness and your life now so deeply buried in my heart. ******** I think it is that last verse that I like so much. It reminds me of a poem by Matthew Arnold called t...

I was thinking of the beatific vision. All of life is a suffering journey to see that face, the face of GOD. The face that Moses longed to see and prostrated in haste upon seeing even the Lord's back. It is a face of such beauty that all saints have wandered many a briery furnace to glimpse and denied even the pain of death upon the sight. It is the face from which all other beautiful faces spring ... I think now of my wife and my daughter and my sons ... of my friends ... of strangers who smile with grace upon me. I think it is worth suffering to see that face. I think it is more than worth the journey.

What a solemn, precious lesson! It is not to sin only that the cleansing of the Husbandman refers (John 15:1-3). It is to our own religious activity, as it is developed in the very act of bearing fruit. In working for God our natural gifts of wisdom, or eloquence, or influence, or zeal are ever in danger of being unduly developed, and then trusted in. So, after each season of work, God has to bring us to the end of ourselves, to the consciousness of the helplessness and the danger of all that is of man, to feel that we are nothing. ---- Andrew Murry (from Dawn's Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God). Just try to imagine that the Pattern is called a "Lamb." That alone is a scandal to the natural mind. Who has any desire to be a lamb? (Soren Kierkegaard)

This morning I followed the service in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for my morning prayer time. It was very good for me. The language is all old English but the truths and the power of the prayers is not lost at all. And it involves confession of sin, readings, songs, apostles creed, the Lord's prayer and prayers for grace, mercy, peace, our nation, the church. Here were two of my favorite parts. This is the prayer of confession of sin: ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in...

For us: I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, we may be strengthened in our inner beings with the power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that we may have power to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. From Eph. 3

"I have become like a leather flask in the smoke." a frail vessel in the middle of a fire. "O God, who knows us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (The Collect for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany from the Book of Common Prayer 1662)

Hans von Balshazar (probably the greatest catholic theologian of the last century) said that the danger for people who live in cities is that they begin to think the world is man-made. Everywhere they look is the towering accomplishments of man or the business of man. I think our lives can become these mental cities that Balshazar warns about. We are busy with so much, worrying or accomplishing so much that we can think of our life as man-made. What can we do? His answer about real cities is that we need to walk in the woods on occasion or visit a field. We need to see that the world is giant and utterly God-made. I think the same can be said about Kris's phrase "margins of silence." We need to carve out time to sit with God in a quiet space or sit with the scriptures in a quiet space and remember that our lives are God-made. That God is the one at work forming us and shaping us and guiding us ... and filling us with life.