“I lifted the burden
from your shoulder
and took the heavy basket
from your hands.
When you were in trouble,
I rescued you,
and from the thunderclouds,
I answered your prayers.
—-Psalm 81:6-7
Question – When did God lift a burden from you?
Prayer- LORD, you are a burden lifting God.
I know that you are with me when I am weak:
you are with me when my needs are great:
you are with me when all others abandon me.
Let me live with the knowledge of your faithfulness. Amen
Filed under Lent, Lent 2020, Lenten Prayer Guide
March 13
Psalm 46:1-9
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
Prayer Thought
Lord, come to my aid when I fear the world. Help me to realize that YOU are always there.
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God 
is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
——Mother Teresa
Filed under Lenten Reflections 2018
Compassion is the ultimate expression of your highest self.
—-Russell Simmons
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
——-Maya Angelou
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:32
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
Colossians 3:12
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Prayer
Lord allow me to catch a glimpse of what life would be if we truly had compassion upon one another, Open our minds to the new concept of being a truly compassion. Let us take the advice of the master and engage in compassionate actions this and every day as
AMEN
Filed under Christian Living
A brother committed a fault. A council was called to which Moses was invited, but he refused to go to it. Then the priest sent someone to him, saying, “Come, for everyone is waiting for you”. So he got up and went. He took a sack, filled it with sand and cut a small hole at the bottom and carried it on his shoulders. The others came out to meet him and said, “What is this, father” The Abba said to them, “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of another.” When they heard that, they said no more to the brother but forgave him.
—–Abba Moses of the Desert
If I were to say that we live in a judgmental world, it would be a surprise to no one. We are surrounded by people who make judgments on everything from the call of a referee at last Sunday’s football game to the right of someone to call themselves an American. People very neatly set up boundaries that give them permission to judge, and we just love being in the seat of judgment. From that seat we are a notch above everyone else, and it sure feels good. Jesus said: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Abba Moses took the saying of Jesus very seriously. He was so mindful of his own sin that he knew he couldn’t possibly sit in judgment of another. His lesson
of the sack with the hole in it drives home an important point. We don’t see our own sins very clearly, how can we clearly see the sins of others? Our lives consist of a series of successes and failures that make up our journey towards God. Just as the monk didn’t see that going to a meeting of judgment was appropriate, we need to begin to get a glimpse of what is the true calling of the Christ follower. Our present age conditions us to see ourselves as far more the judges of the world rather than the light of the world.
The symbol of the leaky sack is to remind us that sins are not always seen by those who commit them and our sin is never far away from us. We do leave a trail of sin in our daily walk. That trail, however, is covered by grace that come from God’s love for us. We, in turn, need to understand grace so that we might fully receive such a gift and pass it on to others. That is the lesson of the leaking sack.
Prayer
Oh Lord, why does the wisdom of forgiveness escape us so readily? It seems so very difficult to empty ourselves of the baggage we carry. This baggage blinds us from the reality of our own weaknesses and frailty and drives us to a life of false righteousness. Help me, Lord, to tend to my own sin and allow me to live into a peace with You and my fellow sinners.
Amen
Filed under Abba Moses, Desert Fathers
Amma Ammonas was going to pay a visit, to Abba Anthony, one day, and he lost his way. So sitting down, he fell asleep for a little while. Upon waking, he prayed thus to God,’ I beseech you, Lord my God, do not let your creature perish.’ Then there appear to him as it were a man’s hand in the heavens, we showed him the way, till he reached about Anthony’s cave.
—Amma Ammonas
In the days of the built in phone GPS, Google maps, and a host of other apps and programs, we can find our way to just about anywhere. That is good, but it can 
leave a very deep hole in our souls. We feel as though nothing is impossible and God gets thrown out like those maps you use to have in your car. The Abba had to find his path to his friend by sight and memory, and he lost his way. There is not one among that has not lost our spiritual way. We lose or way when we run out of options. No new self-help books or apps to guide us along. Running out of such options can take a while in 2015. When that process is exhausted, we may turn to God.
The wise man of the desert gives us a different scenario. As soon as he woke up from his rest, he asked God for help. There is nothing written about him retracing his steps or anything else. In this very mundane of needs, he simply asked God. How hard is it for you to go to God first? First, before you have done all you can do out of shear pride. First, when full credit for the solution would have to be given to God. I am reminded of a prayer from an old movie that encapsulates the attitude of many.
“Lord, we cleared this land, We plowed it, sowed it and harvested it. We cooked the harvest, it wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t Be eatin’ it, if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we’re about to eat. Amen.” Shenandoah (1965)
That little prayer may be shocking to you but is your attitude truly that different? If we are honest with ourselves, we are reminded of two things on a 
daily basis. The first is that we cannot find all knowledge on our own. Secondly, we really can’t do it all. . Lingering in our shadowy places are points at which we lose our way. And we, like the monk, must turn to God and allow His hand to lead us.
Lord allow me to put aside the many things that cause me to put You on the back burner. Relieve me of the curse of self-reliance .May I be enlighten by your Spirit this day and look to the place from which my help comes. Lord, guide me in my lostness. Amen
Filed under Christian Living, Desert Fathers, Prayer
This year I am reading through the Gospel of Mark during the forty days of Lent. My suggested plan is that you do these readings in Lectio Divina format.
Today’s reading
Prayer Thought
Lord you were mocked and beaten unjustly for me. Please give me the courage to stand for you in my relatively easy station in life. Give me , I pray, ways to stand for you. Amen
Filed under Bible Reading, Lent
If we take as our guide the oldest prayer book, the biblical Psalms, we note two main forms of prayer. One 
is a lament and cry for help. The other is thanksgiving and praise to God. On a more hidden level, there is a third kind of prayer, without demands or explicit expression of praise. In Psalm 131 for instance, there is nothing but quietness and confidence: “I have calmed and quieted my soul … hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.”
At times prayer becomes silent. Peaceful communion with God can do without words. “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” Like the satisfied child who has stopped crying and is in its mother’s arms, so can “my soul be with me” in the presence of God. Prayer then needs no words, maybe not even thoughts.
How is it possible to reach inner silence? Sometimes we are apparently silent, and yet we have great discussions within, struggling with imaginary partners or with ourselves. Calming our souls requires a kind of simplicity: “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” Silence means recognizing that my worries can’t do much. Silence means leaving to God what is beyond my reach and capacity. A moment of silence, even very short, is like a holy stop, a sabbatical rest, a truce of worries.
The turmoil of our thoughts can be compared to the storm that struck the disciples’ boat on the Sea of Galilee while Jesus was sleeping. Like them, we may be helpless, full of anxiety, and incapable of calming ourselves. But Christ is able to come to our help as well. As he rebuked the wind and the sea and “there was a great calm”, he can also quiet our heart when it is agitated by fears and worries (Mark 4).
Remaining silent, we trust and hope in God. One psalm suggests that silence is even a form of praise. We are used to reading at the beginning of Psalm 65: “Praise is due to you, O God”. This translation follows the Greek text, but actually the Hebrew text printed in most Bibles reads: “Silence is praise to you, O God”. When words and thoughts come to an end, God is praised in silent wonder and admiration.
At Sinai, God spoke to Moses and the Israelites. Thunder and lightning and an ever-louder sound of a trumpet preceded and accompanied the Word of God (Exodus 19). Centuries later, the prophet Elijah returned to the same mountain of God. There he experienced storm and earthquake and fire as his ancestors did, and he was ready to listen to God speaking in the thunder. But the Lord was not in any of the familiar mighty phenomena. When all the noise was over, Elijah heard “a sound of sheer silence”, and God spoke to him (1 Kings 19).
Does God speak with a loud voice or in a breath of silence? Should we take as example the people gathered at Sinai or the prophet Elijah? This might be a wrong alternative. The terrifying phenomena related to the gift of the Ten Commandments emphasize how serious these are. Keeping or rejecting them is a question of life or death. Seeing a child running straight under a car, one is right to shout as loud as possible. In analogous situations prophets speak the word of God so that it makes our ears ring.
Loud words certainly make themselves heard; they are impressive. But we also know that they hardly touch the hearts. They are resisted rather than welcomed. Elijah’s experience shows that God does not want to impress, but to be understood and accepted. God chose “a sound of sheer silence” in order to speak. This is a paradox:
When God’s word becomes “a sound of sheer silence”, it is more efficient than ever to change our hearts. The heavy storm on Mount Sinai was splitting rocks, but God’s silent word is able to break open human hearts of stone. For Elijah himself the sudden silence was probably more fearsome than the storm and thunder. The loud and mighty manifestations of God were somehow familiar to him. God’s silence is disconcerting, so very different from all Elijah knew before.
Silence makes us ready for a new meeting with God. In silence, God’s word can reach the hidden corners of our hearts. In silence, it proves to be “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit” (Hebrews 4:12). In silence, we stop hiding before God, and the light of Christ can reach and heal and transform even what we are ashamed of.
Christ says: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). We need silence in order to welcome these words and put them into practice. When we are agitated and restless, we have so many arguments and reasons not to forgive and not to love too easily. But when we “have calmed and quieted our soul”, these reasons turn out to be quite insignificant. Maybe we sometimes avoid silence, preferring whatever noise, words or distraction, because inner peace is a risky thing: it makes us empty and poor, disintegrates bitterness and leads us to the gift of ourselves. Silent and poor, our hearts are overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, filled with an unconditional love. Silence is a humble yet secure path to loving.
Note:This post was copied from the Taize community website with some editing.
“To reach the supernatural bounds a person must depart from his natural bounds and leave self far off in respect to his interior and exterior limits in order to mount from a low state to the highest.”
—–John of the Cross
The medieval mystic John of the Cross gives us advice to move towards “supernatural bounds.” Self-denial is a big step in that journey with Christ. This concept (self-denial) is at odds with our culture of more. As with all disciplines, true self-denial is developed slowly and with care. Begin with living more simply, caring for the small things of life, living a life of thanks and seeking to touch someone in need.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
—Jesus
Filed under Jesus, John of the Cross
We’ve all had them. Those special moments frozen in time. Those moments that will be remembered when we are very old and sit daydreaming about life. They are gifts of God to cherish into eternity.
Everything is more sharply focused in that instant, time stands still, the rest of the world disappears. For this one tiny piece of life, everything is more precious, and God grants a brief interlude in the usual business of living.
The very last time I saw my grandmother, we shared a long, speechless look that no words could capture. In that look, we relived a lifetime of love. In that first second that I looked into the tiny face of our newborn son, the awesomeness of God, the Creator of life, was so real to me I could almost feel His physical presence in that room. Touching moments. Funny moments, Heart-breaking moments. Eternal moments.
Jesus must have had such moments while He was here among us. The look of love on John’s face as he baptized him. The look of shame on the face of the woman caught in adultery. The look of hatred on the face of the Pharisees. The look of heartbreak on Mary’s face as she watched her boy die. The look of joy on the face of Peter when he saw his Savior alive again.
If we are not careful, we will let these special times slip by unnoticed. They can never be recalled. Once passed, they are lost in an eternity of seconds, minutes, hours, days. Learn to recognize when you are part of something much larger than yourself. Take notice of “God moments” in your life.
PRAYER: Father – Thank you for the special moments in life that are from you. Help me to live each one to the fullest.
Monica Boudreaux
Filed under Devotional reading
One of the most important habits a missional person can possess is being a person of prayer. As we live the missional life it is vital that we stay in touch with God. Prayer is communication with God. It is through prayer that we gather strength, insight and openness to be a missional people. For thousands of years people have prayed. Prayer has taken on different forms. Some people pray in silence. Others pray in groups. Still others pray using ancient rituals. How do you pray ? Do you pray ?
To pursue the missio dei (mission of God),prayer is a must. It is the very heart of the missional life.
What are the prayers of the missional person?
What are some ways to pray?
Just remember missional life begins with prayer. Let me suggest to you that you set aside 10 minutes a day for prayer. Try it this week. Start Sunday and keep this habit through the week and it could really change your life.
Filed under Christian Living, contemplative, Missional Living
A Pastor's Thoughts 