Week #2 – Going Inward

Invocation
O God, in all ages you have imparted yourself to man and set alight the fire of faith in his heart, grant to me the faith which comes from search. Cleanse my life from all that negates and crushes out faith, and fill it with the purity and honesty which foster it. Cleanse me from the evil which makes unbelief its friend, and drive it far from me, so that, being willing in all things to do your will, I may know the truth which shall set me free. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -Samuel M. Shoemaker in Daily Prayer Companion-

Read Psalm 139

Daily Scripture Readings:

Monday Isaiah 55
Tuesday John 3:1-8
Wednesday 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
Thursday Matthew 15:1-20
Friday John 15:1-17
Saturday Ephesians 3:1-21
Sunday Matthew 11:25-30

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Your prayers this week should be to recognize the reality and depth of your inner being and to ask God to meet you there. For Him to come to abide in this realm of your hopes, values, joys, hurts, and loneliness.

Hymn: “It Is Well With My Soul”

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,
Lest this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin — oh, the bliss of this glorious thought —
My sin — not in part but the whole —
Is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend.
Even so — It is well with my soul.

It is well — with my soul.
It is well, It is well with my soul.
-H. G. Spafford-

Benediction
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within me, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Paul in Ephesians 3)

Selections For Meditation:
* Theories about religious experience are merely tools, aids by which to test one’ own experience. Each step of one’s own is worth more than all the knowledge and insight of others.
But how does one arrive at such steps? Certainly not by waiting for the experiences. The inward journey is an exercise, something that is cultivated; it requires concentration and attentiveness. Above all, the inward journey requires the greatest sincerity of which we are capable. It entails a risk — the risk of shame if nothing is there, the risk of emptiness if one does not change as a result, the risk of one’s own person — and this risk is no less than that encountered on the way to another person. For us moderns, perhaps, fear of being ridiculous in our own eyes is the greatest shame. -From Death by Bread Alone by Dorothee Soelle-

* As we start learning to pray, I would like to make it clear that what I mean by “learning to pray” is not an attempt to justify or explain this in a speculative way. Rather, I would like to point out what one should be aware of, and what one can do if one wishes to pray. As I am a beginner myself, I will assume that you are also beginners, and we will try to begin together. I am not speaking to anyone who aims at mystical prayer or higher states of perfection, because these things will teach themselves. When God breaks through to us or when we break through to God, in certain exceptional circumstances, either because things suddenly disclose themselves with a depth we have never before perceived or when we suddenly discover in ourselves a depth where prayer abides and out of which it can gush forth, there is no problem of prayer. When we are aware of God, we stand before Him, worship Him, speak to Him. -From Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom-

* People who pray, really pray, don’t talk about it much. After you have looked into the matter carefully, you may be able to puzzle out who is really praying. In general, though, prayer is something of an underground. Is it because people who pray are too possessive about their experiences to share them? On the contrary, people who pray usually share their experiences generously. But on the whole they don’t advertise their prayer lives. Perhaps the energy that might be used in talk goes to prayer instead.
In order to find a person who prays, you have to look for clues: charitableness, good temper, patience, a fair ability to handle stress, resonance, openness to others. What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life. That is not to say that they are any less active. They may be competent lawyers, doctors, businessmen. But their hearts lie in the inner life and they are moved by that.
-From Clinging — The Experience of Prayer by Emilie Griffin-

* It is difficult to write or speak of theHoly Spirit. We are rather hesitant to claim the Spirit as “ours” in spite of our ease in praying “our” Father, “our” Lord, “my” Jesus. There is a reserve, a humbleness, a muteness before the Spirit. Perhaps it is the adjective “Holy” prefixed to the Spirit that makes us reluctant to say “our” Holy Spirit, “my” Holy Spirit. To say “Father” or “Son” is to speak in terms of definite, clear, human images and correlatives having some tangible reference. The Spirit does not lend Himself to such tangible human categories, descriptions or definitions. Our vocabulary, our language, even our theology clouds the Spirit and conceals more than reveals. Light cannot be put into a bushel or the ocean into a bucket. It is the Spirit which gives life to the word; the word itself is often deadly.
The Spirit is elusive, unobtrusive, as imperceptible as time and season, growth and age. Yet man has a deep sense of Spirit from the breath of his life, the pulse of his heart, the stirring of his conscience, the restlessness of his soul. In this, modern man is not far removed from primitive man. Aloneness, silence, darkness, sleep and death touch us too deeply to allow us to forget the mystery of the absolute. How intuitive ancient man was in sensing that the Spirit was in all things.
-From Surprised by the Spirit by Edward J. Farrell-

* Each of us is the artist of his own life. The materials we are given to work with, the conditions we work under and what happens to us, are part of the drama of what we shall do with our lives. But materials and conditions and events are not, in themselves, the determining factors. Whether a man arrives or does not arrive at his own destiny — the place that is peculiarly his — depends on whether or not he finds the Kingdom within and hears the call to wholeness — or holiness, as another might say. The man who hears that call is chosen. He does not have to scramble for a place in the scheme of things. He knows that there is a place which is his and that he can live close to the One who will show it to him. Life becomes his vocation.
From Journey Inward, Journey Outward by Elizabeth O’Connor

* There are no “mere” men. Moral splendor comes with the gift of life. Each person has within him a vast potentiality for identification, dedication, sacrifice, and mutuality. Each person has unlimited strength to feel human oneness and act upon it. The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death but in what dies inside us while we live.
-From Human Options by Norman Cousins-

* It is late evening. We are alone, perhaps for the first time since we woke. Bits & pieces from the day dart in & out of our consciousness. Little desires and fears for tomorrow scatter us further. The more that rushes through our minds, the more complicated and anxious life seems. Maybe TV will help settle us down — or the newspaper or computer — or some work — or a big snack. Less seems to gnaw at us then. Life stays put for a moment. We feel in control again — we’re “doing” something — anything.
The aftereffect of the doing leaves us less anxious, but more drugged. We’ve exchanged a gnawing anxiety for a dulled sensibility. Maybe, at least, we can sleep now. We do, on the surface. But not below. Our dreams are troubled. Fragments of life whir round & round without a center. We wake tired, and struggle out for another round.
You and I share such an “underlife.” It usually is bearable; it even seems “normal,” out of sheer habit. Sometimes it is even fun. But it is not fulfilling. We are grown for more than that. When this becomes most clear, when the whole daily round feels most wearisome, we hear ourselves crying out in the Psalmist’s lament:
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)
How long will, must I tromp through this dense jungle half crazed and blind before the clearing appears?
-From Living Simply Through the Day by Tilden H. Edwards-