I continue to make my way through Robert Benson's book In Constant Prayer. This morning I have been reading about a prayer form known as a collect. When I first read this book years ago, I was not interested in a prayer practice that included keeping part or all of the daily Divine Office. However, I seem to be needing more routine and ritual now. Maybe it is my age. Maybe it is because the beginning of the Lenten journey is close. Maybe it is the slow realization that most, if not all of my strategies developed for finding shortcuts rather than for deepening discipline (I believe this is what Jesus would call the narrow gate), have not resulted in a particularly sustaining harvest. Probably all of the above and more.
Regardless, this prayer stirs my heart and I am grateful that my heart can still be stirred. This morning I am reminded that I never address God as "Almighty". Why? I really cannot say. It is probably time to figure out why. I recently had a dream where a gentle male figure kept telling me that there is one more thing he needed me to do. In the dream I argued with him partly because I was getting ready to board a plane. However, he quietly repeated himself several times. I finally softened, and I sat down to listen. I am awaiting further instructions, and so I "stretch out my hands"*, and learn to pray.
"Deliver us, Almighty God, from the service of self alone:
That we may do the work You have given us to do,
in truth and beauty, and for the common good;
for the sake of the One Who comes among us
as one who serves,
the One Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen."
Image: San Leandro, February, 2023
*Psalm 143:6
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