Presence

My soul longs for Your presence, Lord. When I turn my thoughts to You, I find peace and contentment.

Freedom

What most often stops me from achieving freedom is my tendency
to be caught up in fears and expectations
about what I ‘ought’ to be or ‘should’ be.
My usual automatic responses tie me down
and inhibit me from exploring new areas of growth.
I ask and pray for a greater sense of inner freedom and
all that God wishes to realise in me.

Consciousness

God, may I rest in Your radiant presence, just as a flower basks in the light and warmth of the sun. Thank You for bringing light and warmth to my life through other people, through nature, and through Your Word.

The Word of God

¹⁷He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

²⁰Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

²²“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

Inspiration

Note the present tense used in the first of these beatitudes: the poor are blessed in the here and now – not, Luke says, because they are poor, but because theirs is the Kingdom of God. Every good relationship is poor because the other person is not our property. One is a gift from the other, and each is a gift from God.

Conversation

Lord, You have engraved my name
on the palm of Your hand.
Even if others forget me,
You never will.

Conclusion

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Amen