God's reset button

By Elizabeth Reardon

A few years ago, a good friend of mine made a comment about how thankful he was that God had given him a reset button that morning after a very trying day. Well, that image and my appreciation of it hasn’t left me since. We all have those days, mine was just yesterday, where very little is going as planned, no one is on our timeline, and our patience is slim to none. Honestly, I could not even get out of my own way! So, that Jesuit training came into play once again last night as I sat down to Examen where it all went wrong, as well as, how to get back on track.  

First, I had started my day by placing my own priorities ahead of my time with God. I know, “say it ain’t so”, but yes that was me. Seemingly too busy for mass, prayer or reflection- I plunged into the day’s events headfirst.  In doing so, I realize that I had let the events of the day control me, allowing them to dictate where and what I was to do next. Moreover, this was creating within me a growing exasperation,at my ineptitude at getting anything done much less doing it correctly.

Instead of giving God the space to meet these frustrations, as only God can, I was multiplying my mistakes and laying the path of destruction far and wide. Perhaps, this is a tad harsh but if you need a visual… just picture a funnel cloud.

Continue reading at Elizabeth's blog Theologyisaverb.

Only you have been keeping me out

By David Torkington

St. Francis of Assisi (Wikimedia Commons)

 
An Examination of Conscience

When we begin to experience God making his home within us, we are beginning to experience the most  momentous and the most moving moments  possible on earth. They are not just moments of blissful happiness, but moments when we enable the love of God to surcharge our weak human loving, so that we can be more and more like Jesus, enabling his loving to be alive and active again in the world through us, through all we say and do. This is how God’s sway, his sacred sovereignty  is spread, how his secret plan or  his Mysterion can finally be brought to completion here on earth, as it is in heaven.

 ‘Only You Have Been Keeping Me Out’

There is only one thing that can prevent the implementation of this plan and that is the sickness  of selfishness that  does to the mystical body of Christ what  high cholesterol does to the physical body.  It must ultimately be controlled, if not totally rooted out. This is a long process and can never be fully achieved without God’s help, and the acceptance of the suffering that this will mean.


Continue reading at David's blog David Torkington.

Spiritual practices: Night Prayer

by Ruth Ann Pilney

 

 

 

 

Leaf from a Noted Breviary, ca. 1420 (photo credit: J.P. Getty Museum).

 

 

 

For the Christian who centers his or her day on God, the last act before sleeping is Night Prayer. When we were children our parents called it Bedtime Prayer.  

 

Through Night Prayer we dedicate the time we normally sleep to God. Also, we remind ourselves that one day we will die and rise, just as Jesus did. We entrust this time of unconsciousness to Him. As Psalm 15 says, "I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel, who even at night directs my heart." Many holy men and women have learned God's Will at night through dreams and visions.  St. Joseph, for example, was assured that it would be okay for him to take Mary as his wife.  He also learned that he should leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus.

Examination of Conscience

 

Part of Night Prayer is a brief examination of conscience, a silent time for reviewing the day.  This is to recall the times one did not live up to God's commandments, God's standards for good Christian conduct. As penitents we consider our faults and failings so as to make amends.  We express our sorrow to God and ask for His mercy and forgiveness.  I posted one version of an examination of conscience here.  There are other ways of doing it.

Scripture Readings from Liturgy of the Hours

 

The main feature of all the hours of the Liturgy are the psalms.  This is true of Night Prayer as well. Besides the psalms there is a weekly cycle of seven short Scripture readings for Night Prayer that consist of just a few verses.  

I am presenting them here, because, for those who don't do the Liturgy of the Hours, these are well worth reading and meditating upon before going to sleep.

 

 

Continue reading at Ruth Ann's blog From the Pulpit of My Life.

Spiritual practices: examination of conscience

by Ruth Ann Pilney

 

Painting by Frederick D. Hardy (Photo Credit:Wikimedia).

As a Christian I am bound to follow my conscience, my inner guide to doing good and to avoiding evil.    Every evening, as the day winds down, I spend about ten minutes at the beginning of Night Prayer to review my day by examining my conscience.  The guide that I have found most helpful lately is called "An Examen."

I like this way of reflecting on my day because it is balanced.  It helps me see both the times I practiced virtue as well as the times I sinned.  This is in contrast to other examinations I have used which emphasize only the sinful acts.  Noticing God's goodness and appreciating His providence is another outcome that has helped me.  I feel a strong impulse to give God glory and praise as a result.

First I remember that I am in God's presence.
Heavenly Father, I know you are with me, looking at me with love and caring for my every need.  

Then I review my day and express gratitude.
Loving Father, thank you for this day.  Thank you for the gifts and graces you have given me.  Thank you for life itself.  Thank you for the people who have graced me and touched me.

Between sentences I pause and recall something for which I am specifically grateful about the day, the graces, the people that God has placed on my path.  Today, for example, I was grateful for the gift of understanding a section of a piece of guitar music that has been a challenge to learn.  I also thanked God for my unexpectedly meeting a friend and her son at the frozen yogurt store.


Read the rest at Ruth Ann's blog  From the Pulpit of My Life