Sacred Space

I can’t remember where I first heard of this web site, but since running across it I have come back to it over and over again. It is called Sacred Space and it is a web site designed by Irish Jesuits which takes a person through a daily prayer, meditation and lectico divina. I admit that I was a little skeptical about reading a web site and being moved to prayer and reflection, but this site is so well done that it has never failed to be an inspiration. It is especially helpful at this stage in my life when I spend my entire day looking at a computer screen.

I wanted to share a couple of sections from today’s prayer.

Freedom

There are very few people
who realise what God would make of them
if they abandoned themselves into his hands,
and let themselves be formed by his grace. (St Ignatius)
I ask for the grace to trust myself totally to God's love.

It strikes me that if I were to become what I designed for myself, I would be caught up in a vicious cycle with my own sinfulness. My plans and my desires are slaves to sin and for all their supposedly noble goals they would serve only my own self-centeredness. True freedom is to be released from my slavery to sin and to become obedient to the designs and plans of God alone for it is only there where I find escape from the corruption of this life. Paul said we are always slaves-the only meaningful decision we make is to whom. We cannot choose to not be slaves, but we can choose to be willing bondservants to the incorruptible will of God.

Consciousness

In God's loving presence I unwind the past day,
starting from now and looking back, moment by moment.
I gather in all the goodness and light, in gratitude.
I attend to the shadows and what they say to me,
seeking healing, courage, forgiveness.

Far too often I look for God in my life in all the wrong places. To probably put that more accurately, I fail to look for God in all places-I fail to search for God in all the nooks and crannies of my life. As I reflect on yesterday I am tempted to think that because I had no epiphany or because I did not receive some marvelous gift I did not really see God. But if I pay closer attention and focus my faculties on the shadows, I begin to hear a voice. It is a voice that should be more familiar to me. The sounds of this voice teach lessons that cannot be learned in any other way. I am thankful for the goodness and the light and I should grow exceedingly grateful for the voice speaking from the shadows. God is so good that he does not leave me as an orphan in the dark.