Sunday
Look upon me, O Lord,
and let all the darkness of my soul
vanish before the beams of your brightness.
Fill me with holy love,
and open to me the treasures of your wisdom.
All my desire is known by you,
therefore make perfect what you have begun,
and what your Spirit has awakened me to ask in prayer.
I seek your face,
turn your face to me and show me your glory.
Then shall my longing be satisfied,
and my peace shall be perfect.– Augustine
Monday
Great Mother God,
You formed our essence and placed eternity in our hearts while we were still in the womb of the deep. Reality was not hidden from you while it was being formed in secret. Your Spirit hovered over the water and knit the world together out of darkness. We are fearfully and wonderfully made!
The seas lift up their voice and sing your praise, “The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity.”
I join my voice with them, “Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”
Amen
Tuesday
In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss.
In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving.
You are our mother, brother, and Saviour.In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit, is marvellous and plenteous grace.
You are our clothing; for in love you wrap us and embrace us.
You are our maker, our lover, our keeper.
Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well.Amen
-Julian of Norwich
Wednesday
God be a smooth way before me,
Christ be a guiding star above me,
Spirit be a keen eye behind me,
This day, this night, for ever
I am weary, and I am forlorn,
Lead me to the land of the angels;
I think it is time I went for a moment
To the court of Christ, to the peace of Heaven;
If only Thou, O God of life,
Be at peace with me, be my support,
Be to me as a star, be to me as a helm,
From my lying down in peace to my rising anew.-Carmina Gadelica
Thursday
Let us bless the grace of water:
The imagination of the primeval ocean
Where the first forms of life stirred
And emerged to dress the vacant earth
With warm quilts of color.The well whose liquid root worked
Through the long night of clay,
Trusting ahead of itself openings
That would yet yield to its yearning
Until at last it arises in the desire of light
To discover the pure quiver of itself
Flowing crystal clear and free
Through delighted emptiness.The courage of a river to continue belief
In the slow fall of ground,
Always falling farther
Toward the unseen ocean.The river does what words would love,
Keeping its appearance
By insisting on disappearance;
Its only life surrendered
To the event of pilgrimage,
Carrying the origin to the end,Seldom pushing or straining,
Keeping itself to itself
Everywhere all along its flow,
All at one with its sinuous mind,
An utter rhythm, never awkward,
It continues to swirl
Through all unlikeness,
With elegance:
A ceaseless traverse of presence
Soothing on each side
The stilled fields,
Sounding out its journey,
Raising up a buried music
Where the silence of time
Becomes almost audible.Tides stirred by the eros of the moon
Draw from that permanent restlessness
Perfect waves that languidly rise
And pleat in gradual forms of aquamarine
To offer every last tear of delight
At the altar of stillness inland.And the rain in the night, driven
By the loneliness of the wind
To perforate the darkness,
As though some air pocket might open
To release the perfume of the lost day
And salvage some memory
From its forsaken turbulenceAnd drop its weight of longing
Into the earth, and anchor.Let us bless the humility of water,
Always willing to take the shape
Of whatever otherness holds it,The buoyancy of water
Stronger than the deadening,
Downward drag of gravity,
The innocence of water,
Flowing forth, without thought
Of what awaits it,
The refreshment of water,
Dissolving the crystals of thirst.Water: voice of grief,
Cry of love,
In the flowing tear.Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.Blessed be water,
Our first mother.– John O’Donohue
Friday
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore you,
a heart to delight in you,
to follow and to enjoy you,
for Christ’s sake.– Ambrose of Milan
Saturday
Lord of Time,
Who numbers our days and gives life to this moment,
Grant us Grace that we may return to Eden,
That we may see the infinite and be seen by it,
Awaken within us the spark of eternity you placed within our hearts
And let us taste of the Tree of Life, if only for a moment
In the name of Timeless Three, who give life to this momentAmen