Friday, September 08, 2006

Friday, Sept. 8, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 1:6-11

“For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:8).

Prayer

I don’t think I can remember a time, my Friend, when my soul was not lonely. I can’t remember a time when I did not long for a knowing love to break into my isolation, recognize the hollowness of my heart and yet refuse to recoil. And always I wondered: Is this loneliness mine alone, or the truth hiding behind every human eye?

I long for you. I long for a savior, who knows me, my fear, my lostness, yet who cherishes me and fills me with a love that ever and always is for me, with me, in me. Only this can save me from myself, from the shame and fear in which I resist the blessed communion of souls into which you have invited me all my life.

You ceaselessly invite me beyond constant loneliness into the community of love that you gather around yourself. I want--I need--to be immersed in a communion of sharing life and your precious gospel where I may know you and the love, immortal and immeasurable, whom you are.

Dearest One, this day let me know you, hold you, savor you in sharing a communion with others who love and need you as I do. Place a guard on my tongue that I may not speak harsh or idle words that seek an unholy communion with other souls based on mutual criticism and judgments of other whom you also Lovelace me ever beyond my loneliness into the communion of of your love. Amen.

Pr. David L. Miller
Dean of the Chapel, Cornelsen Director of Spiritual Formation

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 1:1-7

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion” (Phil. 1:6).

Prayer

Hope blossoms in these early days, my Lord. Assurance fills me with clear awareness that I am not alone, cut off, cast away. The nagging nihilism of despair that sometimes haunts has been tested and found false. That ancient fear is trampled under foot as I see the labor of those around me and know: It all matters. It all counts. It will not fail or fall incomplete, discarded pieces of a project that never bore fruit.

My hope is not the result of rational process, nor even the product of good work I see among saints around me. It is the natural effluence, the living flow released in the soul by the knowledge and experience of you. Knowing you, the energies of confidence, joy, assurance, creative power and love flow from depths of soul I can neither summon nor control. You give a certainty, a confidence beyond reason, confidence in you: in your beauty, your grace, your good will, your determination to bring the beauty you are to completion in the lives of those who love you.

In this good work, I know the goodness of the Worker. In the graces of the graced, I know the One who is grace. In the beauty of the given souls, I see you who are Beauty. In every act of love, I know the One who is Love. In their companionship, I know the Holy Companion who never departs from me. In their wisdom and care, I know you whose name is Eternal Wisdom and Unending Compassion. And that is enough for me. Amen.




Pr. David L. Miller
Dean of the Chapel, Director of Spiritual Formation

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 1:1-5

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:3-5).

Prayer

The parade grows longer every year, dear Friend. A long line of souls, saints all, marches through my heart, each one shining like the stars, afire with a far light greater than their own. Each stirs the prayer that I, too, may be animated by the flow of joy and life that bubbles from the dark spring of eternity and flows from their depths. I see their faces, and I name their lives before you as my morning act of praise, filled with gratitude for what you have done in them, and through them in me. I carry them with me wherever I go, though many of them have no idea of the divine blessing they bore (and bear) to hungry souls, like mine. Through them, you fill me and sharpen my vision that I may drink in your beauty--ever ancient, ever new--without which I do not live but merely exist.

In the living contours of those around me, I see hearts that know you. And in them, I know you. I taste the sweetness of your divine life. I savor the unspeakable beauty you are. I am filled with hope and restored by the energy of Life Itself. I discover the destination--the home--for which you intend me, and all. I thank you for them. I thank you that in them I know you, whom I need more than anything else. Amen.



Pr. David L. Miller
Dean of the Chapel,
Director of Spiritual Formation

Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 1:1-6

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (1:6).

Prayer

We begin again, dearest Friend. Some of us begin here for the first time, others for the last. The semester starts regardless of our moods or desires, whether we are ready or not. How would you have us begin? With confidence? With surety? There is little in us to make this truly possible, let alone sustainable. We know ourselves all too well to be brimming with confidence. But you invite us to an assurance that comes from knowing you, which is to know a love that never turns back. And you do not leave us without evidence.

The good work you have begun, the glow of faith, however faltering; the love we know in ourselves and in those lives that grace our own; the joy of hope stirred by the words of Scripture or an unsuspecting soul who has no idea how they have blessed us; the bread received at your table and at the tables of friends, which are also your table; the life, the growth, the taste of peace and patience you have given us—your gifts, all of them. Thank you. “Look at them,” you say. “You can’t begin to know what I have begun in you, but know this: I will bring it to fulfillment.” That alone is hope sufficient for the day. dearest Friend, let me know you so well this day that I may dwell in the joyous confidence of those who rest in the determination of your eternal love. Amen.


Pr. David L. Miller

Dean of the Chapel,
Cornelsen Director of Spiritual Formation

Praying the Mystery - the beginning...

Dear friends,

This school year I hope to offer a biblical reading and a prayer each weekday, Monday through Friday.

The readings will come from shorter New Testament writings, beginning with Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I will follow a lectio continuo method, continuous readings through the book. But I will move slowly, sometimes pausing to offer prayers for several days from one passage before moving on.

Each day I will quote a small portion of the text for the day, following with a prayer moved by the reading. You might keep a Bible nearby by to read the entire biblical reading appointed for the day.

I hope the biblical readings and prayers will stir your own prayers and continuing reflection throughout each day. Please read, reflect, speak your prayers and insights. Offer whatever the Spirit gives you, praise and petitions, confession or confusion, words or wonder. Then rest in the wonder of God’s loving presence.

I call this series Praying the mystery because our lives are a mystery hidden in a Love we can never fathom. In prayer we seek intimacy with the Love every heart desires and for which every life was made. There alone, we truly know ourselves—and the Loving Mystery who has treasured us since before the birth of time. We pray that we may see and know ourselves in Christ and be filled with the life he is pleased to share.

Pr. David L. Miller
Dean of the Chapel, Cornelsen Director of Spiritual Formation