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Today’s
text
John
14:23
Jesus replied: Anyone
who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come
to him and make a home in him.
Reflection
We must nurture and protect a personal preserve of holiness
within our being, a space, a place of solitude where the Christ presence may
dwell and where we may commune with him.
Prayer in all of its forms is the process of nurturing this
intimate space within. It is a way of keeping Jesus word, of opening of ourselves
and welcoming his being that the Spirit he is may dwell richly in us, too.
Failing this, our inner-most soul, the deep inner womb where
Christ seeks to live in us will collapse from the press of life filling us,
leaving little room within for his being to live in us.
This is why inner communion with Christ is so rarely found
among modern men and women. And it is why we fail to have the peace that only
inner communion provides, a peace the world cannot give.
So perhaps we must say the name, repeat his name in the
morning hours and through the day, an ancient form of prayer that opens our
being to receive the substance of his soul.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus …
say it on the breath. Speak it in the rhythm of life passing in and out of your
lungs, for his word, that is to say his being, is life to the soul. Speak it
and breathe in the beauty of the one who blessed children and reached out to
heal, who cast out demons and drove away those who burdened human souls with unnecessary
rules and regulations.
All we need is what is in him. So return again and again
this day to the name. Speak it as you work and drive, walk and work. He will
come and dwell in the inner room of your soul, driving out all pretenders to the
place where only he belongs. In that holy space, he will speak peace to you.
Pr. David L. Miller
