Monday, October 16, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 2:12-13

“Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you to will and work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).

Prayer

I am not like you, dearest Holy Mystery. I am not simple. My heart is not pure, given to one thing alone. I am complex, a menagerie of conflicting voices and colliding desires that make any choice subject to capricious movements of heart and will.

But among the clamoring voices is your constant calling, inviting, drawing, coaxing me into the incandescent fire of your life. There you burn off that which is worthless, transforming me into the fire of the love whom you are. You labor in me. The thought of it should frighten me I suppose, but today there is no fear. I know only hope and tears that bless you for the wonder of living a life where you are, a life where you work to bring me to the fullness of of life you desire for me.

You labor in me: You who cast the nebulae into the cold darkness of space, who command Orion to illumine the night watches, who are the illimitable Source from whom all life streams from eternity into time, who are beyond human intellection and knowing, beyond light and darkness, beyond being and non being, beyond wonder and imagination, who are the impenetrable abyss no eye has see and no ear heard, you who quilt all life together in arrays of color and connection that dazzle the understanding: You, who are Unspeakable Wonder, labor in the crowded halls of my heart, clearing the room to bring fullness of salvation and simplicity so that all that matters is your love alone.

And I? I shall work and move with confidence, not doubt and second guessing. For you whose single work is life, labor also to abundant life for me, in me, through me. In the heart’s crowded halls, I shall listen for the voice of your desire for peace, for love, for life, for hope, knowing you are there, O Unspeakable Mystery. And should I mistake another's voice for your call, I shall yet know greater forgiveness, and your holy desire will yet be done despite my failings. So let me live. Amen.