Today’s text
Luke 11:11-13
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you the, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Prayer
I have no trouble giving to my children, Gracious One, or my grandchildren. It brings me pleasure, although they do wear me out.
Is that the point? Do you take pleasure in giving gifts to those who call upon you from their heart, and even when they don’t call upon you? For I sometimes give to my beloved before a request can be made. And how much more generous is your heart than mine?
I feel the warmth of your smile in these words, Holy One. Eager, you are, to give abundance of life to body and soul. For you give the Holy Spirit, who is that rippling rush of self-giving love that streams through your inner life, making green and vibrant all it touches.
It touches us, and you smile. The Spirit’s breeze embraces our flesh, cooling our fevers and filling us heart and lung with the life you live, the love you give, the hope you fan and the desire you are. That desire springs to life in every nation as you take pleasure in giving your Spirit, moving your children to heights and depths of love they thought far beyond them.
So give your Hoy Spirit, Dearest Lord, especially where sorrow and fear hang thick, for we need a love far beyond our own to complete our healing … and your joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Friday, August 03, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:9-10
So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
Prayer
I am acutely aware, dearest Friend, that thousands are asking, searching and knocking as I struggle to write to you through this tired mind. They are far more weary than I, for they pray and hope for their beloved, whom they fear have perished in the swirling waters of a great river.
Dozens, certainly, search that murky water amid the twisted steel of a broken bridge in a city well known to me, and to you surely. They will do work no one else wants to do to bring people the worst news they will likely ever hear. They will find the bodies of beloved souls who went to work, to school, to the city, never imagining they would never again arrive home.
Bless the searchers, Blessed One, and those who wait with their hearts in their throats. Seek and find their hearts, knock until they open, ask that they might receive the consolation of your unceasing love, which is the only good and gracious news on days like this, and every day is like this for someone, dearest One.
For as much as we ask and seek and knock, you do so much more, hunting us down in our lonely places and seeking to love us into life. Let us never forget that our asking and seeking is but the resonance of your own search for us. So welcome our asking and searching, even as you welcome the souls of your beloved into unimaginable eternity. Amen
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:9-10
So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
Prayer
I am acutely aware, dearest Friend, that thousands are asking, searching and knocking as I struggle to write to you through this tired mind. They are far more weary than I, for they pray and hope for their beloved, whom they fear have perished in the swirling waters of a great river.
Dozens, certainly, search that murky water amid the twisted steel of a broken bridge in a city well known to me, and to you surely. They will do work no one else wants to do to bring people the worst news they will likely ever hear. They will find the bodies of beloved souls who went to work, to school, to the city, never imagining they would never again arrive home.
Bless the searchers, Blessed One, and those who wait with their hearts in their throats. Seek and find their hearts, knock until they open, ask that they might receive the consolation of your unceasing love, which is the only good and gracious news on days like this, and every day is like this for someone, dearest One.
For as much as we ask and seek and knock, you do so much more, hunting us down in our lonely places and seeking to love us into life. Let us never forget that our asking and seeking is but the resonance of your own search for us. So welcome our asking and searching, even as you welcome the souls of your beloved into unimaginable eternity. Amen
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:5-8
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.’
Prayer
A sly humor rises from your face when I watch you, Jesus. You smile at the absurdity of your own words, comparing the infinite generosity of the divine heart with a sleepy householder too tired to get out of bed. Your humor is born of a knowledge I cannot have, or at least only in minute part.
You know, full and well, the length and breadth of divine generosity, dear Friend. It is woven into the fabric of your being. It is your heartbeat, your truth, your identity and vocation. You are this generosity incarnate, alive and breathing, the kindest of all hospitalities, eager to open the door and welcome the likes of me into the eternal embrace of an incomparable love.
You smile, Jesus, at the incongruity of your words. You know: the heart of God is as unlike the resistant friend as day is from night, as distant as your largesse from my narrow heart. Your irony tells me what I most need to know: the Holy One is eager to share the bounty of that eternal life and love of whom you are the face.
So let me live this day in full awareness that I am the object of your unimaginable generosity. Pour your inexhaustible life into the leaky vessel of my heart that your joy and mine might be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:5-8
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.’
Prayer
A sly humor rises from your face when I watch you, Jesus. You smile at the absurdity of your own words, comparing the infinite generosity of the divine heart with a sleepy householder too tired to get out of bed. Your humor is born of a knowledge I cannot have, or at least only in minute part.
You know, full and well, the length and breadth of divine generosity, dear Friend. It is woven into the fabric of your being. It is your heartbeat, your truth, your identity and vocation. You are this generosity incarnate, alive and breathing, the kindest of all hospitalities, eager to open the door and welcome the likes of me into the eternal embrace of an incomparable love.
You smile, Jesus, at the incongruity of your words. You know: the heart of God is as unlike the resistant friend as day is from night, as distant as your largesse from my narrow heart. Your irony tells me what I most need to know: the Holy One is eager to share the bounty of that eternal life and love of whom you are the face.
So let me live this day in full awareness that I am the object of your unimaginable generosity. Pour your inexhaustible life into the leaky vessel of my heart that your joy and mine might be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:1-4
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Prayer
Words so simple, they take but a moment to say. And you are eager for us to pray them, blessed Friend. But why?
What can it mean for us to hallow your name, you who are Love Illimitable unbound by time and space? Of what is mortal flesh capable that will make or keep your name holy when you are so far beyond human reach and imagination that every word we speak of you is false, a lie? Astounded silence would seem the only posture capable of honoring you.
Yet, you invite us to speak, blessed Jesus, addressing the Unimaginable, asking that the divine will be done, that you will provide our needs and forgive us the violations of our humanity and that of others, to say nothing of our blatant disregard of that glory you share with the Father.
Who are we that we should do this? It does not matter. What matters is that it is you who invites us to do so, welcoming us into that relationship in which we may find, finally, our truest humanity, hidden where it has always been: in the mystery of the love of God. Our life, free and full, is unlocked only by knowing that love inexpressible you pour out from the Father’s heart.
So you invite us to pray, to speak simply our need and hope, knowing all that we are is received by a warmth and welcome who, for eternity, has longed for our presence.
Beyond the words of the simple prayer you teach, blessed Jesus, may I hear the invitation into the eternally unfolding mystery of your love. For this is greatest mystery of all, not that you are love, but that I, with stumbling words and uncomprehending heart, may enter what cannot be spoken. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:1-4
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Prayer
Words so simple, they take but a moment to say. And you are eager for us to pray them, blessed Friend. But why?
What can it mean for us to hallow your name, you who are Love Illimitable unbound by time and space? Of what is mortal flesh capable that will make or keep your name holy when you are so far beyond human reach and imagination that every word we speak of you is false, a lie? Astounded silence would seem the only posture capable of honoring you.
Yet, you invite us to speak, blessed Jesus, addressing the Unimaginable, asking that the divine will be done, that you will provide our needs and forgive us the violations of our humanity and that of others, to say nothing of our blatant disregard of that glory you share with the Father.
Who are we that we should do this? It does not matter. What matters is that it is you who invites us to do so, welcoming us into that relationship in which we may find, finally, our truest humanity, hidden where it has always been: in the mystery of the love of God. Our life, free and full, is unlocked only by knowing that love inexpressible you pour out from the Father’s heart.
So you invite us to pray, to speak simply our need and hope, knowing all that we are is received by a warmth and welcome who, for eternity, has longed for our presence.
Beyond the words of the simple prayer you teach, blessed Jesus, may I hear the invitation into the eternally unfolding mystery of your love. For this is greatest mystery of all, not that you are love, but that I, with stumbling words and uncomprehending heart, may enter what cannot be spoken. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
(Note: For the next several months Praying the Mystery will focus on the Gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, each day taking up a few verses from the reading appointed for the previous Sunday.)
Today’s text
Luke 11:1-2
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.”
Prayer
I feel your desire blessed Friend. Your friends come with a request. And your desire tells me there is no appeal nearer to your divine heart, which leaps at their words, “teach us to pray.”
But it is not human hearts but yours that captures my mind moves me to love you, Jesus. I watch you. I see your face. I feel the joy that warms you. I experience your fullness of heart as you turn to share the mystery of divine relationship with souls who do not yet know they have fallen into a well as deep as eternity and as warm as life, where untold suffering and unimaginable love awaits them.
In the flash of this moment, I know you. I know you want to teach them to pray. You want them to enter the mystery the Loving Mystery, the divine I AM, of whom you are the blessed face. You want them to share exquisite intimacy with the Father, in whom you constantly dwell, sharing undiluted unity of heart so that your every word and act is transparent to that Love.
You want them to know this loving unity, which is the heart of your joy and the fountain of your desire that they--that I--should taste the Eternal One who is Love Inexpressible. I know you in this desire. I know a love that will not let me go. Your desire tells me all I need to know to love and trust you, and the One you call Father.
Let me trust your loving desire for me and all you love that I may live with peace and assurance, listening for any the least word of instruction or encouragement you may speak. However small or insignificant, they spring from your desire to bless me with more than I can ask. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Today’s text
Luke 11:1-2
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.”
Prayer
I feel your desire blessed Friend. Your friends come with a request. And your desire tells me there is no appeal nearer to your divine heart, which leaps at their words, “teach us to pray.”
But it is not human hearts but yours that captures my mind moves me to love you, Jesus. I watch you. I see your face. I feel the joy that warms you. I experience your fullness of heart as you turn to share the mystery of divine relationship with souls who do not yet know they have fallen into a well as deep as eternity and as warm as life, where untold suffering and unimaginable love awaits them.
In the flash of this moment, I know you. I know you want to teach them to pray. You want them to enter the mystery the Loving Mystery, the divine I AM, of whom you are the blessed face. You want them to share exquisite intimacy with the Father, in whom you constantly dwell, sharing undiluted unity of heart so that your every word and act is transparent to that Love.
You want them to know this loving unity, which is the heart of your joy and the fountain of your desire that they--that I--should taste the Eternal One who is Love Inexpressible. I know you in this desire. I know a love that will not let me go. Your desire tells me all I need to know to love and trust you, and the One you call Father.
Let me trust your loving desire for me and all you love that I may live with peace and assurance, listening for any the least word of instruction or encouragement you may speak. However small or insignificant, they spring from your desire to bless me with more than I can ask. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
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