You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
— Matthew 5:14-16, NRSV Bible with Apocrypha
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
Psalm 51:10-12, Ignatius Bible
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
I mess up.
All the time.
Each time is a temptation to beat myself up. I do this very well from much practice.
Over the last couple of years I’ve tried, instead, to pray this prayer or others like it; I find it better to invoke God’s help to change rather than to just try harder on my own.
King David messed up big time; I mean BIG time (read about it in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12). Psalm 51 records his prayer after being called out on it.
I need these words in my heart and on my tongue; maybe you do, too.
Grace and peace to you…
dw
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12, NRSV Bible with Apocrypha
Jesus is all flame; he is the light of the world, the light of life for all people. Our desire to become all flame, as Abba Joseph puts it, is simply another way of saying we want to love Jesus so much we will follow him no matter what, just to be with him in his mission of truth, mercy, healing, provision, redemption, justice, and love.
I regret that I regularly and habitually focus on the ashes and not the light, as Thomas Merton writes; every time I do that, I forfeit an experience of the very best for something less than that. As Mary Oliver says, when I do that “there is something wrong, I know”.
Gracious God, in your mercy, enable us to follow Jesus more and more each day.
Grace and peace to you…
dw
Image – Rembrandt portrait of Jesus from wikiart.org
Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patcha few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorwayinto thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.— Mary Oliver, Thirst
I first encountered Mary Oliver and this poem when reading Common Prayer, the book I mentioned in last Friday’s post. I was an immediate convert.
p.s. Notice she’s talking again about paying attention, a growing theme for us (see this, quoted from her book Upstream; see also Wednesday’s post where I emphasize it’s importance in living out our faith.)
Click below to see other posts on the theme of prayer:
For it seems to me that the first responsibility of a [person] of faith is to make [their] faith really a part of [their] own life, not by rationalizing it but by living it.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Jesus said we would know the reality of a person’s faith by how they live. Living our faith means we pay attention to his words and let our lives be transformed by them. It means we let him live in and through us; we follow where he leads.
Grace and peace to you…
dw
becoming flame 