Praying 10 Minutes a Day: First Week/Wednesday

Image from Heartlight

Ash Wednesday was a week ago today.  What's been happening for you?  Have you wandered through any "out-of-the-way places in your heart" these past 7 days?

Before your 10 minutes of prayer today, or as part of that time, spend a few moments with John O'Donohue's poem here.  (I'm grateful to Fr. Paul Wharton at Hearts on Fire for sharing this on his page.)

For A New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

- John O’Donohue in To Bless the Space Between Us

Part of the greatness of this poem lies in how its broad vocabulary zeroes in on just about any heart's experience of God.

Has this Lent been a New Beginning in your prayer, in your relationship with God?

Spend some time in prayer with this poem and...
Watch for the ways it charts your own heart's relationship with God...
   with God who moves in your life... 
Look for the places in the poem where you see yourself...
   where you see God in your life...

Take a few moments to read the poem again...

Bring your reflections to your 10 minutes of prayer today...

For 10 minutes today, be still...
   and know that God is with you in the stillness...


Are you new to "Praying 10 Minutes a Day in Lent" - or are you having trouble getting started?  The first installment offers some thoughts on getting started, as do the subsequent posts in the series.  So take a look and join us!


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