A Concord Pastor Comments: Praying 10 minutes today: Thursday 5/10

Find a quiet time and place to pray... take a few deep breaths... be still and know that God is near...

A word to reflect on:
Jesus saw two of John's friends following him and asked them, “What are you looking for?” They answered, “Where are you staying?” Jesus said, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. John 1:35-39

What am I looking for?

That's a good question, Lord,

and you pose it every day...

What am I looking for?

What am I pursuing?
For what do I hope and dream and work?

What's my goal, my destination, my purpose?
What am I looking for?

It's a good question, a hard question, Lord,

because if I take it seriously then I begin to see clearly
what's important and what's trivial, what matters and what's not...

What am I looking for?
I want to believe I'm looking for you, Lord,
   but I know that long before I ever even begin to seek you out -
you are already looking for me...
The pair in the gospel asked, Where are you staying?
Sometimes I ask the same when I think I've lost you...
   when I think you've lost me... when I can't seem to find you...
But you are always there,
   even when I can't see you, when I can't find you...
The more closely I follow you,
   the more I listen for your word to me,
      the more I follow the truth of your voice --
the more easily I'll see that you are always looking for me,
   that you are by my side...
To find where you're staying, Lord,
   all I need do is find a quiet place, some quiet time,
and you will be there...
In the stillness of my time with you, in the silence,
   in the quiet, I will find where you stay
and know that you stay with me
         beside me and near me...
Help me find a quiet time and place today, Lord,
   and in the stillness let me find what I'm truly seeking,
      help me find the place where you stay,
         help me find that you are my God and that you are near...

After writing this post I came across this quote from Blessed John Paul II on Bishop Chris Coyne's blog - a great pairing with the scripture quote above:

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

"It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”

Here are some tips for praying 10 minutes a day and a link to the Lenten series from which these daily posts originated. If you find these daily prayer reminders helpful, please let me know - and share them with others. You'll find an archive of these daily posts here.