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I'm away on retreat so I won't be posting as often as usual, just once a day, in the evening. Rather than offering a Pause for Prayer or Night Prayer, I'm inviting you to find some time and a place wherever you are this week to join me on retreat. I'll be writing in the first person singular and I hope you can make my words your prayer as you carve out a little retreat time for yourself each day this week. Find a quiet place... find a quiet time... light a candle... take a few deep breaths... ask the Lord to help you pray...
Someone recently asked me, Lord,
if I go on retreat with an agenda,
with some plan of action,
some purpose or goal in mind.
Actually, I try to avoid doing just that.
My only purpose on retreat
is to spend some quality time with you:
to carve out some time
to renew and refresh my relationship with you
- or to jump start it,
if my spiritual life has begun to stumble or stall...
If there's any agenda for this time, Lord,
I want it to be your agenda because I'm 100% certain
that you know better than I
just what I need this week,
just what's missing in my life,
just how you and I can grow closer to each other
in faith, in hope, in love, through prayer...
So, help me put aside all the worries and concerns,
all the problems and troubles that can so easily distract me
from whatever you have in store for me this week...
Help me slow down, Lord,
and take a few deep breaths...
Send your Spirit to make of my heart a blank page
where you can write your name, Lord,
and tell again the story of your love for me
and what you plan for me, ask of me and hope for me...
Help me find a quiet place and some quiet time
where I can hear you - if not your voice,
then simply the hush of your quiet presence,
assuring me that you are, as always,
right by my side...
Help me be open to whatever you want
to say to me this week,
to reveal to me this week,
to share with me this week,
to call me to this week...
Set the agenda for my retreat week, Lord,
and open my mind and heart
to all you want this week to be for me...
Amen.
Come To Me by Gregory Norbert
Come to me all who labor and are heavy burdened,
And I shall give you rest.
Take up my yoke and learn from me,
For I am meek and humble of heart.
And you’ll find rest for your souls,
Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
1) You God are my Shepherd, I shall never be in need,
Fresh and green are the meadows where You give me rest.
2) Pursue me, O God, with your fathomless love,
In your tent let me dwell all the days of my life.
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