Words of Wisdom from The Daily Office

Blogger's Note:  This writing dates from June 22, 2011. A family vacation, absence of a coworker for a week, and family emergency (culminating in my father's death) has me way behind in keeping the blog updated.  I must say that the coworker who was out for a week (on a ministry-related task) more than made up for his absence in filling in the gaps for me during the three weeks I was away with my Dad.  I can never thank him enough for that.  Anyhow, though I succeeded in publishing the Musings almost weekly for my Wednesday evening rehearsals, I did not succeed in uploading them to the blog.  I will post one every few days until I am caught up.  [End of note]

One of the suggestions Blake made for us as individual members of this body during his sabbatical was to secure a copy of Peter Scazzero’s The Daily Office and go through it as a personal devotion book. Having read Scazzero’s Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and currently reading The Emotionally Healthy Church, I was eager to do so … but finding the book proved to be a bit of a challenge. If you have looked for it but been unable to find it in an affordable listing on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, please see me. I had trouble at first finding it at a reasonable price (probably because they sold in lots of 10 or so), and I’ll be happy to help you get a copy of it.

I’m in week two of the book and it’s taking me into some important growth areas in my spiritual life. Consider the following from the book:

My response to Day 1 morning prayer – “If I am a temple (as scripture suggests … not suggests, but clearly states), then there are some money-changers’ tables that Jesus needs to overturn in my life.”
Mother Teresa on day 1 evening prayer – We all must take the time to be silent and to contemplate, especially those who live in big cities like London or New York, where everything moves so fast … I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence --- we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but what He says to us and through us that matters. Prayer feeds the soul – as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul – and it brings you closer to God. It also gives you a clean and pure heart. A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and can see the love of God in others.
Scazzero’s suggested prayer on day 3 (?) talks about living so that my life is a gift to those around me. Oh, that that would be so for those who encounter me.
From Leighton Ford – When I am still, compulsion (the busyness that Hilary of Tours called “a blasphemous anxiety to do God’s work for him”) gives way to compunction (being pricked or punctured). That is, God can break through the many layers with which I protect myself, so that I can hear His Word and be poised to listen …
I can mistake the flow of my adrenaline for the moving of the Holy Spirit; I can live in the illusion that I am ultimately in control of my destiny and my daily affairs.
Blaise Pascal observed that most of our human problems come because we don’t know how to sit still in our room for an hour.

That’s enough to think about for now. The peace of Christ to you.