Friday, September 3, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 100 which both invites and commands:
Come with joy into the Presence of the Lord.
Psalm 100:2
To know and honor this Presence is the sole pursuit of the Christian life.
Understanding is the reward of faith.
Augustine of Hippo
Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe,
but believe that you may understand.
Our first reading from Colossians offers a beautiful hymn for our meditation as we pray to open ourselves to a deepening awareness of Jesus, present in our lives:
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
Colossians 1:15-20
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the Body, the Church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the Blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Prose: Jesus Prayer – John Henry Newman
Dear Jesus,
Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in
contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others;
The light, O Jesus will be all from You;
none of it will be mine;
It will be you shining on others through me.
Music: Jesus the Lord – Roc O’Connor
Lavish Mercy 