Reflect on the past day:

What experience would I call a moment of grace?

As I recall this moment, what is my felt sense of it?
Can I name the sense? Symbolize it?

What experience would I call lacking in grace?

As I recall this moment, what is my felt sense of it?
Can I name the sense? Symbolize it?

I give thanks for these recollections and ask that they might
guide me in my desire to draw closer to God.

Read: Luke 11: 1-13 from scripture, reading first for a sense of the meaning, then again slowly and attentively. I gently listen to receive a word, phrase or inner movement that is God’s unique gift for the day.

Meditate: Once I have found a word, phrase or movement that speaks to me in a personal way, I spend time pondering it. I may want to look up the root and meanings of a word to get a more full sense of it. I let it interact with my thoughts, hopes, memories, desires. Wherever my reflection has taken me, I lift these up to the God of love and compassion. Whether I have had a sense of gratitude, pain, awe or shame, I accept that God’s love for me has not changed. It is I who am changed, not God. I gently speak the word or phrase from the earlier steps as a symbol of healing, blessing or gratitude.

Contemplate: Finally, I rest in God’s presence, grateful for any transformation (conscious or unconscious) that has occurred in me.

Daily prayers in the rhythm of the Spiritual Exercises will begin again in September. Have a blessed summer!