Month: May 2020

Pentecost: Let Anyone Who Is Thirsty Come to Me, John 7:37-39

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John 7:37-39

37On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Jesus has been glorified.
  • Yet we still thirst.
  • What part of you is thirsty today?
  • What do you desire from the One who gives living water?
  • Let the one who believes drink.
  • Drink.
  • Drink.
  • Drink.
  • Drink until the water is flowing rivers from your heart.
  • Encounter the world today with rivers flowing from your heart.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 31, 2020, the Day of Pentecost, Year A

Acts 2:1-21
Numbers 11:24-30
Psalm 104:24-34,35b
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2020 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a trained spiritual director, supervisor, and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, TX.  Upon completion of her spiritual direction training, Lil began Praying the Lectionary in 2011 as a spiritual practice for her morning prayer time.  Instead of reading about someone else’s experience of God, it was important for her to create a prayer practice that would encourage felt sense experience of the Holy emerging from within.  It dawned on her others might enjoy the practice, as well.  So she began to share them on this site.

As you experience the practice of Praying the Lectionary, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

 
 

Pentecost: We Were All Made to Drink of One Spirit – 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

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1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

3bNo one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • As you breathe, receive the Holy Spirit.
  • As you embrace the Holy Spirit, notice a spiritual gift given to you.
  • How do you wish to honor this spiritual gift today?
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of wisdom.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of knowledge.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of faith.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of healing.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of working of miracles.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of prophecy.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of discernment of spirits.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Remember a spiritual companion who shared with you the gift of speaking in tongues and/or interpretation of tongues.
  • Remember, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
  • Savor these gifts of the Spirit.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 31, 2020, the Day of Pentecost, Year A

Acts 2:1-21
Numbers 11:24-30
Psalm 104:24-34,35b
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2020 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a trained spiritual director, supervisor, and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, TX.  Upon completion of her spiritual direction training, Lil began Praying the Lectionary in 2011 as a spiritual practice for her morning prayer time.  Instead of reading about someone else’s experience of God, it was important for her to create a prayer practice that would encourage felt sense experience of the Holy emerging from within.  It dawned on her others might enjoy the practice, as well.  So she began to share them on this site.

As you experience the practice of Praying the Lectionary, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

Pentecost: Come Holy Spirit, Renew the Face of the Earth -Psalm 104

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PSALM 104:24-34, 35B

24  O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25  Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
26  There go the ships,
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

27  These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
28  when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29  When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30  When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.

31  May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works —
32  who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33  I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34  May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
35b Bless the LORD, O my soul.

Praise the LORD!

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation paying close attention to the deep breath.
  • As you pay attention to your breath, allow God to hold you as God holds the world.
  • Feel the lightness as you allow God to shoulder all of the weight, all of the burden.
  • Rest in the goodness of God’s hands.
  • What praise arises in you?
  • What metaphor comes to mind as you encounter God’s goodness?
  • Allow this metaphor to grow into a full image.
  • Where are you in the image?
  • Look around you.
  • Be filled with the goodness of God.
  • Let go of any tension that is keeping you from freedom in God.
  • Be free in the goodness of God.
  • Remember this freedom and goodness as you go about your day.  Call upon it as you encounter adversity.  Share it as you encounter an opportunity to share the Good News.
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 31, 2020, the Day of Pentecost, Year A

Acts 2:1-21
Numbers 11:24-30
Psalm 104:24-34,35b
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2020 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a trained spiritual director, supervisor, and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, TX.  Upon completion of her spiritual direction training, Lil began Praying the Lectionary in 2011 as a spiritual practice for her morning prayer time.  Instead of reading about someone else’s experience of God, it was important for her to create a prayer practice that would encourage felt sense experience of the Holy emerging from within.  It dawned on her others might enjoy the practice, as well.  So she began to share them on this site.

As you experience the practice of Praying the Lectionary, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

Pentecost: When the Spirit Rested on Them They Prophesied – Numbers 11:24-30

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Numbers 11:24-30

24So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. 25Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

26Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” 30And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Remember a spiritual mentor who has nurtured you in your faith journey.
  • Imagine God taking some of the spirit fire from your mentor and placing it upon you as the mantle of wisdom is spread from one spiritual friend to another.
  • Feel the spirit fire move from your head through your body to rest in the place you feel the divine spark within you.
  • Be warmed by the spirit fire as it moves through you.
  • Pay particular attention to places that need to be warmed and freed by spirit fire.
  • How does spirit fire desire to speak to you?
  • What words come to you?
  • Sit with those words that arise from spirit fire within you.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 31, 2020, the Day of Pentecost, Year A

Acts 2:1-21
Numbers 11:24-30
Psalm 104:24-34,35b
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2020 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a trained spiritual director, supervisor, and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, TX.  Upon completion of her spiritual direction training, Lil began Praying the Lectionary in 2011 as a spiritual practice for her morning prayer time.  Instead of reading about someone else’s experience of God, it was important for her to create a prayer practice that would encourage felt sense experience of the Holy emerging from within.  It dawned on her others might enjoy the practice, as well.  So she began to share them on this site.

As you experience the practice of Praying the Lectionary, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

Pentecost: Filled with the Holy Spirit – Acts 2:1-21

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Pentecost, Jesus Mafa

Acts 2:1-21

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes 11Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17  ‘In the last days it will be,God declares,
     that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
          and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
     and your young men shall see visions,
          and your old men shall dream dreams.
18  Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
          in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
               and they shall prophesy.
19  And I will show portents in the heaven above
          and signs on the earth below,
               blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20  The sun shall be turned to darkness
          and the moon to blood,
               before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation paying close attention to the deep breath.
  • Consider the language(s) you speak.
  • What language has the Holy Spirit poured out upon you?
  • Allow this language to be the primary language as you pray today.
  • What word or words do you feel rising in you.
  • Savor this/these word(s).
  • Allow this word to poured out upon you again and again.
  • What in this word is for you?
  • What in this word if for your neighbor?
  • What in this word is for the world?
  • What have you been given to prophesy?
  • What is God’s message for you?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 31, 2020, the Day of Pentecost, Year A

Acts 2:1-21
Numbers 11:24-30
Psalm 104:24-34,35b
1 Corinthians 12:3b-13
John 7:37-39

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2020 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a trained spiritual director, supervisor, and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, TX.  Upon completion of her spiritual direction training, Lil began Praying the Lectionary in 2011 as a spiritual practice for her morning prayer time.  Instead of reading about someone else’s experience of God, it was important for her to create a prayer practice that would encourage felt sense experience of the Holy emerging from within.  It dawned on her others might enjoy the practice, as well.  So she began to share them on this site.

As you experience the practice of Praying the Lectionary, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

So That They May Be One – John 17:1-11

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John 17:1-11

1After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

6“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Imagine the light of Christ shining upon you as Jesus ascends to his father.  The bright light, the joy, the abundant love of God showered upon those who reach out for him.  Reach out and receive.
  • In my life, Lord, be glorified, today.  Make me one with you.
  • Imagine the light of Christ shining upon creation as Jesus ascends to his father.  The bright light, the joy, the abundant love of God showered upon the trees clapping their hands and reaching  out for him.  Reach out and receive.
  • In my song, Lord, be glorified, today.  Make me one with creation.
  • Imagine the light of Christ shining upon all the people of the world as Jesus ascends to his father.  The bright light, the joy, the abundant love of God showered upon the gathered people reaching out for him.  Reach out and receive.
  • In Your church Lord, be glorified, today.  Make me one with my community.
  • Imagine the light of Christ shining upon the family as Jesus ascends to his father.  The bright light, the joy, the abundant love of God showered upon the people gathered around the table reaching  out for him.  Reach out and receive.
  • In our home Lord, be glorified, today.  Make me one with my family.
  • Make me one with you.
  • Make me one.
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
  • Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, May 24, 2020, the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Acts 1:6-14
Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
John 17:1-11

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2020 The Rev. Dr. Lil Smith, DASD

Rev. Dr. Lil Smith is a trained spiritual director, supervisor, and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, TX.  Upon completion of her spiritual direction training, Lil began Praying the Lectionary in 2011 as a spiritual practice for her morning prayer time.  Instead of reading about someone else’s experience of God, it was important for her to create a prayer practice that would encourage felt sense experience of the Holy emerging from within.  It dawned on her others might enjoy the practice, as well.  So she began to share them on this site.

As you experience the practice of Praying the Lectionary, adopt a loving, caring, and compassionate stance.  If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do.  Keep wrestling.  God is faithful to your journey.  Love and hope will emerge.  Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.