2 Corinthians 12:2-10

²I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. ³And I know that such a person — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows — ⁴was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. ⁵On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. ⁶But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, ⁷even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. ⁸Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, ⁹but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

• 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, what weakness comes to you?
• Focus on this weakness.  Let other thoughts fall away.
• How is God’s grace sufficient for you?
• What power do you know in weakness?
• How does the power of Christ shine through this weakness?
• How can you be more content with weaknesses? insults? hardships? persecutions? calamities?
• Where do you notice Christ’s strength in you?
• Is there a specific place in your body you hold this strength?
• Make note of this place so that you might draw upon it again when you are weak.
• I wonder, what is God’s invitation for you today?
• 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, July 4, 2021, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2021 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.

Psalm 48

¹Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, ²beautiful in elevation
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
³Within its citadels God
has shown himself a sure defense.
⁴Then the kings assembled,
they came on together.
⁵As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
they were in panic, they took to flight;
⁶trembling took hold of them there,
pains as of a woman in labor,
⁷as when an east wind shatters
the ships of Tarshish.
⁸As we have heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts,
in the city of our God,
which God establishes forever.
Selah 
⁹We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple.
¹⁰Your name, O God, like your praise,
reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with victory.
¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad,
let the towns of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments.
¹²Walk about Zion, go all around it,
count its towers,
¹³consider well its ramparts;
go through its citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
¹⁴that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will be our guide forever.

• 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 guide you in your breath.
• Let go of any thoughts or to-do list that might keep you from giving your full attention to God.
• Continue to gently silence any voices and noise around you as you pay attention to your breath.
• Let go of time.
• Seek the guidance of God.
• As you feel freedom from the world around you, seek guidance from God.
• Where do you need guidance today?
• Keep your focus on this one point.
• Stay with your breath and listen for God’s guidance.
• As you time in meditation ends, give thanks to God for this time.
• As you go about your day, take time to stop and listen for God’s guidance.
• Be open to people, places, experiences which might reveal God’s answer to you.
• Be open to the unexpected.
• 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, July 4, 2021, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2021 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.

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

¹Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh. ²For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The LORD said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.” ³So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel. ⁴David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. ⁵At Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years.

⁹David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David. David built the city all around from the Millo inwards. ¹⁰And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him.

• 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 continue to pay attention to your breath, consider how you are a shepherd to God’s people.
• How does your faith lead you and others?
• David built the city from the outskirts inward.
• How have you discovered and tended your faith? Notice both the outward to inward and inward to outward.
• David became greater and greater with God.
• How have you become greater and greater with God?
• How is God calling you to be a shepherd to God’s people today?
• 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, July 4, 2021, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2021 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.

Mark 5:21-43

²¹When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. ²²Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet ²³and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” ²⁴So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. ²⁵Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. ²⁶She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. ²⁷She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” ²⁹Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³²He looked all around to see who had done it. ³³But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. ³⁴He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

• 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 scan your body and your thoughts, consider what in you needs to be made well.
• As you engage your faith, complete this phrase, “If I but _________, I will be made well.”
• Continue to say this phrase to yourself over and over in sync with your breath.
• Bring your fears and your tremblings before Christ.
• Kneel before Christ.
• Tell Christ the whole truth.
• Believe your faith in Jesus Christ will make you well.
• Seek the peace within you.
• Be awake and aware in your day as you encounter signs of healing.  Be open to the healing Jesus has for you.  Seek the peace within you.
• At the close of day, review the events of the day and see where you encountered Jesus.  What kind of healing did Jesus have for you?
• Repeat again tomorrow and each day to come as you wish.
• 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, June 27, 2021, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2021 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.

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

⁷Now as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you — so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

⁸I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others.⁹For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something — ¹¹now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has — not according to what one does not have.¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between¹⁴your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.¹⁵As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”

• 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 follow your breath, let your focus become that which you are giving in the name of the Lord.
• How does this giving bless you?
• How does this giving make you rich?
• What did you give up to be able to give more?
• What might you give more abundantly so that others might be blessed?
• What does your neighbor give in the name of the Lord?
• How does this giving bless your neighbor?
• How does this giving make your neighbor rich?
• What did your neighbor give up in order to receive more blessing?
• What might your neighbor give more abundantly so that others might be blessed?
• Who has too much?
• Who has too little?
• What is God’s invitation for you today?
• Is there a call to action?
• 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, June 27, 2021, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2021 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.

Psalm 130

¹Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
²Lord, hear my voice
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
³If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
⁴But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
⁵I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
⁶my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
⁷O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
⁸It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

• 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 open yourself today to encounter God, find any hidden places which have not been opened.
• Allow this to be your focus today.
• Consider the depths in that hidden place.  Stretch and reach out of your comfort zone.
• Believe that God reaches into those depths with you.
• This is the power to redeem the darkest, the scariest, the deepest hidden place.
• This hope is greater than the promise of the rising sun.
• This hope is the risen Son.
• Christ will meet you in the depths.
• Christ is already there.
• Open to Christ.
• Pour out your story, your heart, your lament.
• Feel the steadfast love and the power redeeming you.
• Embrace forgiveness for you and for others.
• Savor being held in the love of Christ.
• I wonder, what is God’s invitation for you today?
• 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, June 27, 2021, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2021 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.