Psalm 71:1-6

¹In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

²In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

incline your ear to me and save me.

³Be to me a rock of refuge,

a strong fortress, to save me,

for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

⁵For you, O Lord, are my hope,

my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

⁶Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you.

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Let you focus shift to a situation in which you are ungrounded.
• Set your feet on the floor, supported in a chair. Feel the chair hold you.
• Notice how your feet desire to become grounded to the floor or in the earth.
• Let this energy flow up through your body as you invite God’s refuge and strength to bring you grounding energy and courage.
• Speak these words, In you, Lord, I take refuge.
• Deliver me.
• Rescue me.
• Incline your ear to me.
• Save me. 
• Be my rock.
• Be my hope.
• Be my trust.
• Today, I will live for you and in you and praise you continually.
• 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 Tuesday, March 26, 2026, the Tuesday of Holy Week (Year B)

Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2024 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 certification, 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 71:1-6

¹In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

²In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

incline your ear to me and save me.

³Be to me a rock of refuge,

a strong fortress, to save me,

for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

⁵For you, O Lord, are my hope,

my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

⁶Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you.

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Let you focus shift to a situation in which you are ungrounded.
• Set your feet on the floor, supported in a chair. Feel the chair hold you.
• Notice how your feet desire to become grounded to the floor or in the earth.
• Let this energy flow up through your body as you invite God’s refuge and strength to bring you grounding energy and courage.
• Speak these words, In you, Lord, I take refuge.
• Deliver me.
• Rescue me.
• Incline your ear to me.
• Save me. 
• Be my rock.
• Be my hope.
• Be my trust.
• Today, I will live for you and in you and praise you continually.
• 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 Tuesday, April 4, 2023, the Tuesday of Holy Week (Year A)

Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2023 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 certification, 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.

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

²⁸Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³⁰Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. ³¹They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ³²Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. ³³Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” — not knowing what he said. ³⁴While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. ³⁵Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” ³⁶When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

³⁷On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. ³⁸Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. ³⁹Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. ⁴⁰I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” ⁴¹Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” ⁴²While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. ⁴³And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

• Light a candle to remind you of Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Imagine sitting on the mountain with Jesus. You are tired and your tired energy is weighing you down.
• You are tired, yet you are awake enough to see the truth in the light emerging before you.
• Sit with this light.
• Instead of building an altar, God asks you to make Jesus your altar.
• How do you desire to bring this light with you as you live with the guiding light of Christ?
• 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, February 19, 2023, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2023 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 certification, 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 3:12-4:2

¹²Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, ¹³not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. ¹⁴But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. ¹⁵Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; ¹⁶but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

¹Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. ²We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Let your attention rest on the veil over your face that separates you from the light of God.
• This veil keeps you from receiving the fullness of God’s light and love.
• Seek within you the hidden things, the shame, the guilt, the burdens that are keeping you behind the veil.
• As you name these things, notice how God is lifting the veil from your face to receive light and love.
• Rest in the light and love.
• Like Moses, the veil keeps people from seeing the glory of God on your face.
• What light and love of God do you wish to emanate as you go into the world today?
• 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, February 19, 2023, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2023 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 certification, 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 99:1-9 (CEB)

¹ The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!
    He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
² The Lord is great in Zion;
    he is exalted over all the peoples.
³ Let them praise your great and awesome name.
    Holy is he!
⁴ Mighty King, lover of justice,
    you have established equity;
you have executed justice
    and righteousness in Jacob.
⁵ Extol the Lord our God;
    worship at his footstool.
    Holy is he!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
    Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
    They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
⁷ He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
    they kept his decrees,
    and the statutes that he gave them.

⁸ O Lord our God, you answered them;
    you were a forgiving God to them,
    but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
⁹ Extol the Lord our God,
    and worship at his holy mountain;
    for the Lord our God is holy.

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Sit at God’s footstool.
• Worship at God’s holy mountain.
• Worship with God on the holy mountain.
• Notice the view and all that you can see.
• Invite the question you desire God to answer today.
• Be in God’s presence to listen, to hear, to see, to taste, to touch, to know.
• Notice the view and all that you can sense.
• Sit and be.  Let the words arise from within you.
• What is your invitation 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, February 19, 2023, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author. Permission to use in not-for-profit settings.  (c) 2023 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 certification, 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.