Exodus 24:12-18

¹²The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. ¹⁴To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

¹⁵Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. ¹⁷Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. ¹⁸Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Psalm 2

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• After days, months, or perhaps years of wandering in the wilderness like the Israelites, God is calling you to the mountaintop.
• The mountaintop is the place where God meets his people, and God is calling you to the mountaintop.
• God calls you up, yet asks to wait once more.
• It takes time for new things to be revealed.
• You must be prepared to see the new thing that God has for you.  New things are transformational.
• Notice how you walk up the mountain.
• Notice how you wait.
• Are you ready to climb that last bit to receive what God has for you?
• Are you ready to be transformed?
• 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)

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 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.

Matthew 17:1-9

¹Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” ⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. ⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” ⁸And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Allow the Breath to free your hearing.
• Listen with your ears.
• Allow the Breath to free your sight.
• Listen with your eyes.
• Allow the Breath to free your nose.
• Listen with your smell.
• Allow the Breath to free your mouth
• Listen with your taste.
• Allow the Breath to free your body.
• Listen with your body.
• Invite God to free any place in you that feels tension.
• Listen to this place.
• Listen to Jesus the Redeeming One.
• Listen to Holy Spirit the Sustaining One.
• Listen to God the Creating One.
• Listen.
• 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 23, 2020, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

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.

2 Peter 1:16-21

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, ²¹because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit in darkness for five minutes.
• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five minutes in silence watching the light and life of the flame.
• What do you see, hear, smell, taste, feel?
• Hear the words, ‘This is my son, my Beloved with whom I am well pleased.”
• Remember the prophecy of these words as they are fulfilled in Jesus.
• See the light and life of Christ in the flame.
• The day is dawning and the morning star is rising in your heart.
• Let the light and life of Christ shine on your face.  Feel the warmth, see the dance, smell the fragrance, listen as the Holy Spirit speaks these words to you, “You are my beloved with whom I am well pleased.”
• You are beloved.
• How does God need you to share your belovedness?
• Think of someone who needs to know the belovedness of God.
• How will you share this with them 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 23, 2020, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

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.

Psalm 99

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 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 23, 2020, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

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.

Psalm 2

¹   Why do the nations conspire,
          and the peoples plot in vain?
²   The kings of the earth set themselves,
          and the rulers take counsel together,
          against the LORD and his anointed, saying,
³   “Let us burst their bonds asunder,
          and cast their cords from us.”

⁴   He who sits in the heavens laughs;
          the LORD has them in derision.
⁵   Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
          and terrify them in his fury, saying,
⁶   “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

⁷   I will tell of the decree of the LORD:
     He said to me, “You are my son;
          today I have begotten you.
⁸   Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
          and the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹   You shall break them with a rod of iron,
          and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

¹⁰  Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
          be warned, O rulers of the earth.
¹¹  Serve the LORD with fear,
          with trembling ¹² kiss his feet,
     or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way;
          for his wrath is quickly kindled.

     Happy are all who take refuge in him.

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• Inhale the breath of God.
• Exhale the things of the earth.
• Inhale the breath of God.
• Exhale the desire to conspire and control the world.
• Inhale the breath of God.
• Exhale the control of worldly leaders.
• Inhale the breath of God.
• Notice the freedom of the Breath.
• How do you desire to cut the cords that bind you to the world so that you may serve the Lord?
• As you serve the Lord, notice the happiness, the blessedness, the wholeness it brings you.
• How do you desire to respond to this place of refuge in God?
• How do you desire to remain in this place of refuge in God?
• What do you need to let go and/or embrace to remain in this place of refuge in God?
• 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 23, 2020, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

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.

Exodus 24:12-18

¹²The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. ¹⁴To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

¹⁵Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. ¹⁷Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. ¹⁸Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Psalm 2

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
• After days, months, or perhaps years of wandering in the wilderness like the Israelites, God is calling you to the mountaintop.
• The mountaintop is the place where God meets his people, and God is calling you to the mountaintop.
• God calls you up, yet asks to wait once more.
• It takes time for new things to be revealed.
• You must be prepared to see the new thing that God has for you.  New things are transformational.
• Notice how you walk up the mountain.
• Notice how you wait.
• Are you ready to climb that last bit to receive what God has for you?
• Are you ready to be transformed?
• 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 23, 2020, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Year A)

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.