Kates: lifting a hand in prayer

Saturday, March 25, 2017
    Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary
Meditation:
    I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone...
    —1 Timothy 2:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In our praying, we should speak to God about Himself—that is praise; about His gifts—that is thanksgiving; about other people—that is intercession; about our sins—that is confession and penitence; about our needs—that is petition. Prayer has five fingers, like a hand, and each in turn must be pointed to God, that our prayer may be full and complete.
    ... Frederick Ward Kates (1910-1987), A Moment Between Two Eternities, New York: Harper & Row, 1965, p. 86 (see the book)
    See also 1 Tim. 2:1,8; 1 Pet. 2:9; Jas. 5:16; Jude 1:24; Rev. 14:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I lift my hands to you in prayer. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: command performance

Friday, March 24, 2017
    Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
    Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953
Meditation:
    Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
    —Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    I have called my material surroundings a stage set... In this I can act.
    And you may well say “act.” For what I call “myself” (for all practical, everyday purposes) is also a dramatic construction; memories, glimpses in the shaving glass, and snatches of the very fallible activity called “introspection,” are the principal ingredients. Normally I call this construction “me,” and the stage set “the real world.”
    Now the moment of prayer is for me—or involves for me as its condition—the awareness, the reawakened awareness, that this “real world” and “real self” are very far from being rock-bottom realities. I cannot, in the flesh, leave the stage, either to go behind the scenes or to take my seat in the pit; but I can remember that these regions exist. And I also remember that my apparent self—this clown or hero or super—under his grease-paint is a real person with an off-stage life. The dramatic person could not tread the stage unless he concealed a real person: unless the real and unknown I existed, I would not even make mistakes about the imagined me. And in prayer this real I struggles to speak, for once, from his real being, and to address, for once, not the other actors, but—what shall I call Him? The Author, for He invented us all? The Producer, for He controls all? Or the Audience, for He watches, and will judge, the performance?
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1964, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 80-81 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 12:1-2; Ps. 11:4; Jer. 17:10; 1 Cor. 11:28; 2 Cor. 13:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, uncover my hidden character and give me my true self, as You intended. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allshorn: the object of prayer

Thursday, March 23, 2017
Meditation:
    For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
    —Hosea 6:6 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The primary object of prayer is to know God better; we and our needs should come second.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 96 (see the book)
    See also Hos. 6:6; Prov. 1:7; Jude 1:20,21
Quiet time reflection:
    Teach me, Lord, to please You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: new wine

Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Meditation:
    And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit...
    —Ephesians 5:18 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is a wine which makes glad the heart of man.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)
    See also Eph. 5:18; Ps. 32; 104:14-15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I taste the ecstasy of Your Spirit’s touch. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chantal: ambition vs. prayer

Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Meditation:
    But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
    —2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
Quotation:
    I have come to see that I do not limit my mind enough simply to prayer, that I always want to do something myself in it, wherein I do very wrong and wish most definitely to cut off and separate my mind from all that, and to hold it with all my strength, as much as I can, to the sole regard and simple unity. By allowing the fear of being ineffectual to enter into the state of prayer, and by wishing to accomplish something myself, I spoilt it all.
    ... Jeanne Françoise de Chantal (1572-1641)
    See also 2 Cor. 12:9-10; Matt. 6:6-13; 26:39; Acts 8:18-23; Rom. 8:35-39; 2 Cor. 4:8-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, drive all thought of self from my communion with You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: the conquest of self

Monday, March 20, 2017
    Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
Meditation:
The LORD knows the thoughts of man;
    he knows that they are futile.
Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD,
    the man you teach from your law;
you grant him relief from days of trouble,
    till a pit is dug for the wicked.
    —Psalm 94:11-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration... The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees... So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Divine Conquest, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1950, Revell, 1950, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 94:11-13; Job 7:17-19; Ps. 8:3-4; 49:10-13; Rom. 1:21-22; 3:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to surrender to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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de Sales: understanding and healing from prayer

Sunday, March 19, 2017
    Feast of Joseph of Nazareth
Meditation:
    For through [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
    —Ephesians 2:18 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Prayer opens the understanding to the brightness of Divine Light, and the will to the warmth of Heavenly Love—nothing can so effectually purify the mind from its many ignorances, or the will from its perverse affections. It is as a healing water which causes the roots of our good desires to send forth fresh shoots, which washes away the soul’s imperfections, and allays the thirst of passion.
    ... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, II.i, p. 64 (see the book)
    See also Eph. 2:18; Isa. 55:6-7; 2 Cor. 7:1; Heb. 10:19-22; Jas. 4:8; 1 John 1:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are making me whole. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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