Living with Christ Morning Prayer

Living with Christ Morning Prayer
January 17, 2014
St. Anthony

They opened up the roof...

Jesus, here you are in Capernaum,
headquartered in Peter's house,
and manifesting God's loving power
to cure our ills and forgive our sins.
Blessed are you!

But, Jesus, as I pray with this gospel,
help me also to remember Peter,
and especially his wife.

Peter had only been following you a short time,
and his wife suddenly finds her house, her domain,
so filled with people that they can't get in or out.

I can see her giving Peter the look that says
"What have you gone and done now?"
And what would she have thought
when men started ripping a hole in her roof,
and clumps of thatch and dried mud came tumbling down?

I can't imagine I would stay calm
if people were tearing my house apart.

And yet, without that hole in the roof,
the paralytic would have stayed paralyzed.

Jesus, help me be open to the truth
that there is a cost to following you.
Help me to understand that
some people will never meet you unless
I am willing to sacrifice some sort of "roof,"
whether it be material or personal.
And help me, today, to break through
whatever spiritual ceiling
keeps me from following you more closely.
Amen.

For a prayer for today from the Orthodox Liturgy of St. James, see page 193 in the January issue of Living with Christ.