Living with Christ Morning Prayer

Living with Christ Morning Prayer 
Monday, January 27, 2014

If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 

Jesus, the world is so divided:
Land and water,
prey and predator
female and male
liberal and conservative
East and West
South and North
rich and poor
developed and developing
black and white
old and young…

There are divisions and angers
even within my own family
and, if I am honest, even within me.
How can I help to heal the world when
I can’t even heal the divisions within myself?

You, Jesus, are my hope, and our hope.
It is you who bring true peace to persons and to people,
you who are the path to reconciliation.
You, and only you, are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Help me, Lord, to listen to your Holy Spirit,
to be open to the Spirit transforming me.
Help me to know your forgiveness when I fail,
and to bring forgiveness and compassion to others.

Help me, Lord, to overflow with the joyous hope
that someday I—and we—will no longer be a house divided,
but a house built on the one solid foundation of your self-giving love.
Amen.

Prayer for Today

O God, may you ever find me as attentive to you as you show yourself to me. Then I shall attain to that perfection to which you raise a soul that is weighed down. May I breathe my last breath in the protection of your close embrace. May my soul find itself without delay there where you are, whom no place can circumscribe, indivisible, living, and exulting in the full flowering of eternity. Amen.

- Saint Gertrude the Great