MONDAY FEBRUARY 26, 2024
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 71:1,4-8,14-16
John 14:1-7
This past Sunday Pastor Clark preached from John 14. This week we will have daily Psalm to pray and a passage from John 14 along with a daily discipline, reflection, meditation, poem, or prayer.
DAILY DISCIPLNE: MEDITATION ON SCRIPTURE
Monday’s we will provide a Meditation and Reflection during the Lenten Journey.
Many of you may already have a Meditation routine for your daily times of quiet and prayer with the Lord. For others this may be new or a foreign discipline that is only for Yogis. The reality is that Christian Meditation has been a practice since the early Church.
It is a time to carve out silence so we can hear the soft quiet voice of God. We are so bombarded by media, social media, music, and just plan noise. This noise fills our lives and chokes us out of the healing qualities of quiet. It also allows us to sit with our Lord and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit.
What you will need:
- A quiet space
- At a table and chair with a supportive back rest
- A chair or couch where you can sit upright.
- I would encourage you not to do this lying-in bed unless you need a nice nap.
- Cushion on Floor
- Your Bible
- Timer – good to set a timer for et amount of time in Meditation.
- A notepad or tablet/computer that you may write down some notes and reflections when the time is finished.
- On open spirit to meet the Lord.
(I recommend you read through this whole practice, get yourself prepared and then begin.)
LET’S BEGIN:
SIT IN YOUR QUIET SPACE:
READ SCRIPTURE:
Read slowly and allow the words to penetrate.
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE:
John 14:1-7
SILENCE:
If you would like to set a timer for 5 or 10 min. If you haven’t practiced mediation or it has been a while maybe start with 5 minutes.
Find a posture as you sit with a straight back; I like to think a tall back. Pretend a string is coming down from ceiling and is attached to the top of your head.
Not rigid and not too relaxed.
CENTERING PRAYER:
This is what brings one back into focus if our mind begins to wonder.
Begin by breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Not too labored and not too shallow.
Normal breath:
In the nose and out through the mouth.
You can close your eyes to help center.
Continue your breathing and begin praying one of these short prayers listed below. These helps us keep Christ at the center of our meditation and focus on the Lord.
“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy.”
“Come Lord Jesus, come.”
“Jesus, let me feel your love.”
“Jesus, lead me into joy.”
“Lead me Holy Lord.”
You can create your own, Centering Prayer has three characteristics:
- Short – no more than 8 syllables – first part of prayer prayed on in breath and the second part as you exhale.
- Include a Name for GOD
- Have a request: “give peace,” bring joy,” have mercy.”[1]
SILENT MEDITATION:
Once you feel centered begin:
Sit in silence. If your mind begins to wonder don’t stress. Come back to the breath and the centering prayer 2 or 3 times.
If images or words come to mind. Don’t focus to hard on them just make a note of it and get back to the breath and centering prayer.
Once the timer has gone off you may open your eyes.
READ SCRIPTURE A SECOND TIME:
John 14:1-7
CENTERING PRAYER:
Eyes open or closed.
Begin Centering Prayer
Breathe in … “Come Lord Jesus,”
Breathe out… “Come.”
Or whichever prayer you choose.
SOLITUDE AND SILENCE:
Sit in silence before the Lord another 5- 10 minutes.
CLOSING:
Thank the Lord for this time of sharing in the silence together.
Amen.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2024
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 63
John 14:8-14
DAILY DISCIPLINE: POETRY TUESDAY
Maria Monetta has been a member of the FPCH community for over 20 years. She is now a full-time staff member serving and blessing the community on our Security Team.
Maria enjoys writing haikus from her daily devotional, scripture, and prayer time with our Lord.
The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.
This haiku is Holy Spirit inspired from John 14:
The Lord is our guide,
His promises always true,
Giving us new life.
Thank you Maria and we look forward to many more haikus. Maybe we all can be inspired to try and think of artistic, creative, and new ways to engage with Scripture this Lenten Season.
A SONNET INSPIRED FROM JOHN 14
LET NOT YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED
By: Malcolm Guite
Always there comes this parting of the ways
The best is wrested from us, borne away,
No one is with us always, nothing stays,
Night swallows even the most perfect day.
Time makes a tragedy of human love,
We cleave forever to the one we choose
Only to find ‘forever’ in the grave.
We have just time enough to love and lose.
You know too well this trouble in our hearts
Your heart is troubled for us, feels it too,
You share with us in time that shears and parts
To draw us out of time and into you.
I go that you might come to where I am
Your word comes home to us and brings us home.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 28, 2024
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 15
John 14:15-17
DAILY DISCIPLINE: THOUGHTFUL PONDERING
MORE POTENT THAN WE KNOW
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16,17)
In verse one of this chapter Jesus has told his disciples to not let their hearts be troubled even though, as He later explained, He was going away. One of the main reasons He gave for this peace of mind was that He was sending Someone Who would take His place—the Holy Spirit. The Lord reinforces this in verse 26 by saying that in His Name His Father would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.
As an aside, note the words, “another advocate to help you.” There is no more important use of the Holy Spirit’s advocacy than in prayer—our only means of verbal communication with the Heavenly Father. He comes to our aid in helping us to know how to pray. And performs the very critical function of making certain those supplications are translated into God’s language and His will. (Romans 8:26, 27)
The promise made to those men by Christ over 2000 years ago is still just as viable for us today who are Christians. We know this Spirit of Truth because He lives with us and is in us.
We read of an awesome fulfillment of Jesus’ words on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-3. The apostles realized the personification of what the Holy Spirit was capable of. He appeared like fire accompanied by the rushing of a mighty wind. And this happening was so potent that it engulfed the entire house where they were—-It hung like a mist and filled the air. Oh, know without a doubt that His power has not diminished over time.
Have we begun to understand the Holy Spirit—to earnestly seek to access His Power? Our fervent heart’s’ desire should be that He would fill us with His essence—to pull us up into His vortex like a magnet. That we would experience His fiery Presence falling on us igniting our souls. And that we would encounter the rushing of His mighty wind fanning the flames, fueled by resurrection power.
Holy Spirit motivate and move us in powerful ways that we might expand to the greatness of God. Fill the room where we are sitting.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 29, 2024
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 121
John 14:18-24
DAILY DISCIPLINE: LECTIO DEVINA
LECTIO DIVINA – “DEVINE READING”
Today’s practice will be Lectio Divina, the literally meaning “divine reading,” but better translated as “spiritual reading.”
Lectio Divina comes to us from the earliest days of the church, in the 3rd century Origen practiced this “divine reading,” to describe a way of approaching Scriptures for the purpose of finding a personal message from God.
From the earliest days of the church to 2024, Lectio Divina continues to be a life-giving practice that draws us into intimacy with God that leads to real transformation.
Lectio Divina is broken up into 5 separate sections:
- SILENCO – Silence (we can use our Centering Prayer to help prepare.) Take 60 seconds (or more) in silent preparation for sacred reading.
- LECTIO – Listen to the text by reading out loud slowly and repeat 3 times.
- MEDITATO – Meditation – Reflect on what word, words, phrase or sentence that speaks to you from the text, then write it down.
- ORATIO – Pray – Pray as responding to the words, phrases, sentence that God has stirred in you.
- CONTEMPLATIO – Rest in the presence of God, allowing the words revealed to take root.[2]
LET’S BEGIN:
- SILENCIO – 60 seconds or more of silence
- LECTIO – Scripture read out loud slowly and repeated 3 times.
- John 14:18-24
- MEDITATIO – Reflection on a word, words, phrase, or sentence that speaks to you from the text. Hold onto it or write it down.
- ORATIO – Pray as responding to the words, phrase sentences that God has stirred in you.
- CONTEMPLATIO – Rest in the presence of God allowing the words revealed to take root: 3 to 5 minutes.
- AMEN
FRIDAY MARCH 1, 2024
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 13
John 14:25-31
DAILY DISCIPLINE: FAST FRIDAY
Let’s make today a fast day. That can be from food, phone, social media or whatever takes you away from centering on our LORD. If you are new to fasting, start slow. Maybe skip one meal or two (breakfast and lunch and then you can break the fast at dinner). Remember to drink plenty of fluids.
Scripture to Ponder on Fasting:
Matthew 9:14-15
Reflection on Fasting:
By: Robert Barron, Word on Fire Ministries
Friends, in today’s Gospel, people ask Jesus why his disciples do not fast. He says that as wedding guests, they will not fast while he, the Bridegroom, is with them. But “the days will come,” he says, “when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Why do we fast? Because we have a hunger for God, which is the deepest hunger. We’re meant to get access to that hunger.
We’re meant to feel it so that it can direct us toward God. Every spiritual master recognizes the danger that if we allow the superficial hunger of our lives to dominate, we never reach the deepest hunger.
Thomas Merton once observed that our desires for food and drink are something like little children in their persistence and tendency to dominate. Unless and until they are disciplined, they will skew the functions of the soul according to their purposes.
And fasting is a way of disciplining the hunger for food and drink. It is a way of quieting those desires by not responding to them immediately, so that the deepest desires emerge. Unless you fast, you might never realize how hungry you are for God.
Reflect: Why do we fast during Lent? How does this practice affect you?
SATURDAY MARCH 2, 2023
Scripture Reading for Today:
Psalm 1
John 14
DAILY DISCIPLINE: STAURDAY EXAMEN
PRAYER OF EXAMEN
The following practice is called The Examen where one simply pauses to prayerfully reflect on your week with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We invite you to set this prayer as a weekly rhythm every Saturday. Taking the same amount of time as you would for your regular Lectio Divina practice — pause, sit and review the experiences of this past week.
What has brought new life and joy this week?
Where have you seen Jesus revealed in a new or fresh way?
What has surprised or disturbed you this week?
Share with God an encounter that changed, challenged, or comforted you.
Ponder times when you may have resisted God’s guidance. What has stopped you from being wholehearted? Speak with the Lord about this.
Pray for the week to come, for God’s guiding hand in your life and your interactions with others.
Are there any Spiritual Disciplines you have committed to practice throughout Lent? Ask the Lord for grace to remain faithful in those disciplines.
Closing Prayer
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
That is enough for me.
[2] My.lectiodivinajouranl.com