5 New Messages
Today: 3 Appointments on Google Calendar
Zoom Meeting starts in 15 minutes
And so, our day begins. Whether we are accessing ZOOM for school, logging into Google Teams for a business meeting, sending a text to the family to remind them about dinner, or Facetiming our friends to make plans for the weekend, we are constantly trying to connect ourselves to one another. But how often, after all of these different appointments and projects, do we arrive at the end of the day, exhausted and worn out. Our world moves so fast, that we often don’t have time to stop and truly rest. Like cars on the highway our thoughts, worries and fears move a hundred miles per hour with no end in sight. Thankfully, there are still rest stops along the way and like our cars, we too need to pull off and refill our tank. As our bodies need to rest every day, so do our hearts. But how do we do this? Through connecting daily with the Lord in prayer.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
“Come to me”. Jesus longs for us to be with Him. He desires for us to be right beside Him because He loves us and has loved us even before we were born. We must go to Him, spending time with Him meditating on his Word daily. His yoke that He asks us to take upon ourselves, is immersing ourselves in the Word of God. His sweet and light yoke of letting God Our Father speak to us through His Son, the Word made Flesh, the person that cares for us and guides us in our lives, who shows us the right way to go. The way of truth, of life, light, love and happiness. Jesus in His gentleness welcomes you in your daily struggles and difficulties and wants to give you rest and guidance through His Word. And just like any great friend, He wants to speak to you and hear from you every day! We speak to so many people throughout our day, but how often throughout our day do we speak to God, or even more listen to Him and what He has to say to us? It can be hard to know or hear what He is saying to us if we don’t give Him the chance to speak. But like any other relationship, the more time we spend time with Him familiarizing ourselves the Word of God, meditating and reflecting on it, the more we come to know the sound of His voice and how it resonates in our hearts. Praying with Scripture daily, helps us become more attune to the voice of God amongst the other noises in our life that tire us. Every day He waits for each one of us in Scripture to give us hope and courage in our fatigue and suffering, to show us our next steps and how to take them in faith and love. Our yes to prayer, is a yes to our Father who invites us to be with Him and to remain in His love no matter our circumstances. He desires that His love becomes for us “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” and that this spring flows continuously, pouring out grace in all the areas of our life, particularly in the areas that are most barren.
It was a during my sophomore year at the University of Kansas that I began to taste the joy of life in the love of Christ through Daily Meditation. At that time, I was on the University of Kansas’s rowing team, study engineering, hosting a bible study, spending time with friends, and I was worn out and tired. I was being mentored by a FOCUS missionary and often told her how I was overwhelmed and struggling to find peace in my week, that eventually during one of our meetings, she pinned me down and said to me “Kate, you need to be praying 20 minutes with scripture every day. You need to be doing this every day if you want have some peace and clarity in your life. It is a must. And you will need to schedule it in your day ahead of time, otherwise it’s never going to happen”. I still look back at the meeting in awe, in how she said this to me and how absolutely true it was. As ironic as it seems, that in an already full schedule, that to then add “something else”, worked. In a time when I was running from one thing to the next, my daily meditation was my saving grace. It was that moment in my day that I set aside to stop and be with God. Those 20-30 minutes given to Him, He then multiplied into everlasting grace. I was revived and recreated from listening and speaking to Him from my heart. I started to encounter who God truly is and what my deepest desires in life truly were. I began to see the attention of Lord to the little details of my life that showed me of how much God cares for me and the situations in my life.
It was not easy to put those 20 minutes into my day but bit by bit I saw the difference between the days that I was praying and the days that I was not. The days that I prayed daily meditation were days spent with the person I love the most and the person who loves me the most. St. Theresa of Avila shares, “contemplative prayer (oración mental) in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it is taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us”. That is the connection we all as human beings long for, to spend our days with the people we love and who love us.
So, pull over. Refill your tank. Rest with Jesus and his Word. Through daily meditation, you will encounter His love for you and that will be the gasoline for your soul. He will fuel you through His grace to become and act more and more like Him every day. In this transforming prayer Jesus wants the words He speaks to you to become reality in your life. He does this by inviting you put His words into action in your daily life in simple and concrete ways. In those small, concrete steps you will begin to enter into and taste His eternal joy and His everlasting life. And so just like my FOCUS missionary said to me, I say to you as well: “You need to be praying with scripture every day. You need to be doing this every day if you want have some peace and clarity in your life. It is a must. And you will need to schedule it in your day ahead of time, otherwise it’s never going to happen”.
Reflection questions
- How many “appointments” do I have in my day? Is meditating on the Word of God one of them?
- Why do I want to pray? Do I view prayer as another thing to add to my day or as a place of rest with the Lord?
Resolution: Try to pray with scripture for 15 minutes every day, asking God for the grace to be faithful to your daily prayer time.
Kate Cropp, one of our AVI women in formation
