"In mirrors I see myself. But in mirrors made of glass and silver I never see the whole of myself. I see the me I want to see, and I ignore the rest.
Mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. They reveal an ugliness I'd rather deny. Yow! Avoid these mirrors of veracity!
My wife is such a mirror..."
Relationships of close proximity, perhaps in a special way marriage itself, has a way of bringing to the surface those hidden and dormant capacities of our DNA. And often times those capacities aren't pretty. We have a way of twisting the best intentions into something that's a full turn in the opposite direction.
For one reason or another, coming into more of an awareness of this posture of humility in Lent has got me thinking about knees and kneeling. Whenever I think about knees and kneeling I think about our Catholic sisters and brothers who, often times, have an historical leg up on us Protestants in the areas of meditative prayer and the posture of penitence.
I'll always remember a dear couple my wife and I met while studying in Oxford. Devout Catholics, they were the first ones to talk with what really felt like rooted conviction that if they didn't start the day out praying (literally) on their knees, those days just didn't seem to make as much sense as the days when they did start out on their knees. The couple has since gone on to study in Austria, where, interestingly enough, one of the mottos of the school is to "study theology on one's knees."
At first blush, this may seem like a quaint form of piety that all of us Enlightened Protestants have since outgrown. "Why actually bend my body when I can simply pray in my mind?" But there's something to it. And I'm certainly intrigued enough to try and figure out more of what it's all about.
Bonhoeffer is certainly on track in this regard on Day 3.
We start with question:
In what ways might "prayer offered in the morning" be "decisive for the day"?
"This order and discipline must be sought and found in the morning prayer. It will stand the test at work. Prayer offered in early morning is decisive for the day. The wasted time we are ashamed of, the temptation we succumb to, the weakness and discouragement in our work, the disorder and lack of discipline in our thinking and in our dealings with other people -- all these very frequently have their cause in our neglect of morning prayer. The ordering and scheduling of our time will become more secure when it comes from prayer."
- from his book Life Together
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
give heed to my sighing.
Listen tot eh sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice
in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.
- Psalm 5:1-3
Prayer for today
Lord, show me a time in the morning when I can listen to you for the day ahead and when I can talk to you for the day ahead.
Amen
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