1. Prayer
Dear God, as I come to You today I lay my past at Your feet.
I pray for the strength to let go of my past, to no longer hold on to the hurt and pain that has weighed me down for so long.
Help me to embrace the present moment, to find joy and peace in the here and now.
I surrender all of my fears, regrets, and doubts to You, trusting that You will help me to move forward and find healing.Fill me with Your love and grace, and help me to forgive myself and others who have caused me pain.
Remind me that You are with me always and that I am never alone.
I ask for Your wisdom and guidance, that You may lead me on the path to wholeness and freedom.
Help me to see the beauty and goodness in the world around me and to live in gratitude for all that You have given me.
May Your presence be with me always, as I let go of my past and embrace the hope and promise of a new day.
2. Meditation
lhttps://youtu.be/syx3a1_LeFo?si=1BbtOYep4d6huHz6
3. Song
https://youtu.be/mu4FHq1fX10?si=q4KX25Vzxsbftiiv
4. Narrative
God asks only that you get out of God’s way and let God be God in you. —Meister Eckhart, sermon on 1 John 4:9
Father Richard describes the spiritual discipline of detachment as the practice of “letting go”:
In the larger-than-life people I have met, I always find one common denominator: in some sense, they have all died before they died—and thus they are larger than death, too! Please think about that. At some point, they were led to the edge of their private resources, and that breakdown, which surely felt like dying, led them into a larger life. They went through a death of their various false selves and came out on the other side knowing that death could no longer hurt them. They fell into the Big Love and the Big Freedom—which many call God.
Throughout most of history, the journey through death into life was taught in sacred space and ritual form, which clarified, distilled, and shortened the process. Today, many people don’t learn how to move past their fear of diminishment, even when it stares them down or gently invites them. This lack of preparation for the “pass over,” the absence of training in grief work and letting go, and our failure to entrust ourselves to a bigger life, have contributed to our culture’s spiritual crisis.
All great spirituality is about letting go. Instead, we have made it to be about taking in, attaining, performing, winning, and succeeding. True spirituality echoes the paradox of life itself. It trains us in both detachment and attachment: detachment from the passing so we can attach to the substantial. But if we do not acquire good training in detachment, we may attach to the wrong things, especially our own self-image and its desire for security. [1]
Each time I learn to let go of what I thought was necessary for my own happiness, I invariably find myself in a larger place, a larger space, a deeper union, a greater joy. I’m sorry I can’t prove that to you ahead of time. We only know it after the fact. I used to read every book I could as a young man thinking if I understood good theology, good philosophy, good psychology, I’d know how to live the so-called perfect life and it would show me how to open the door in front of me. Now, in the last season of my life, I realize that what’s in front of me is still largely darkness—but it doesn’t matter anymore. That’s because letting go has taught me that I can look back, not forward, back at the past of my life and I can truthfully say, “What have I ever lost by dying? What have I ever lost by losing?” I have fallen upward again and again. By falling I have found. By letting go I have discovered, and I find myself in these later years of my life still surprised that that is true. [2]
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Essential Teachings on Love, selected by Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 199.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2010).
5. Meditation
https://youtu.be/FsCKAZcuRMY?si=S7tVIp3m_jKucGx5
Almighty God, I come before You today confessing my struggle with control.
I acknowledge that I have been holding onto things that I should be releasing to You and that this has caused stress and anxiety in my life.
I ask that You help me to let go of my need for control and to place my trust fully in You.
I surrender all my worries and fears to You, knowing that You are in control of all things.
I ask for Your guidance and direction in my life and that You help me to follow Your will and not my own.
Help me to have a humble heart and to rely on Your strength, not my own.
Thank You for Your love and care for me and for Your Holy Spirit who is always there to guide me on my journey.
In Jesus Name I pray, amen.
8. Song
https://youtu.be/f8TkUMJtK5k?si=q6_Iea_ZTOmQVUY6
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