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Saturday Prayer: Litany of Penance

Posted on May 14, 2016May 13, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

The Litany of Penance may be familiar if you attend services in an Episcopal or Anglican church. A shorter version of it is often included in the Night office of the Divine Hours.

When we run out of our own words or don’t know where to start in prayer, a simple prayer of confession can offer a good place to begin, claiming God’s mercy and trusting in the renewing power of God’s love for you.

The full litany follows:

Litany of Penitence
Most holy and merciful Father: I confess to you and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart, and mind, and strength. I have not loved my neighbors as myself. I have not forgiven others, as I have been forgiven. Have mercy on me, Lord.

I have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. I have not been true to the mind of Christ. I have grieved your Holy Spirit. Have mercy on me, Lord.

I confess to you, Lord, all my past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of my life. I confess to you, Lord.

My self-indulgent appetites and ways, and my exploitation of other people, I confess to you, Lord.

My anger at my own frustration, and my envy of those more fortunate than I, I confess to you, Lord.

My intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and my dishonesty in daily life and work, I confess to you, Lord.

My negligence in prayer and worship, and my failure to commend the faith that is in me, I confess to you, Lord.

Accept my repentance, Lord, for the wrongs I have done: for my blindness to human need and suffering, and my indifference to injustice and cruelty, Accept my repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward my neighbors, and for my prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from me, Accept my repentance, Lord.

For my waste and pollution of your creation, and my lack of concern for those who come after us, Accept my repentance, Lord.

Restore me, good Lord, and let your anger depart from me, Favorably hear me for your mercy is great. Accomplish in me and all of your church the work of your salvation, That I may show forth your glory in the world. By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord, Bring me with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Follow this updated page of the Divine Hours

Friday Favorites for Prayer and Writing

Posted on May 13, 2016May 12, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Each Friday I share some of my favorite finds related to praying or writing. If I think it could help you pray or write better, then I’ll include it below.

Do you have someone else’s article or post to share? Join the Contemplative Writers Facebook group, comment on today’s post on my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter (@edcyzewski) to nominate your favorite articles, blog posts, and books by Thursday at noon each week.

Benedictine Stability: When the Going Gets Tough, Stay

Change Is Not for the Faint of Heart

John Wesley on Conversion and Spiritual Formation

Facebook Has 50 Minutes of Your Time… It Wants More

Doctors Explain How Hiking Changes Our Brains

Looking for more recommendations? Check out our Prayer Resources page.

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Friday Favorites for Prayer and Writing

Posted on April 29, 2016April 23, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Each Friday I share some of my favorite finds related to praying or writing. If I think it could help you pray or write better, then I’ll include it below.

When the Darkness Lifts by Kelly J. Youngblood

The Liturgists Podcast: An Interview of Richard Rohr

How Our Salvation Begins by Kelly Chripczuk

Rest Easy, You’re Loved No Matter What by Aundi Kolber

Keep Showing Up and Finishing Stuff by Me (Read the comments!)

13 Powerful Women Mystics Who Helped Shape Christianity

Looking for more recommendations? Check out our Prayer Resources page.

Featured Contemplative Book: Immortal Diamond

Posted on April 25, 2016April 24, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Week Four: Love

I used to speak of God being apart from myself, but Richard Rohr has helped me look at scripture with new eyes. For instance, Paul writes:

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:2-3, NRSV

Our lives are hidden in Christ? In other words, after all of the times I’ve asked God to “show up,” I’ve missed the fact that I’m hidden in Christ. This divine union forms the backbone of Rohr’s writing.

The presence of God we seek and even fear losing because of our imperfections has been among us all along. Even as we reach out for God, God is already holding us. When we fear we are falling away, we are already being held.

May we find comfort today in the loving embrace of God.

Here is the final list of quotes from Immortal Diamond this month.

*****

“It is almost impossible to fall in love with majesty, power, or perfection. These make us fearful and codependent, but seldom truly loving. On some level, love can only happen between equals, and vulnerability levels the playing field. What Christians believe is that God somehow became our equal when he became the human “Jesus,” a name that is, without doubt, the vulnerable name for God.”

*****

“Your False Self is how you define yourself outside of love, relationship, or divine union. After you have spent many years laboriously building this separate self, with all its labels and preoccupations, you are very attached to it. And why wouldn’t you be? It’s what you know and all you know. To move beyond it will always feel like losing or dying…”

*****

“Longing for God and longing for our True Self are the same longing. And the mystics would say that it is God who is even doing the longing in us and through us…”

*****

“The Risen Christ is the standing icon of humanity in its final and full destiny. He is the pledge and guarantee of what God will do with all of our crucifixions. At last, we can meaningfully live with hope. It is no longer an absurd or tragic universe. Our hurts now become the home for our greatest hopes.”

*****

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For Reflection or Sharing

Even as we reach out for God, God is already holding us.

Contemplative Profiles: The Female Mystics of the Middle Ages

Posted on April 21, 2016April 20, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

In the past I have made the mistake of ignoring the spiritual teachings of the Middle Ages, missing out on the rich contemplative practices that were documented at great personal cost. Dr. Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff notes in an article in Christianity Today that women were often denied educations in the Middle Ages, so their religious communities took on a more contemplative, creative, and spiritual shape, while many religious men leaned toward theological reflection.

This resulted in a unique spirituality from women who experienced the love of God in rich and vibrant encounters. Perhaps the simplicity of their spirituality became their greatest strength. While some female mystics from this time were supported by the church hierarchy, many wrote down their accounts and visions despite heated opposition, risking persecution and even death at the hands of controlling church leaders.

Dr. Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff writes about female mystics for Christianity Today:

*****

We think of the Middle Ages as the age of faith, and so it was, but it was also an age of crisis. In such a context, mysticism was not a retreat from the negative aspects of reality, but a creative marshaling of energy in order to transform reality and one’s perception of it.

Mystics were the teachers of the age, inspired leaders who synthesized Christian tradition and proposed new models for the Christian community. We know some of the men—Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas—but we are not as familiar with the women, although they were actually more numerous. Hildegard of Bingen, Clare of Assisi, Beatrijs of Nazareth, Angela of Foligno, Julian of Norwich, and other women mystics drew on their experience of the divine to provide spiritual guidance for others. Such women became highly respected leaders of the faithful. Their role as prophets and healers was the one exception to women’s presumed inferiority in medieval society.

*****

She goes on to write:

*****

Dame Julian of Norwich said in her Showings: “ … God forbid that you should say or assume that I am a teacher … for I am a woman, ignorant, weak and frail. But I know very well that what I am saying I have received by the revelation of him who is the sovereign teacher … because I am a woman, ought I therefore to believe that I should not tell you of the goodness of God, when I saw at that same time that it is his will that it be known?”

*****

As we honor their legacy, learn from their wisdom, and embody their practices, may we have the courage to share with others the ways God has spoken to us.

Reflection

Take 5 minutes to ask God what you need to receive today.

Remain open to sharing that with someone else if appropriate.

Saturday Prayer: The Prayer of St. Patrick

Posted on April 16, 2016April 12, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Today’s prayer comes from the anonymous prayer that some have attributed to St. Patrick:

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.

Christ shield me today
Against wounding
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through the mighty strength
Of the Lord of creation.

Source: BeliefNet

Where to Start with Christian Meditation

Posted on April 13, 2016April 9, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

There are many Christians who are either unfamiliar with meditation or concerned that it’s inappropriate to practice. However, a brief look at the actual substance of meditation should put any concerns at rest and demonstrate the value of meditation for followers of Jesus today.

Meditation is a way to become mindful of the present, creating space to hear what God is speaking in the present moment rather than allowing our minds to run unchecked. We’re surrounded by noise, choose to add more noise, and may not even realize how much negative noise is coming from our own heads.

Christian meditation is a way to become mindful of what we are thinking so that our thoughts can be open to direction from God.

Stephanie Vozza writes about the basics of meditation for Fast Company:

Mindful people—those who live in the present—can step back and stay on the riverbank, watching their current of thoughts and not getting swept away by their content.

Meditation fosters mindfulness, but the practice seems difficult in today’s world of constant stimulation: “People think the goal of meditation is to empty the mind,” says Brooks. “It’s not about clearing the mind; it’s about focusing on one thing. When the mind wanders, the meditation isn’t a failure. Our brain is like a wayward puppy, out of control. Catching it and putting it back to the object of focus is the mediation.”

Brooks says meditating is like exercise; a full workout is preferred, but there is value in short bursts.

“Research shows that a total of 15 minutes of meditating each day for several weeks produces detectable, positive changes in the brain as well as corresponding reductions in stress, anxiety, and an enhanced sense of well-being,” says Brooks. “You can get the benefits of a formal meditation practice by weaving mini-meditations into your daily life.”

Source: Fast Company

Vozza adds a few simple prompts for meditation that you can incorporate throughout your day:

Walking Meditation
Red Light Meditation (turn off your radio while waiting at red lights)
Exercise Meditation
Eating/Drinking Meditation
Waiting Meditation
Task-Oriented Meditation

For instance, if you’re waiting in line or doing the dishes, turn off the radio or a podcast in order to become aware of God’s presence. I’ve often turned to a prayer word such as “mercy” or “beloved.” I also use the Jesus prayer: “Jesus Christ, only Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I have incorporated all of these practices into my life at one point or another and have discovered that left to my own devices I am constantly reliving the past or fearing the future. By practicing these simple meditation practices I’m no longer at the mercy of my guilt or fears. I’m learning to live by faith and trust God in new, deeper ways.

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Featured Contemplative Book: Immortal Diamond

Posted on April 11, 2016April 8, 2016 by Ed Cyzewski

Week Two: The Struggle with the False Self

Who am I?

This is a foundational question that we’ll forever struggle with in prayer and writing until we finally confront it. There may be no better tool for answering this question than Richard Rohr’s Immortal Diamond: The Search for our True Self.

This is the book that saved my soul, or at least saved me from myself.

The false self won’t be silenced easily. In fact, I have found that the false self is so hard to fight because living into your true self in God’s love requires doing LESS. So much of religion is about doing more or doing something differently. Rohr’s wisdom about the true self appears to be counterintuitive at first.

“Your True Self is who you are, and always have been in God . . . The great surprise and irony is that “you,” or who you think you are, have nothing to do with its original creation or its demise. It’s sort of disempowering and utterly empowering at the same time, isn’t it? All you can do is nurture it.”

* * * * *

“The soul, the True Self, has everything, and so it does not require any particular thing. When you have all things, you do not have to protect any one thing. True Self can love and let go. The False Self cannot do this.”

* * * * *

“Remember, please remember, you do not (you must not!) fear, attack, or hate the False Self. That would only continue a negative and arrogant death energy, and it is delusional and counterproductive anyway. It would be trying to “drive out the devil by the prince of devils,” as Jesus puts it. In the great economy of grace, all is used and transformed, and nothing is wasted. God uses your various False Selves to lead you beyond them.”

* * * * *

“What the ego (the False Self) hates and fears more than anything else is change. It will think up a thousand other things to be concerned about or be moralistic about—anything rather than giving up “who I think I am” and “who I need to be to look good.”

Finding your true self in God’s love is largely a matter of practicing the presence of God rather than trying to do any one thing better. If we let God define who we are, we’ll start to recognize the times when the false sense begins to whisper lies to us.

Once we learn to rest in Christ, we’ll begin to recognize when the imposter of the false self emerges.

Learn more about Immortal Diamond today.

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