CELTIC MEDITATIONS 4: Evening Opening Prayer

This week's meditations are based on the Evening Opening Prayer of J Phillip Newell's book, CELTIC BENEDICTION Morning and Night Prayer.  All red, italicized print is a direct quote from the book.

7.25.15  A Sleeping Heart

Psalm 16:7 MSG

The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
    is confirmed by my sleeping heart.

Psalm 16:7 VOICE

I will bless the Eternal, whose wise teaching orchestrates my days
    and centers my mind at night.

Psalm 16:7 GNT

I praise the Lord, because he guides me,
    and in the night my conscience warns me.

SATURDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER

As it was in the stillness of the morning

So may it be in the silence of the night.

As it was in the hidden vitality of the womb

So may it be at my birth into eternity.

As it was in the beginning, O God,

So in the end may your gift be born

So in the end may your gift of life be born.  JPN

    

                This will seem just a little strange to be going through the evening prayers in the morning, but I will have JUST gotten up, so maybe the calm of sleep will still be upon me!  I’m going to focus this morning more on the scripture rather than the prayer, as I found the different translations interesting.  The term conscience never crossed my mind when reading the first two translations.  I like the phrase ‘sleeping heart’ – still but beating, quiet, but alive.  I like the centering notion from The VOICE.  My jumbled thoughts center during sleep…often against my will when it seems to keep me awake!  But how often do we awaken in the morning to the feeling that God had a message for us in our dreams, our sleeping thoughts?  How often do we rise with the notion that we are to DO something?  If never, then perhaps we aren’t listening very well!   If repeatedly and the same thought, then perhaps we are failing to act!  Perhaps when I drift off at night, if my final thoughts focus on God, I will be better prepared to sense God’s message when I awake.  Perhaps, just perhaps, that is the purpose of the ‘evening’ prayers! J

7.26.15  SILENT SEARCHING

Psalm 77:6 VOICE 

I call to mind my music; it keeps me company at night.
    Together with my heart I contemplate;
    my spirit searches, wondering, questioning:….

SUNDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER

Out of the silence at the beginning of time

You spoke the Word of life.

Out of the world’s primeval darkness

You flooded the universe with light.

In the quiet of this place

In the dark of the night

I wait and watch.

In the stillness of my soul

And from its fathomless depths

The senses of my heart are awake to you.

For fresh soundings of life

For new showings of light

I search in the silence of my spirit, O God. JPN

               How often do we lie in bed at night, restless perhaps and not sleeping, and review our life, events, relationships, and wonder….what is the purpose?  What does God want? Or maybe even where is God in all this?  The silence produces reflection, the darkness a sense of vulnerability to dare ask the questions.  Yet, it is in these very moments that God often touches our hearts, speaks to our souls, and we waken with new purpose and direction.  “For fresh soundings of life, for new showings of light, I search in the silence of my spirit, O God.”  Fresh beginnings, new glimpses of God-light will be revealed to us.  I need to take a longer moment to ponder God, to listen in the silence, before I turn over and give way to sleep. 

               In Psalm 77, verse 6 sets the stage but ends with unanswered wonderings and questions.  Verse 7 voices those concerns:  Has God abandoned us?  Unlike the psalmist, my doubts rarely question God; most often they question my response to God.  Am I seeing God-light?  (I KNOW it is present!)  Am I doing God-work?  Where have I failed to respond lately?  How can I change?  

7.27.15  Forever Uncontained

Psalm 90:2 GNT

Before you created the hills
    or brought the world into being,
    you were eternally God,
    and will be God forever.

MONDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER:

In the infinity of night skies

In the free flashing of lightning

In whirling elemental winds

You are God.

In the impenetrable mists of dark clouds

In the wild gusts of lashing rain

In the ageless rocks of the sea

You are God and I bless you. 

You are in all things

And contained by no thing.

You are the Life of all life

And beyond every name.

You are God and in the eternal mystery I praise you. JPN

               God cannot fit in a box.  I responded this morning to the line in Newell’s prayer, “You are in all things and contained by no thing.”  All Creation belongs to God and IS God.  Yet the earth itself doesn’t not contain God.  The universe cannot contain God.  So big, so vast, so eternal.  Yet….and this is what blows your mind away….this great, big, eternal, uncontainable God loves ME.  Me….one of billions on earth, billion trillions among the universe.  Not only loves, but understands, knows, and desires a relationship with….ME!  Comprehensible?  No!  A mystery?  Yes!  Worthy of praise?  Absolutely!  

7.28.15    Hiking in Grace

Psalm 62:1 VOICE

My soul quietly waits for the True God alone;
    my salvation comes from Him.

TUESDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER:

O God of the high mountains

O Christ of the fertile valleys

O Spirit of the earth

From whose dark soils burst forth fresh life

And from which my own body and soul are born

Be to me this night

The bestower of grace.

Be to my body and soul this night

The generous giver of love. JPN

               The first two lines spoke to me this morning.  I am up early to prepare to leave on a hike to the mountains, excited to circle the peaks of Anthony Lakes in one of my favorite adventures.  The Baker Valley below is ripe with harvested hay, fruit trees in production, vegetable gardens bursting forth.  May God bestow today the grace and love that flows from walking through God’s creation, from time spent with family and friends who ARE family.  May my soul be enriched, my spirit renewed, and may I be a vessel to pass the grace on to others. 

7.29.15 Trust the Darkness

Psalm 74:16  VOICE

The day and the night are both Yours—
    You fashioned the sun, moon, and all the lights that pierce the darkness.

WEDNESDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER:

Glory be to you, O God of the night,

For the whiteness of the moon

And the infinite stretches of dark space.

Let me be learning to love the night

As I know and love the day.

Let me be learning to trust its darkness

And to seek its subtle blessings.

Let me be learning the night’s way of seeing

That in all things I may trace the mystery of your presence. JPN

         Trust the darkness.  That’s the phrase that came to my mind as I began reading the prayer, and then suddenly I find the very phrase in the later lines.  Trust what we cannot see.  Trust that God is present.  Seek the shadowy glimpses of God that hide in every corner of our world, light or dark.  Seek to see during the brightness of the day what we have learned to see in the dimness of night: God.  Everywhere.  God will light our path; we can trust God.  It might be a tiny LED night-light that says, “This is the way.”  Not everyone gets the blinding light of a conversion like Saul.  But in the darkness, God is there.  Trust in that truth. 

7.30.15  Drink God
Psalm 42:1-2 MSG
A white-tailed deer drinks
    from the creek;
I want to drink God,
    deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive.

THURSDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER:
In the darkness of the evening
the eyes of my heart are awake to you. 
In the quiet of the night
I long to hear again intimations of your love.
In the sufferings of the world 
and the struggles of my life
I seek your graces of healing. 
At the heart of the brokenness around me
and in the hidden depths of my own soul
I seek your touch of healing, O God, 
for there you reside.
In the hidden depths of life, O God, 
there you reside. JPN

           Brokenness. Suffering.  Healing. Hidden Hope.  In the depths of our sorrows and pain, God resides, waiting and ready to bring the healing hope to our lives.  When we reach out to God, we find that healing touch.  When we go to the stream of living water and drink of God, we are made alive.  Drink of God.  Drink of hope.  Drink of healing.  

7.31.15  Inner Universe
Psalm 8:3-5 ERV

I look at the heavens you made with your hands.
    I see the moon and the stars you created.
 And I wonder, “Why are people so important to you?
    Why do you even think about them?
Why do you care so much about humans?
    Why do you even notice them?”

But you made them almost like gods 

    and crowned them with glory and honor. 

FRIDAY EVENING OPENING PRAYER:
For the night skies opening outwards star upon star, expanse after expanse
Thanks be to you, O God. 
For the mystery of your presence in and beyond all that can be seen
Thanks be to you. 
Guide me further this night into the inner universe of my soul
Ever opening inwards, light upon light, new depth after new depth. 
Guide me through strange and fearful spaces
toward the place of your eternal dwelling
and assure me again that in drawing closer to you
I draw closer to the heart of every living being.
That in drawing closer to you I approach the heart of life. JPN

In great expanse
Universal proportions
God dwells.
In delicate sensitivity
Atomic minutia
God loves.
Go figure.
Why?
It doesn't make sense.
Yet such is our Creator God.
Incomprehensible. 
Yet accessible.
Draw close.
Talk with God.
Feel God.
Act through God.
Let compassionate radiate to all.
Transfer the infinity of the universe
To the specific individual next door.
Bring the magnitude of God
To the reality of love and life.