Daily Disciplines

Devotion:  


You must be men and women of ceaseless hope, because only tomorrow can today’s human and Christian promise be realized;
and every tomorrow will have its own tomorrow, world without end.  Every human act, every Christian act, is an act of hope.  
But that means you must be men and women of the present, you must live this moment- really live it, not just endure it-
because this very moment for all its imperfection and frustration, because of its imperfection and frustration,
is pregnant with Christ.
                                                                                                                                --Walter J. Burghardt


Discipline Options

Journal Prompt

Read and meditate on the following passage.  Then journal what stirs within you as you sit in silent reflection.
                Why, O Jacob, do you say,
                and declare, O Israel,
                “My way is hidden from the Lord,
                and my right is disregarded by my God”?
                Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
                                                                --Isaiah 40:27-28, 31

Prayer Prompt


Use this in any form of prayer you choose.  You might consider a walking prayer, a centering prayer, or a repeated line prayer.  Begin and end with silence, clearing your mind of all thought and intrusions and ending with clarity and focus.
                Let us live by justice and mercy
                and wait with bright hope for the Lord to come.
                                                                                --Monastic liturgy

Lectio Divina Prompt

Practice lectio divina using:
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.  
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
therefore we must be saved by faith.  Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone
therefore we must be saved by love.  No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend
or foe as it is from our standpoint.  Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
--Reinhold Niebuhr