VII. I am Constantly Being Created by God

When you turn to attend to God, begin by noting how God gazes on you all the time, how tenderly and powerfully He regards you.

As you come to the end of your prayer time, try to make sure that your prayer turns into a dialog with God.  You might talk with you Creator, or with Jesus of Nazareth, or with any of those who were present in your prayer.

SCRIPTURE READINGS
Luke 4:16-30
Jesus finds Himself a Nazorean, alive in the Roman Peace.  The Father cared for Him all His life and now He "walks right through them."  Jesus’ Spirit raises great desires in Him to reconcile everyone to God.
Prayer of Consideration: The Way Things Are
Hosea 11:1-4
God carried me through infancy.  Now I am adult.  In what ways can I experience how God carries me, still?
Psalm 103
God pours out kindness.  Human life ends quickly, but God tenderly sustains me.
God powerfully achieves His ends.
Job 1:21; chapters 38, 39, 40:1-5
Read these passages prayerfully.  Read slowly, stop and muse over words or phrases, readily begin speaking with God the Lord, and feel no pressure to finish the passage.
Isaiah 45:7-13
God creates me more surely than a potter creates a pot.  He makes my shape and even my clay.  He determines how I will be used.  If you know how to pray with fantasy, you might do that with this passage.  Imagine, for instance, that you are a lump of clay and God is shaping you - and then tell Him what you actually experience and feel.
Repeat Luke 4:16-30
Jesus the Nazorean reads from the Book.  When you repeat the passage, give more time to the ideas, desires, feelings that were particularly strong and good, and to those that seem to have been particularly problematic or obscure or vexing.  Go back to those places where you felt discouragement, revulsion, anger, or simply nothing at all-places like the "black holes" in our universe from which no light or warmth comes.  Go back also to those places where you felt great encouragement, love for God, and enthusiasm to go on - places like the volcanoes on our globe that throw up blazing rivers and that roar with energy.  You will visit many of these "black holes and volcanoes" during the Ignatian Exercises.

PRAYER FOR THIS WEEK
Lord, mighty God,
In power and wisdom You shape me and my world.
You chose my life world
- my time, my city, my language.
You gave me understanding and passions;
You fill me with desiring and with energies.
You give me voice to sing songs to You
for all creation.
For all that has passed between,
I thank You.
To all that You are no doing in me, I say yes.
In the name of Him in whom everything says yes,
Jesus, my Lord and good brother,
who lives and reigns with You,
forever and ever.
Amen.