VIII. God’s Project Hidden Deep in Things: Save All

God our Creator and Lord writes His hopes into our desiring.  If our hearts are made for Him, then He has planted deep, deep desires for Himself in our hearts.  If God’s command is that we love one another and do justice to all, then deep in our selves burns a passionate desire to do those things, and filling those desires will make us beatifically happy.  Because of this, we keep asking God for what we want in prayer and in these exercises.

You are finishing a month of the exercises that you wanted to go through.  You might begin examining whether you are doing what you set out to do as we look to enter the First Week.

You may already use some way of centering, or coming to repose, or reaching quiet.  You know to stay with what you find helpful.  You might find some further help in the note on CENTERING.

SCRIPTURE READINGS
Ephesians 1:3-14
Can I count the gifts of grace God has been giving me?  I am among those who know Jesus Christ.
God chose that I should believe and trust and love Him.
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
Humanity now shares Jesus’ risen life.  For God has chosen not to let people’s sins destroy His creation.  This is God’s work first, not mine.
Romans 8:14-17, 26-27
From within my own life, the Spirit seized me and taught me to know God.  I am to inherit life with Jesus, God’s child.  My own spirit know God as loving parent, not as The Force.
Luke 15:11-32
This is about the Prodigal’s Father.
He wants to love both of his children.
He waits for them to turn to him.
Luke 13:10-17
Jesus wants to heal anyone who suffers.  He does not let established custom hinder God’s healing gift.
Consider again: The Way Things Are
Repeat one of the above Scripture passages.

PRAYER FOR THIS WEEK
Almighty and ever-caring God,
You are powerful to give life and to take it away.
You order all things form end to end,
beyond my comprehension, beyond my imagining.
Your passionate hope is that every person be saved
from selfishness and self-destruction.
You want no one to perish, to live forever alone.
Instead,
You want a reign of love to rise from within our hearts
and embrace each human person and every thing on earth.
I praise You and I thank You
that You teach me these things through Christ our Lord.
Amen.