Prayer Practice for the Week

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina, or Divine Reading, is a prayerful way to read scripture that has four steps: Reading, Reflecting, Responding, and Resting. ( Learn more.)

Click the link for an audio file of Will reading Mark 4:35-40 to you three times with a minute’s pause between each reading. The recording ends in silence to allow you to complete your prayer experience in your own time. 

Daily Devotion

Scripture of the Day

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ( John 15:12)

Reflection

I love the greatest commandment as Jesus explained it in Mark, Matthew, and Luke: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But, sometimes, if I’m truthful about it, I’m not all that good at loving myself. I can be harsh to myself when it’s not necessary. I can let myself off the hook when it’s most necessary that I be called out. So, while it’s handy to re-train my love of self by mimicking the best version of how I treat others, I am in desperate need, also, of John’s version. To love another as Jesus loved is to be brutally honest and doggedly loyal; it is to sacrifice one’s life in order to uphold the integrity of love.

Prayer

Jesus, your love healed many, fed thousands, inspired untold numbers. Your love took you to strange lands where you were challenged, and it helped you pivot when you realized you were wrong. Your love called out the nonsense and ignored political convenience for the sake of truth. Your love cost you your life; yet even though you walked in the shadow of death you did not fear evil, or betray your fierce love. May I be overwhelmed by your love and make it my own. Amen.