"He continued to pray just as he had always done." Daniel 6:10
Begin
Silence, Stillness, and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Psalm
63:1–5
You,
God, are my God,earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I
have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Devotional
Gregory of Nyssa, the great bishop and theologian of the fourth century, argued that
there exists in us a ceaseless yearning for God’s infinite beauty and splendor. He wrote:
“We are led to God by desire. We are drawn upwards towards Him as if by a rope.”
When the soul glimpses the beauty of God, it yearns to see more. His writings are filled
with images describing our longing for God: a lover asking for another kiss, a person
tasting a sweetness that can only be satisfied by another taste, the dizziness one
experiences standing at the edge of a precipice as one peers into a vast space.
Gregory compares the contemplation of God to a person looking at a spring that bubbles
up from the earth:
Gregory of Nyssa, the great bishop and theologian of the fourth century, argued that
there exists in us a ceaseless yearning for God’s infinite beauty and splendor. He wrote:
“We are led to God by desire. We are drawn upwards towards Him as if by a rope.”
When the soul glimpses the beauty of God, it yearns to see more. His writings are filled
with images describing our longing for God: a lover asking for another kiss, a person
tasting a sweetness that can only be satisfied by another taste, the dizziness one
experiences standing at the edge of a precipice as one peers into a vast space.
Gregory compares the contemplation of God to a person looking at a spring that bubbles
up from the earth:
As
you came near the spring you would marvel, seeing that the water was
endless, as it constantly gushed up and poured forth. Yet you could never
say that you had seen all the water.
How could you see what was still hidden in the bosom of
the earth? Hence no matter how long you might stay at the spring, you
would always be beginning to see the water. . . . It is the same with
one who fixes his gaze on the infinite
beauty of God. It is constantly being discovered anew, and it is
always seen as something new and strange in comparison with what the mind
has already understood. And as God
continues to reveal himself, man continues to
wonder; and he never exhausts his desire to see more, since what he is
waiting for is always more
magnificent, more divine, than all that he has already
seen.81
Questions
to Consider
Where
can you find the time in your week to "gaze on the infinite beauty
of God"?
Prayer
Lord,
grant me an even richer glimpse of your infinite beauty and
loveliness this day. In Jesus' name, amen.
http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dailyoffice.pdf
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