Today we invite you into a 10-minute posture prayer practice guided by Danielle Strickland. Find a quiet place, grab a decent set of headphones, and allow this “Surrender, Generosity, Mission” prayer experience to help both centre and focus you for the day ahead. 

Click Here for “Surrender, Generosity, Mission”

‘Visio Divina’ is a fancy term for a simple practice that invites us to encounter God in deep new ways, through drinking in the visual beauty constantly before us. Believing that the presence of God is powerfully felt through creation and the natural world around us – and yet also knowing that our lives typically run so fast we barely have time to notice it! – we invite you today to spend a few minutes contemplating the beauty and majesty of God through the ordinary extraordinariness of a tree. 

Click Here for an 8-minute Visio Divina practice.

Often when difficult things come our way, we try to resist or control them in order to not have life go in ways we wish it wouldn’t go. It’s a natural impulse! But is it possible that in doing that, we miss the opportunity to encounter God right in the middle of the mess? 

Today we invite you into a classic prayer practice by Father Thomas Keating known as The Welcoming Prayer. Click Below for a guided video experience, or simply recite the words on your own – as many times as you need – throughout your day. 

Welcome, welcome, welcome. 

I welcome everything that comes to me today 

Because I know it’s for my healing. 

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions. 

I let go of my desire for power and control. 

I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure. 

I let go of my desire for survival and security. 

I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself. 

I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within. 

Amen.

Scripture: Click Here to read Ephesians 3:14-21 

Read the passage over slowly, prayerfully and attentively a few times. As you do, allow God to highlight a word, phrase or verse – something that jumps out at you personally. 

Observations: Think about what is being said, by who, and why they might be saying it the way they are. What is the surrounding context? What other background information do you have? How and where do you see the heart of Jesus in this? Don’t make conclusions or applications yet, just observe everything you can. 

Application: Now consider how this passage might apply personally to your life. In what way does it speak to your own circumstances? How can it help you? How does it challenge you? How does it call you to love both God and others better? How does this word from God apply directly to your day-to-day life and how you are learning to follow Jesus? 

Prayer: Now that you’ve read and reflected on God’s word and begun the process of application to your life, simply talk to God about it all. Share what’s swirling in your head

Today we invite you to once again engage in the Prayer of Examen, as we have been doing on a regular basis lately. Examen is one of the most valuable spiritual practices we have to help us tune in more clearly to the presence and activity of God all around us every day, in all kinds of situations. 

Click Here for an 9-minute guided practice in the Prayer of Examen, reflecting on the past week.