We Are Known

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:4-5

Much of my work deals with offering possibilities for discerning God’s call. All of my work is about discernment of a God-ward direction.

The opening of Jeremiah puts that vocational discernment work into an appropriate context. The call comes to the unformed being at the soul level. God knows us.

And this forming, referred to in Jeremiah, reminds us of the first forming of human out of dust and spirit in Genesis. Each of us is formed. We are clay and we are spirit.

Dust and water become clay and when shaped by divine impulses can become resonant vessels for prayer and for prophecy.

And thus the struggle begins. When we are too much dust, we are stiff and resistant to being shaped. When life moves in and tries to shape us we crack and sometimes we break.

If we are too much water, we cannot hold a shape. Any movement into our being is met by melting and sliding away.

So discernment of the knowing hands, which are longing to create a vessel that can hold both holiness and creativity, requires both solidity and elasticity.

We must hold ourselves lightly as we listen for and discern God’s call in our life. This does not mean that we are not intently listening.

If God already knows us, we have nothing to lose. We can be ourselves. In fact, God is hoping that we will relax enough to let the beauty of the soul shimmer through both the dust and the water of our clay vessels.

In the high desert of New Mexico, up in the mountains there are deposits of micaceous clay, which is 80% mica. When these pots are formed and fired they shine like gold from the mica. This is how I begin to visualize our own clay vessels, unearthed, shaped and fired-in other words-formed by the divine Potter who is the author of our shining moments, and startlingly beautiful souls.

This is what one of the potters from New Mexico says about the pottery made from this extraordinary clay:

“Indian people view pottery not only as containers for food or other items, but also as containers and givers of life. They are beings created by the union of clay and water through the potter’s hands and thoughts, which are transferred into the vessel.” ~Felipe Ortega

As we return to our scripture from Jeremiah, we can begin to see some clear directions for our prayer and our understanding:
We are known.
We are being formed by God’s insistent presence, and
We are beautiful.
Blessings,
Debra

For more about pottery go to: http://www.janmica.com/Biography_of_a_Pot.html

Praying the Hours
Compline

Come I this night to the Father
Come I this night to the Son.
Come I to the Holy Spirit powerful;
Come I this night to God.
Come I this night with Christ,
Come I with the Spirit of kindness.
Come I to Thee, Jesus.
Jesus shelter me. Amen. `-Celtic Book of Prayer



Compline - night prayer, which completes the day.

Compline is the close of the day, the completion of the hours of prayer. In monastic settings and sometimes at home as well, it is the end of speech and the beginning of silence.
The intentions of Compline are to examine the day, which has passed, and to ask for protection for the dark night, which is approaching. Both of these intentions are not about staying focused on the present moment, but they are about focus upon Christ.
Compline invites surrender to God’s time and God’s perspective. During the examen, or review of the day, we ask God to show us the events of the day from God’s perspective.
As we practice the examination we might ask questions such as, “when did I move away from you, Lord” or “when did I experience your closeness, Lord?” It is tempting to assume we know the places where we erred and to make a list of these in the confession, but God may have a different vision of the day we have spent. Compline prayer asks us to submit to a new way of looking at ourselves in relation to God’s great love.
During Compline we also ask for protection for the coming night:

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping;
that awake We may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

These Compline prayers for safety remind us that we are vulnerable when asleep. They are recited at a particular time during the day, but they point to a deep truth about the human condition, don’t they?
We are only marginally attentive, even when awake, and we need to be connected to the Divine attention. We ask for the grace to watch with Christ, to stay awake, when we are meant to be awake, and to sleep when we are meant to sleep.
The prayers for Compline complete our cycle of hours not just because they come at the end of the day, but because they restate the deep longing of all our prayer—

To be with Christ in wakefulness and in sleep.
To be with Christ in life and in death.
To be with Christ.

Blessings,
Debra

Praying the Hours
Vespers
I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me;
Give ear to my voice when I call to you.
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
And the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
Psalm 141
Vigils – beginning some time during the early hours while it is still dark;
Lauds – Morning Prayer, at daybreak;
Terce – mid-morning prayer, around 9 am;
Sext - midday prayer, around noon; we know this as noonday prayer.
None – mid-afternoon prayer, around 3 p.m;
Vespers – evening prayer, ideally at sunset; also known as evensong.
Compline - night prayer, which completes the day.

Vespers is one of the two great offices of the day, morning and evening prayer. It is a beautiful time of day to remember that God is walking with me through work, rest and prayer. Candles are lit and in our own service for Evening Prayer we say together the Phos Hilaron or O Gracious Light:

O gracious light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
And our eyes behold the vesper light,
We sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of Life,
And to be glorified through all the worlds.
In Theology and Spirit this week we are studying the posture of blessing-God’s blessing to us and our blessing to God. This is more than a prayer posture; it is an attitude of living. Blessings are given to encourage and support the full life of the blessed one. Praises and blessings go hand in hand, so as we come to the end of the day, regardless of the happenings of the day, we have an opportunity to praise God and to bathe in the vesper light.
During the 4th Century a light was kept burning near the empty tomb of Christ to symbolize the light of Jesus. At the time of vespers a candle lit from the lamp was brought forth and used to light the candles for the evening service. In this way worshippers were reminded of the flame of the Risen Lord.
Each of the hours of prayer points to Christ. Vespers reminds us that as we face the long darkness of night, the light of Christ illuminates our way. If we are consistent in vesper prayers we will notice that in other darknesses, the Christ light shows for us as well.

While the earth and the sky move into night, our evening prayer rises like smoke from incense, to touch the clouds and point the way to the stars. These brilliant lights become the sky’s vesper candles, lit to celebrate the risen Lord.
Blessings,
Debra