Day of Prayer and Fasting Thursday 19 November 2020 My Day Begins Prayer is the doorway through which God’s greatest gifts enter our soul. If this door is kept shut, I do not see how God can bestow these gifts; for even if God wishes to enter our soul, to take delight therein, and to make us also to delight, there is no way this can be done. If we want God to come to us, why would we fail to pray? Certainly I cannot comprehend it unless we have a mind to go through the troubles of this life in greater misery! Why would we shut the door in the face of God In return for a little effort on our part God gives us the help we need to bear our trials. Therefore when God plants in our soul, a desire to pray, as unprepared as we might be, it is among the greatest of gifts. If we persevere, In spite of sins, temptations, and relapses, our Lord will bring us at last to the harbour of salvation. Besides, God does not wait for the next life to reward our love, but begins to enrich us even here. All Through the Day Prayer is the doorway through which God’s greatest gifts enter my soul. My Day is Ending Let nothing, O Lord, disturb the silence of this night. Let nothing make me afraid. Let nothing distract me from spending these last moments of the day with you in prayer. Help me to open the doorway through which I can glimpse your presence and through which I can glimpse your presence and through which you can enter my soul. Let me not shut you out. If only for a moment, here and now at the end of the day, let me silence the thousand voices that kept me through the day from remembering that I live always in your presence. Bless me with the gift of prayer. With it I have you, God, I will want for nothing. You alone suffice. [St Teresa of Avila 1515-1582 in Let Nothing Disturb You (Ave Maria Press 2008)] Graham Thrussell |