Jan 27 - Realizing God

My heart is stirring with a noble song;
let me recite what I have fashioned for the king; *
my tongue shall be the pen of a skilled writer.
Psalm 45:1

That we may take care to avoid sinful thoughts, we must always say to ourselves: "I shall be blameless in God's sight if I guard myself from my own wickedness."
Benedict's Rule 7:18 (Chittister, Pg. 80)

God, Benedict says quite clearly, is within us to be realized, not outside of us to be stumbled upon.
Chittister, Pg. 80

(Added on Jan 28, from journal entries on the 27th)
We invite God into our lives, or at least I did. I live my life and look at my actions in the world. I may well have periods when my heart is stirring with the noble songs of my love for God. Then there are the periods where I simply put one foot in front of the other, and then there are the times I forget God, where I only look out for myself, or maybe even forget to take care of myself... These times, when I fail to even care for myself, may be the times I am most in danger from Satan. (But I will save Satan for another discussion...)

This then is when my heart needs to be stirred with a noble song, this is where having a habit of reaching out to God, a habit strong enough to push through my own personal laziness, is important. So far I have reached back to God, pushing past my own selfishness, often enough that I still recognize God's call to move beyond my own sinful thoughts. For this I say "Thank You" to God.

A Note To Anyone Reading:

This entry is part of a series that is developing as I read The Rule of Benedict, A Spirituality for the 21st Century, Joan Chittister, OSB, Crossroads, 2010. I am offering this both to those at St. George's Episcopal Church, Arlington VA, that may be reading this book and to anyone that is interested.

Unless stated otherwise quotes from St. Benedict's Rule are from the translation in this same book.
Psalms are from The Book of Common Prayer, The Episcopal Church, 1979 unless otherwise noted.

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