Be present
To be present before the God of my life who, in Jesus Christ, is present for me. Be
present before Him with my body. Be present before Him with all that moves me. Be still!
Ask
for openness to recognize and acknowledge in His light the reality of this day and for the
readiness to be liberated by the truth.
Look at the day
With loving awareness recall - without rushing to evaluate and judge what happened today:
with me, through me, around me...
I can let the day unfold before me hour by hour or place by place or encounter by encounter; I try to sense where I can view events in fast forward tempo or where I must look at events in slow motion. What matters is not completeness but a dwelling on what emerges and calls attention. Sensations (sense experiences), emotions (joy, anger, fear....), and thoughts that accompanied the events can assert themselves again; entirely new feelings may also arise.
Try to perceive whether and how I recognize the Holy Spirit in all of this, i.e. the movements of love, faith and hope or the trickery of the evil spirit, i.e. egoism, mistrust, discouragement....
Bringing to God what I have become aware of
What is present in me: joy, perplexity, unrest, grief....
What recognize as good,
what is still unresolved, present as wounds or guilt....
To entrust myself and all these concerns anew to God.
To praise Him. thank Him and ask Him for forgiveness and the grace of reconciliation... -
according to what suggests itself to me - trust Him: He accepts me as I really am.
Become ready for the nest day
What moves me when I look at the next day - plans, events, encounters, hopes, fears....?-
All these I surrender to God.
Ask for the strength for "the only one thing that is necessary", for trust and confidence, for the "only one thing that is necessary", for trust and confidence, for determination to pursue that which is right now important to me and to go where my longing draws me....
Possible variations
- simply expose yourself to the transforming presence of God
- empty your heart before God
- entrust yourself to God in the form of a written diary.