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February 6, 2001
Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center
What follows are suggestions for how you might spend your time today. Feel
free to adapt this to your own needs.
Arrival- you are about to spend an afternoon with the one who knows and
loves you- the one to whom you belong. As your Father in heaven, he is
eager to meet with you. Take thirty minutes to quietly settle yourself.
Reflective Questions-
1. What family or ministry cares, concerns, or responsibilities press upon
your mind? Make note but don’t dwell on them. Hand them to Jesus for his
safekeeping.
2. What is happening to your body today? Are you sleepy, fidgety, anxious,
or sick? Your body belongs to Him and he takes you as you come. Offer
your body to him.
3. What hopes and fears do you have as you prepare to meet with your Father
in heaven? Is he there? Will he listen? Are you worthy? Will you be able
to stay awake? Offer your hopes and fears to him.
Invocation- Almighty God, you who call me to prayer, and who offer yourself
to all who seek your face, pour out your Holy Spirit upon me today and
deliver me from coldness of heart, a wandering mind, and wrongful desire.
By the power of your spirit place within me steadfast love and devotion, so
that today I may worship and serve you with all of my life; through Jesus
Christ my Lord. (from A Guide to Prayer, Upper Room Publishers, pg. 106)
Scripture Readings, Prayer, and Journal- We Belong to God- Psalm 42, Luke
15:11-24, Isaiah 49:15-16, Romans 14:7-8, Psalm 100:1-4, 1 Corinthians 3:21-
23. Each Scripture speaks about the fact that we belong to God. Select one
or more passages. Read it through a couple of times. As you do so pay
attention to your heart. What is God saying to you? Speak to God about
this. Take some time to reflect and journal your thoughts.
Recreation and Rest- Take some time to walk the grounds of the retreat
center and enjoy God’s creation. If you are feeling sleepy, rest.
Spiritual Reading- Devotional literature can often help us grow in our
relationship with Jesus. If you brought a book along feel free to take some
time to read. Devotional literature will also be available in the library.
Optional Art project. Art materials will be available in the library if
making an object of art is a helpful spiritual exercise for you. Making art
is often a means of exploring and remembering for those who learn visually
and think symbolically.
Prayer Partner- Meet at 4:30 in the library to chose a prayer partner.
Share with each other how the time has gone and pray for one another.
Benediction- Meet at 5pm in the library for the benediction.
———————————-
What is you only comfort in life and in death?
That I am not my own but I belong-
Body and soul,
In life and in death-
To my faithful Savior Jesus Christ
Heidelberg Catechism
Belonging
Because God has made your soul, there is something in it of God Himself, a
divine stamp has been impressed upon you; there is something of God’s
power, thought, and creative genius in you, as in no other. You are one of
the Lord’s own works of art, precisely like which He created none other.
An artist who had a collection of his paintings on exhibition in a museum,
and discovered one day that one of his pictures was gone, could not rest
until it had been traced and restored to it’s place on the wall.
So does God miss every soul that falls away form Him because it is a soul
that he has made; and what Jesus described in such touching and beautiful
terms in the parables of the lost penny, the lost sheep, and the prodigal
son, was born in His Heart from the one thought, that God can not let go
the work of His hands, and therefore can not unconcernedly leave the souls
of sinners as the pray of perdition, because they are His handiwork, and
because He Himself has made them.
Abraham Kuyper, To Be Near unto God, pg. 27-30
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