The way we would begin in prayer is that we belong to God. And all the prayer starts and unfolds out of that knowing that we belong to God. We are trying to get past the topic of prayer to this deep experience that we belong to God. We are God’s beloved. Renewing our faith that we are sitting there in God’s presence, God is all about us and within us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.
—Thomas Merton, from A Coaching Session on Lectio by James FinleyEvery morning
You invite me to begin my day
the same way You invite me to begin anything:
grounded in Your love,
breathing in the reality
that I belong to You.I belong to You.
I am Your beloved
whom You will never leave nor forsake.
All I need
You have already given.
This is the truth that sets me free
to live and love and be
who I am–
fully alive,
a gift to the world.“Come into the quiet,” You say.
“Let Me be the ground you walk on this day.
Let Me be the breath you return to
as I transform
every moment,
every circumstance
into a holy one,
opening your eyes
to see what I see.“Remember what Parker Palmer says,
‘When the going gets rough, turn to wonder.’
Remember what Jim Finley says,
‘Your experience does not define you.
Only Love has the final say
in who you are.’“And when you are caught once again
by the beauty of the hills
and feel indescribable joy, peace and delight,
know this:
That is the feeling
of belonging to Me.
That is the feeling of being
My Beloved.”
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
–Psalm 121:1,2 (ESV)
An Everyday Pilgrim 