O Lord, teach me your paths,
and I will come to your truth.
Make my heart simple and guileless,
so that it honours your name.
I will proclaim you, Lord my God,
and give you praise with all my heart.
I will give glory to your name for ever,
for your great kindness is upon me:
you have rescued me from the deepest depths.
~ from Psalm 86 (85)
This morning’s prayer (from the Liturgy of the Hours) gave me pause today because it kind of summed up how I feel this Lenten season.
For me, this Lent is a time to pull up a stool and sit at the feet of the Lord, to be mentored in God’s ways. This is something we must do regularly throughout life. It’s like going back to the basics, but learning and re-learning them at deeper and deeper levels.
Simplicity is also something I strive for, especially at this point in my life. There’s a couple levels to this. First is an “outward” simplicity. I am trying to get rid of the clutter that surrounds me. Oh, it’s not like there’s a ton of stuff, but there is more than what I need to live on. I was cleaning my porch last night and found 6 bike pumps. Seriously more than I need or can even use at one time! “But what if … ” is the phrase that runs through my head. “But what if one breaks, or someone needs to borrow one, or you lose one …” I am commiting myself to stopping the “But what if’s” and passing along this stuff to others who actually need a bike pump or whatever.
There’s also the “inward” simplicity. “Make my heart simple.” For me this speaks to living out of my heart’s desire — not getting distracted by “lesser” desires or attractions. I have to think more on what this means. I know there is a message in there for me, but not sure what yet.
How does this psalm speak to you?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I know what you mean. I am getting to move to a different convent. Whenever one moves, there is always the sift-sort-toss process, especially if you’ve lived in a place for a while. . And at San Domenico my personal space will be smaller. So I’m trying to use this time and experience as spiritual practice.
Sister Pat … the “sift-sort-toss” process is definitely a good one for Lent, but it’s never easy. Everything has a memory attached to it. My prayers are with you, my friend, as you go move into a new space physically and spiritually.
Being one who is basically getting to know her faith for the first time in her life, this psalm jumps right out at me. Keep it simple, keep it honest, keep it happy. Just like a happy kid.
Don’t worry, be happy now.
This is certainly what I needed to hear today as I clean out a ruined, flooded basement, throwing away so much I thought had meaning to me… and realizing how very fortunate I am, nonetheless.
Chris … So sorry to hear you were affected by flooding too. My nuns have been going through the same thing in Monroe, Michigan. I know how difficult it can be. Please know that we are in solidarity with you.
I have just gone through a long recovery. I had been battling hearing loss. I lost the battle in 2006. I became completely deaf. For me it was life-crushing. How was I going to continue as an important part of community and continue to be the social worker I have always been?
Many things crossed my mind, fear, anger, feelings of being lost. But I had to get myself together and figure this out. The doctors threw up there hands and said there is nothing more we can do. But…..
My eyes lit up, I really wanted to know what was after the “but”.
The doctors told me I would be a good candidate for cochlear implants. Not knowing what a cochlear implant was and how it worked, kind of scared the willlies out of me. But I knew I had to do something, and so the journey began….
Today I have had both ears implanted, the left in 2006 and the right just this past July of 2008. I can hear again ! But my second implant surgery did not go so well. I could hear, but my balance went out the window. I could barely walk. I had to begin occupational rehab this past August. I was just released from Mayo Clinic this past January.
I am now back on my feet and working part time. I am just beginning to learn to trust myself again. God did end up with a black eye here and there during my illness.
But I think God feels it is pretty safe now to hug me. Yes, “Lord, teach me your paths, and I will come to your truth”, it has to be. “I will give glory to your name for ever, for your great kindness is upon me”. God’s kindness was always with me. I was just to busy swinging punches in every direction.
“You have rescued me from the deepest depths”. I could have given up. I could have just said, Sisters! sorry, I’m deaf, I can’t do life! But the God-force with in me, did not allow this Sister to sit back and let go. Thanks be to God.
Sr. Liza, I’m so sorry that you went through so much hurt and loss. I can’t imagine all the grief and rage and sadness. I’m in awe that you have clung so tenaciously to your faith, even after giving God a black or three. It couldn’t have been easy for you, even with help from the Divine.
My heart and prayers go out to you as you continue to walk your path with the Lords.
God bless you, and God be blessed, even with a black eye.
That’s LORD, singular… sheez, my spelling sucks today.
My prayers are with you — and am so proud of you for choosing life and thriving. You rock, Sister Liza.
I read Sister Liza’s blog and had to smile , I just had surgery for breast cancer , when I was first told I honestly said ” God’s will be done ” . I was worried ofcourse but prayer was all I could think of . ( I just came from a retreat at the time ) . Well, I know what you mean about the ” black eye ” . I needed another surgery , radiation to be scheduled . The cardiologist told me that during my stress test my heart enlarged and there is a blokage, now radiation and surgery for blockage have to be dealt with depending on which is the most urgent . While I still say ” God’s will be done ” , I feel guilty that I ever got angry even for a minute. But after reading your blog , I guess it’s okay to feel angry a little bit as long as my faith and trust in God remains strong . I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for mass today for some extra prayer and guidance !!! God bless and thanks for listening .
Hi Sharon, I too had breast cancer and know how it goes with starting with one thing (which is a big deal) and having what I called the “bonus” stuff. I’ll write a bit more about this in today’s post In the Deepest Depths since we are reflecting on it here. My prayers are with you too, Sharon.
I’ve always really liked this psalm. What draws me most is the first two phrases “Lord, teach me your paths and I will come to your truth.” I guess it’s because I’ve always been a kind of “truth seeker” if you will and look to God to provide me with wisdom.
Simplicity has been an important part of my life. It has never been too difficult for me from a material perspective as I was raised by two parents who lived through The Great Depression! As I matured, I realized from a more spiritual place, even when you have the ability to have more, less, basically just what you need, is really best. Who needs the clutter and waste? Not being the neatest person on the planet, I do tend to find numerous duplicates of things like scissors, tape, etc. around the house – my version of the bicycle pump! We just gave away bags and bags of stuff to Goodwill. We were so happy!
Inward simplicity can be a challenge too. Being an anxious person, my thoughts sometimes get crowded with concerns and fears about which I obsess. That’s probably one of the reasons I appreciate centering prayer so much. It brings me to that inner simplicity. Hopefully, that will last longer than the 30 minutes of that daily practice. Honestly, it’s been getting better. But I still have a ways to go – you know – a work in progress!
I’m sorry to hear about all the suffering expressed on this thread, i.e., physical deafness (glad that was resolved!) and cancer. I have a chronic back problem that varies in terms of pain and disability. It is sometimes very difficult to get around that emotionally and spiritually. I get mad at God because of this. I feel bad because I know God loves me and I love God. But I just cannot always make heads or tails of it and it can be so frustrating. Although I attribribute these flaws to my humanity, I do wish I could transcend them.
dee