Today’s morning meditation is available below in audio and script formats. The audio version is also available for free download on the player.

Reading

Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength. It is therefore able to undertake all things, and it completes many things, and warrants them to take effect, where one who does not love would faint and lie down.

—Thomas à Kempis

Commentary

Without a tank full of gas, no car can drive very far. The mind, too, needs a full tank of vitality to draw on for patience, resilience, and creativity. Filling that tank every morning is one of the most practical purposes of meditation.

Most of us, however, even if we start with a full tank, have little control over the thousand and one little pinpricks that drain vitality as we go along: worry, vacillation, irritation, daydreaming. By lunchtime the indicator may be hovering around empty. 

Then it is that you have to be acutely vigilant. The tank is nearly empty, but by sheer effort and deft defensive driving, you manage to coast through to the end of the day without any serious accidents. 

The more effort you make, the more endurance you gain. The next day you may find the tank itself a little larger; you start the next day with a greater capacity for love and patience than before. (WLB)

Quiet

As your day begins, spend a few moments in silence and stillness.

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Abbreviations

(BC) The Belgic Confession

(CAC) The Center For Action & Contemplation

(CD) The Canons of Dort

(CIB) Church In Bethesda Prayers

(DZ) Donna Z.

(HC) The Heidelberg Catechism

(IO) Inward Outward

(MAO) Michael A. O’Sullivan

(NT) The New Testament

(OT) The Old Testament

(RP) Ryan Phipps

(TAO) The Tao Te Ching

(WC) The Westminster Confession

(WLB) Words To Live By

(WLC) The Westminster Larger Catechism

(WSC) The Westminster Shorter Catechism

ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A