Daily Prayers for December 14
John of the Cross (1542 – 1591)
Born into poverty in sixteenth-century Spain, Juan de la Cruz joined the Carmelite order at the age of twenty-one. Four years later, he met Teresa of Avila, who was impressed by the young friar and recruited him to help her restore a spirit of radical simplicity to the Carmelites. Their reforms were not welcomed in the days of Spain’s Inquisition, and Juan suffered a great deal of persecution at the hands of his religious brothers. One of the great mystics of the Christian tradition, he teaches us how to draw closer to God during the “dark night of the soul.”
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Come, let us bow down and bend the knee : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Song “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”
Where there is no love, let us put love : and so, by your power, draw love out.
Psalm 73:14 – 18
I have been afflicted all day long : and punished every morning.
Had I gone on speaking this way : I should have betrayed the generation of your children.
When I tried to understand these things : it was too hard for me;
until I entered the sanctuary of God : and discerned the end of the wicked.
Surely, you set them in slippery places : you cast them down in ruin.
Where there is no love, let us put love : and so, by your power, draw love out.
Isaiah 8:1 – 15 Luke 22:54 – 69
Where there is no love, let us put love : and so, by your power, draw love out.
John of the Cross wrote, “The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.”
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Lord, help us not to despair when you seem far away or when our walk with you proves treacherous. Give us grace to trust your presence even when we feel your absence. Amen.
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;
may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;
may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;
may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
