Lectio
“Let us not refuse Him the least sacrifice, everything is so big in religion… To pick up a pin through love could convert a soul! How mysterious it is! Ah! only Jesus can give such a value to our acts, so let us love Him with all our might.”
— Thérèse of Lisieux, Letter CXLIII to Léonie, 22 May 1894, in Collected Letters of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Meditatio
Sabbath is for us, but it is not about us. It is about the special relationship that God has with His children and all that He wants us to have, to hold, and to enjoy, which, ultimately, is Him. Sabbath, then, is a gift for us, but it is not a gift received passively. It is a gift of participation. It is a gift of communion. It is a gift of relationship.
Like all relationships, the relationship we have with God through Sabbath is not one-sided. God has already given Himself; what He asks of us is a response. He asks that we give of ourselves — that we give something up. He asks that we release our desires and our striving for all that is not God, and that we entrust ourselves and our lives to Him — that we rest in and with Him, even, or perhaps especially, when, in our restlessness, we desire something else.
In this way, Sabbath can be understood as a practice. This is not because Sabbath itself is insignificant or unimportant, but because it is of the utmost significance and of the greatest importance: it is where, little by little, we are drawn into total surrender. Sabbath is an invitation by God to spend time with God — to give up all that is not God, to be still, and to entrust our lives and our selves to Him. And so, by honoring the Sabbath, in whatever way God calls us to honor it, we are practicing the turning over of our lives to Him.
Through this practice, we are not only strengthened in faith and trust, but formed in the divine habit of surrender and of sacrifice. Let us not, then, refuse Him. Let us sabbath — let us bring into every hour what the Sabbath teaches us. Over time, every thought, every word, and every action is made an act of love — an act of ongoing conversion. And Christ, through whom all grace and mercy flow, may use even our sabbath to draw others to Himself.
Oratio
My Smallness
my smallness O Lord
undone by
Your greatness
my nothingness
without You
made whole
by Your everything
inside me
Your life is given over
unto me
completely
perfectly
for once and all
little by little
more and more
my life is given over
unto You
in stops and starts
failingly
imperfectly
Contemplatio
Somewhere in this ordinary hour there is a small thing no one else would notice: a pin on the floor, a word you leave unsaid, a restlessness you don’t act on. You do not have to know what He will do with it. Be still, and let Him do with it as He wills.
Related Scripture
“For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. ‘These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.’”
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Voice That Fills Empty Nets: Gregory of Nyssa and the Astonishment of Grace (Lectio Divina), which sits with an offering that comes up empty by our own effort and is filled beyond measure by His word.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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