It’s Tuesday morning at 2:45 a.m. and my brain is refusing to shut off so I’m going to do my Five Favorites now and see if I can purge some of what is on my mind.

Compline. Compline is referred to as “Night Prayer” by some of my Catholic friends. I use the version in the Book of Common Prayer. The liturgy and readings center me and the prayers give me words when I am severely lacking them at the end of the day.

Devotional reading. I’ve been using Our Daily Bread on and off for about 20 years. The boy sitting next to me in my sociology class during my first semester of high school was reading it and I told him it looked interesting. He told me to keep it and thus started my relationship with RBC Ministries. While it existed, I also read Campus Journal (which is now defunct) which was a devotional geared toward students. It gives me a passage of Scripture to read, a meditation on it, and a short prayer. I find that even if I don’t really get to pray when I’m reading it (usually because I have a loud 5 year old), things from it pop into my mind during the day and I pray extemporaneously about those things.

Music. A large way God speaks to me is through music. I have Air 1 and KLOVE on in the car frequently and sometimes something in a song will hook me and give me something to think about/pray about. I also love to sing and choral music is great for this, especially early, Renaissance, and Baroque sacred music which can move me to tears.

Quiet church. During Lent, Beth Anne assigned me the Lenten penance of finding a church to pray in once or twice a week. Being able to sit in quiet and focus on the Cross is incredibly helpful to me, especially when my brain is spinning and I need it to silence itself.

Scripture. God’s Word speaks to me in interesting ways and it’s where I look when I don’t have the words to pray. The Gospels remind me of who Jesus is and the Psalms remind me that God is chill with me having emotions.

Go love up Hallie and the others.