![\"Five](\"http:\/\/grace-filled.net\/fivefavorites.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nIt’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.<\/p>\n
Compline.<\/strong> Compline is referred to as “Night Prayer” by some of my Catholic friends. I use the version in the Book of Common Prayer<\/a>. The liturgy and readings center me and the prayers give me words when I am severely lacking them at the end of the day.<\/p>\n Devotional reading.<\/strong> I’ve been using Our Daily Bread<\/a> 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Music.<\/strong> A large way God speaks to me is through music. I have Air 1<\/a> and KLOVE<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Quiet church.<\/strong> During Lent, Beth Anne<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Scripture.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n Go love up Hallie<\/a> and the others<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. One Compline. Compline is … Continue reading