“Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; You hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with Your counsel and afterward receive me into Glory.” Psalm 73:23-24

“And He said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will most gladly glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on me.”  2 Corinthians 11:9

Of the daily devotional guides that I have used my favorite be far is Celtic Daily Prayer.  Published by the Northumbria Community, the readings and writings resonate at a deep level for me. Most days the prayers and meditations provide motivation for me to get out of bed and the manner by  which I start my day off on the right foot. “

Today I have chosen to share two recent meditations, specifically for a friend who describes himself as a Ragamuffin.  He adopted the title from the book by Brennan O’Manning entitled “The Ragamuffin Gospel.”  It is a testament to the power of living under grace. Pure grace.  Unqualified grace.  Unconditional grace.  Unlimited grace. My friend exemplifies one who has embraced this grace.  Fully.  This grace has restored his soul, led him beside still waters, and sustained him through a great deal of suffering and pain.  As a result, he has come to know God more deeply, loved Christ more purely, and lived in the Presence of the Divine more fully.  My prayer for him, and really for each of us, is that we may discover this same grace, delight in it, distribute it to others, and allow it to seat us at The Table to dine with the Lord eternally.

“The senses hold suffering in horror.  Faith blesses it as a gift from the hand of Jesus, a bit of His cross which He lets us carry.  The senses take fright at that which they call danger, at all that might mean pain or death; but faith is afraid of nothing; she knows nothing can happen to her but what is the will of God.  Thus in everything that may happen, sorrow or joy, health or sickness, life or death, she is content and fears nothing. The sense are anxious abut the future and ask how shall we live tomorrow, but faith feels no anxiety. He who lives by faith has his soul full of new horizons open before him, marvelous horizons, lit with a new light, and with a divine beauty surrounded with new truths of life opposed to that of the world, to whom his acts seem like madness.  The world is in the darkness of night, the man of faith is in full light.”

“He who loves has his Beloved always in his mind; that time to him is well spent that is spent in contemplating Him, and the time to him is wasted in which He is out of his sight.  He counts as profitable only those hours in which he contemplates the only thing that to him has any reality.  All else is for him emptiness and nothingness.  Let your soul melt into Mine, immerse yourself in Me, lose yourself in Me.  Think how often I have told you to hope for the day when you will lean for ever on My breast.  And since I allow it I tell you now to being to live this life, in silence, lay your head upon My breast and so accomplish your pilgrimage.”