Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made all things and fill them with your blessing; you created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance. -Eucharistic Prayer D, BCP p. 373
Near my office, I watched the construction of a new bank building. After the preliminary framing, the first part of the building constructed was the bank's vault. It was clear from the very beginning that the vault represented the essence of the building's purpose.
In our spiritual lives, we rarely have the luxury of starting from scratch, of determining the core of what we do so that everything else can be built around it. Our lives grow in many directions, stretched thin by conflicting priorities, demands, and relationships. Rather than beginning with the vault, most of us build and fill countless other aspects of life and then try to place God in the center.
Eucharistic Prayer D offers a statement of the vault of Christian faith, the essence of what we do in our faith lives. In the prayer, we say, "Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made all things and fill them with your blessing." We go on to say, "You created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance."
Those words tell us that God alone should be found in the innermost vault, the heart of the disciple. Remembering God as the "fountain of life and source of all goodness" means that God remains at the center of life. No earthly harm can come to a person whose life flows from the knowledge and love of God in Christ.
Today, and every day of our lives, even the most faithful and disciplined follower of Jesus Christ will navigate a life filled with demands. But we can fully and passionately seek God armed with this key guideline: We have to remember to build the vault first.
God, let all priorities in our lives flow from the fountain of your goodness.
From Disciples on the Way by Carol Mead
No comments:
Post a Comment