E&W 2-16-14

Sacred Story

Encouragements & Wisdom: February 16, 2014

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If you prefer to read offline, you can also download:
Encouragements and Wisdom: February 16, 2014 (PDF).

E & W reflections are additional helps for your Sacred Story prayer journey. Reflect on them at week’s beginning or outside of your 15-minute prayer periods.

The Affirmations

I will ask myself what causes my anger and irritation at people and events.

Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was famous for developing the aerial shot to give a new perspective to a scene. This camera angle is often called a “bird’s eye view.”

When you find yourself in the grip of the angers and irritations of daily life, consider rising up to get an aerial shot of your situation. Move out of the heat of the moment. Rise above and step outside yourself to see the situation that is causing your displeasure and resentment with a “bird’s eye” perspective.

Stepping outside our aggressive moods takes presence of mind and heart. We are so used to just “feeling” the angers and irritations that we must make a decision to remove ourselves from the passion of the moment and watch ourselves dispassionately.

When you have stepped outside the scene of the moment, you can then ask yourself what is causing you to be upset, angry and irritated. The very act of removing yourself from the scene to watch it “from above” will have the effect of diffusing the emotions so that you can ask for God’s grace to enlighten the “eyes of your mind” as to the cause of your anger and irritation. In doing this, you not only diffuse the heat of the moment but also bring God into the conversation so you can seek the grace of enlightenment.

Try it! You will be amazed by what you discover and how this simple “affirmation” put into practice will help you advance in your sacred story. Appropriately enough, another name for the cinematic angle of “bird’s eye view” is “God’s eye view”!
 

Lord Jesus Christ, your gaze is compassion and love. Help us to step outside ourselves when we are angry and irritated so that we can be enlightened by your grace to understand our negative moods. Help us to stop and ask your help so that each day we can open more to
Creation, Presence, Memory, Mercy and Eternity.

Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,
that I may exactly observe them.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.

(Psalm 119: 33-34)

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Feast of the Chair of Peter (Feb. 22nd)