# Dying Day 6 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *You, O Christ, are my wealth. All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you. They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence. How difficult it has been to come to this moment! The moment of letting go! I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control! Now I want only to be grasped by you. All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you. O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender. Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ. Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth. Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 49 #### Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble? #### To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. *49 Hear this, all peoples!Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,2 both low and high,rich and poor together!3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.* *5 Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?7 Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,8 for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,9 that he should live on forever and never see the pit.* *10 For he sees that even the wise die;the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.11 Their graves are their homes forever,[a] their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.12 Man in his pomp will not remain;he is like the beasts that perish.* *13 This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;yet after them people approve of their boasts.[b] Selah14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;death shall be their shepherd,* *and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,for he will receive me. Selah* *16 Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,when the glory of his house increases.* *17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.* *18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,who will never again see light.20 Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.* #### Scripture for the Day: Colossians 3:1-17 #### Put On the New Self *3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your[a] life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.* *5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[b] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.[c] 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[d] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,[e] free; but Christ is all, and in all.* *12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.* #### Footnotes: #### Reading for Reflection: *The paschal mystery, the dying and rising of Jesus, is the core of our lives as Christians. We live our lives in between the dying and rising. We have not fully experienced the dying. Nor have we lived the fullness of the risen life. We linger somewhere in between.* ​ *You and I, like Paul, have experienced moments of rising—of being grasped by Christ. We have known moments of crying out in the silence of our hearts, “all I want is to know Christ!” We have desired to live our lives in such a way that Christ will be our greatest wealth. We have prayed for the grace to die to our false selves and rise anew to life in Christ….* ​ *This waiting between dying and rising is like being in the tomb. It is a waiting room that is essential for spiritual growth. In this quiet tomb-place we feel, once again, that ancient tugging at the heart. We experience being drawn, like a magnet, to the divine. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Alas and Did My Savior Bleed *Alas and did my savior bleed* *And did my Sovereign die?* *Would He devote that sacred head* *For sinners such as I?* *Was it for sins that I have done* *He suffered on the tree?* *Amazing pity! Grace unknown!* *And love beyond degree!* *Well might the sun in darkness hide* *And shut His glory in* *When Christ, the great Redeemer died* *For man the creature's sin.* *Thus might I hide my blushing face* *While His dear cross appears,* *Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,* *And melt mine eyes to tears.* *But drops of grief can ne'er repay* *The debt of love I owe:* *Here, Lord, I give myself away* *'Tis all that I can do.* ### Closing Prayer: *Dear God,* *Please untie the knots that are in my mind my heart and my life. Remove the have nots, the can nots, and the do nots I have in my mind. Erase the will nots, may nots, the might nots that may find a home in my heart. Release me from the would nots could nots and should nots that obstruct my life. And most of all, remove from my mind my heart and my life, the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back especially the thought that I am not good enough. Amen. (Author unknown)*