# The soil of your soul Day 1 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. > #### Opening Prayer *Father, Allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart. Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus. Amen. (JLB)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 65 *O God of Our Salvation To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.* *65 Praise is due to you,[a] O God, in Zion,and to you shall vows be performed.2 O you who hear prayer,to you shall all flesh come.3 When iniquities prevail against me,you atone for our transgressions.4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,to dwell in your courts!We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,the holiness of your temple!* *5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,O God of our salvation,* *the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;* *6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,being girded with might;* *7 who stills the roaring of the seas,the roaring of their waves,the tumult of the peoples,8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.* *9 You visit the earth and water it;[b] you greatly enrich it;* *the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain,for so you have prepared it.* *10 You water its furrows abundantly,settling its ridges,softening it with showers,and blessing its growth.11 You crown the year with your bounty;your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,the hills gird themselves with joy,13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain,they shout and sing together for joy.* #### Scripture for the Day: Mark 4:1-20 #### The Parable of the Sower *4 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”* *The Purpose of the Parables* *10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that* *“they may indeed see but not perceive,* *and may indeed hear but not understand,* *lest they should turn and be forgiven.”* *13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.[a] 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”* #### Reading for Reflection: *When you meditate or abide in your quiet times of communion, you do not charge in and do something, like saying, “I will now be good and move mountains by my act of faith.” No, you water your garden, knowing that these ideas are growing into a heavenly garden; the indwelling spirit doeth the work, not you: you merely water it. Do you not see the comfort there is in that? I can tell you in primer language that a very gentle, calm, unemotional, selfless, and patient attitude toward your spiritual growth is essential—such as all old gardeners know. They know that patience, hoeing, watering, and certain order, a quiet rhythm, bring a heavenly beauty. (Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood edited by Mary Strong)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: You Have Redeemed My Soul Y*ou have redeemed my soul from the pit of emptiness* *You have redeemed my soul from death (Repeat)* *I was a hungry child, a dried up river.* *I was a burned out forest* *And no one could do anything for me* *But you put food in my body, water in my dry bed* *And to my blackened branches* *You brought springtime green and a new life* *And nothing is impossible for you* ### Closing Prayer: ​ *Grow your good grace in me O God. Make me receptive to the ways that you water and tend this garden of my heart. Prune me where I need pruning, nurture me where I need nurturing, weed me where I need weeding, and care for me tenderly where I need your tender care. I love you, O Gardner of my soul. In the tenderness of Jesus. Amen. (JLB)*