here am i

What up peeps! The choir at Spring Hill sang this song this morning and I had to share it. Good stuff, indeed.

Lord, Here Am I
(John Ness Beck)

Master, Thou callest, I gladly obey; only direct me, and I'll find Thy way.
Teach me the mission appointed for me, what is my labor, and where it shall be.
Master, Thou callest, and this I reply, "Ready and willing Lord, here am I."
Willing, my Savior, to take up the cross; willing to suffer reproaches and loss.
Willing to follow, if Thou will be lead; only support me with grace in my need.
Master, Thou callest, and this I reply, "Ready and willing Lord, here am I."
Living or dying, I still would be Thine, yet I am mortal while Thou art divine.
Pardon, whenever I turn from the right; pity, and bring me again to the light.
Master, Thou callest, and this I reply, "Ready and willing Lord, here am I."


So, I started rereading a book I attempted to read in the fall, before my "read absolutely everything" phase kicked in, and I am in love! It's a book about the tradition of praying the hours, to begin discerning God's presence in everything. It's challenging me, and I love books that do that. How often do we legitimately focus when we pray on listening to God? I'm the worst at this. I pray, but a billion other things are going through my head at the exact same time. Distractions and fear are keeping me from seeing God's work in and around me. I'm starting the hours pretty soon, and paying attention to God! Lent starts Wednesday...just saying. :)

So praying the hours is a traditional Catholic thing, but what's wrong with having a set structure on when to pray? Yeah, nothing at all! I think it's a wonderful thing. Trust me, at first I thought it was kind of crazy, considering a couple of times you pray. You'll see why in a minute. The guy who wrote this book tells stories of how he started incorporating the hours into his life and how immediately it started changing the way he listened to God and how he started noticing things more. It's just amazing.

Here is the setup: (in case you've never heard of this) [also, I think there is a few different systems]

Vigils- about 3am
Lauds- greeting the beginning of the day
Prime- the start of the day's work
Terce- the third hour, perhaps midmorning
Sext- midday
None- midafternoon
Vespers- as the day is over and evening comes
Compline- when the day is complete and sleep begins

Waking up to pray at 3am? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING.

My thoughts exactly, until I thought about it. It obviously takes a lot of discipline to do such a thing. I can't imagine how refreshing it would be to pray in the middle of the night like that. Monks arise at 3am every morning and pray for hours, until Lauds. Hmm...interesting.

There are of course different things you pray for each time, but I'll explain those later. What do yall think? Cool, right? Yes maam.