Morning Offering
Come, Creator Spirit. Breathe life into me as I fill my whole being with you. Give me the graces to fully embrace your beauty, so that I might be united with your most Sacred Heart today. I desire to be close to you. I pray that my soul reaches out to say “yes” to you and remain in you without hesitation. When I am tempted to resist your pursuit, help me to reach for you and unite my whole self to you. I bring you the duties you have placed in my life today. I pray that I may see you in them and love through them. I love you and I live this day for you. I lay this day with all my work, joys, and sorrows in your hands to redeem, mould, and shape into the masterpiece you desire. Amen.
Spiritual + Creative Prompt
This week’s spiritual and creative prompts will help us to reciprocate and embrace God’s love for us so we can unite our lives to His. We will imagine intertwining ourselves with Him.
Praying the Rosary will help us connect with Jesus’ life and help us see the blend between the ordinary duties of His life through Mary’s eyes as well as His miraculous triumphs. We will be able to enter into the daily duties of our days through the lens of Christ’s life. Through weaving our lives together with God’s love for us, we will see how God is in every part of our lives. He is here with us, loving us through each responsibility placed before us and we can reciprocate by loving Him and others through those things too. We will say “yes” to God and our loved ones through embracing what fills our time with love.
Embrace the Mysteries
Pray a Rosary (or try a decade a day!), paying special attention to the motion of your hands. As your fingers work around the strand, they cling to each bead, embracing for a moment the mysteries of our faith through the life of Jesus. As you pray, ask for the grace to witness the events of our Savior through the eyes of Mary.
Woven Together
Materials:
Sketchbook
Two additional sheets of paper (these can be pages torn from your sketchbook).
Drawing and painting tools
Scissors
Glue or tape
Ruler or something to help you achieve a straight edge
Directions:
Our goal is to make a paper weaving that we can secure back into our sketchbook after we’re done. So you’ll need to start by cutting down to size your loose pieces of paper to fit into your sketchbook.
Now, turn your attention to your loose, newly-cut-down pieces of paper. These will become your materials to eventually weave together. One will represent you, and the other will represent God’s love for you.
1. First, create guidelines.
On one sheet of paper, lightly draw evenly spaced horizontal lines. These will serve as guidelines for you to cut the paper into strips.
On the other sheet of paper, do the same thing, except make the lines vertical.
2. Next, decorate your pages. One page will represent your thoughts, feelings, obligations, and prayers, and the other will represent God’s love for you.
To fill ‘your’ page, look around and notice the duties God has placed in your life at this very moment. These might include a looming work deadline, a difficult relationship, a pile of dishes, or a child or spouse to care for. Now, write (or even illustrate!) those things that you have an especially hard time embracing or doing out of love.
To fill ‘God’s’ page, imagine what color you think God’s love to be. Use variations of that color to create a composition or simply fill the whole page with that color.
I filled my page with hot pink and red. Then I wrote prayers with a white gel pen.
I often imagine God’s love as a sun-dappled field of wildflowers.
3. Cut, Weave, & Glue. Now it’s time to cut your strips, following your guidelines, and weave them together! We’ll use a basic over-under weaving technique you likely learned as a child.
As you weave, pray that God will give you the graces to love Him and others through your actions. Say specific prayers over those things that are especially challenging for you to embrace and unite to God.
Now all that’s left to do is secure your weaving back into your sketchbook. If you absolutely love how it turned out, you could also consider framing and displaying your work to remind you to unite the big and even the small tasks of your life to God.
This took a little trial and error! I’d suggest gluing down one end of every-other horizontal strip. Weave in one vertical strip, then glue the remaining horizontal ends (on that same side). Then, weave all the rest of the pieces and glue the piece down around the edges.
Make it your own:
Consider these suggestions, especially If you are working in your own creative (non-sketchbook) hobby/medium.
Ponder your relationship with our Heavenly Father as you work. Pray that the work you do will be an act of embracing Him.
What can you say “yes” to in your crafting that you would normally side step? Have fun and embrace it!
What is a duty in your life that you have an especially hard time with? Think of that part of your life as you work and ask God to help you love through that responsibility.
If you aren’t able to sit and work on these prompts due to the season of life you’re in (toddlers, work obligations, etc.), remember that we’re called to make our very lives a work of art! This week, reflect on the themes, reflection questions, and ideas in this week’s prompts during your daily activities.
(Psst…If you’re sharing updates of your creative process, be sure to tag @ScatterandSow on social media, and use #StirredToWonder.)
Evening Offering
Redeemed: An Evening Offering of the Day’s Beauty
Giver of good gifts, thank you for inviting me to participate in the mystery of your creation. Thank you for all I have received today. As I lay my body down tonight, I offer you the fruits of my labors, and with them, the shortcomings, failures, and fears that prevent me from resting in the beauty of your embrace. Creator of the universe, you are making all things new, even now. Help me to trust in your redemptive power so that when I rise I am ready once more to receive and serve you. Amen.
UP NEXT: Week 5: Music & Prayers