Morning prayer · 11 January

Refreshment on the way

A traveler's water flask set down briefly on a milestone marker along a long road, cap off, steam rising, but the road stretches on ahead unfinished, with the words “refreshment on the way, nothing more” lettered by hand.

My God, never let me forget that times of comfort are refreshment on the way, nothing more. They won’t stay with us until heaven. Here, they’re only meant to get us ready for doing and suffering. Please give them to me from time to time. Pour the sweetness of your presence over me, so I don’t faint on the way, or give up praying when prayer feels dry, or do my daily work for its own sake and not for you. Give me your comfort from time to time, but don’t let me rest in it. Let me use it for what you give it for. If it goes, don’t let me be downcast. Let it carry me forward to thinking about heaven and longing for it. Amen.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (BSB)

Adapted from John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions (1893), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.