Starter Prayer: Deep peace of the running wave to you, of water flowing, rising and falling, sometimes advancing, sometimes receding. May the stream of your life flow unimpeded! Deep peace of the running wave to you! (Celtic Prayer)

Focus Phrase: Honoring Water

Scripture Reading: Psalm 77:16-19

Optional Read-along: Water, Wind, Earth and Fire pp. 140c-141a (Conclusion, Section: Honoring the Four Elements, Water)

Spiritual Direction:

During this journey you explored the impact of water on your own prayer and spiritual life: the rise and fall of the tides, living water, wells, springs, fountains, the greening power of God, and baptism and blessing.

Today, we enter into a guided prayer around these themes.

For prayer practice: Make yourself comfortable near the altar space you created. Relax in your seat. Feel your feet beneath the ground. Breathe deeply, and spend some time in silence. 
     Turn toward the west, the place of the setting sun, of endings and transitions, and of the season of autumn. 
     Become conscious of the element of water. Find your pulse and feel the power of water pumping through your body, sustaining you. Imagine the power of God present in the great sea and in the cleansing and renewal of baptism. Bless yourself with water if you have some on your altar.
     Notice in your body where you feel the gift and flow of water. Feel the gifts of tears, of your emotions, of the timing of twilight, of letting go and turning within. Like the sun, surrendering itself at sunset, surrender yourself into the waters, or your tears, honoring the time of the turning of fall.
     Ponder where in your life you feel the gift of water. Where are you being invited into deeper surrender to the flow of life?
     With the psalmist say: Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters (Psalm 77).

Be encouraged in your practice,
Katie Martinez

Endnotes

• For daily texts with the Focus Word, Starter Prayer and link to these daily posts, text the word “journey” to 970-500-0970.
• Are you receiving the weekly guide every Sunday via email? Register here.
• Join the Orange Dots of Hope Facebook Group for spiritual conversations on the journey.

This daily devotion is part of the Summer Growth Journey: Learning to Pray with Nature with Crossroads Church. Many of us are also reading through Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements by Christine Valters Paintner. To purchase a copy, or for more information, email us at [email protected].