Rome wasn't built in a day.

Rome wasn't built in a day. A book wasn't written in a day. The Divine Office of Prayer was not built in a day but in small, small steps. We used to play a game on the front steps at home when I was a child called Giant Steps/baby steps, scissors steps. The leader would call out the kind of step and the first person to make it to the finish line won the game. There was a soldier step also but I can't remember much more about it except I always wanted to win.
Robert Benson addresses this dilemma: "You do not become a person of prayer and then begin to pray. If you say enough prayers, you may yet become a person of prayer. But you will not become one if you do not pray."

Benson likens the journey to the writer who has to go into the office, close the door and begin the task at hand. Same with the pray-er. Brother Roger has some advice: "Believe in the presence of Christ within you, even though you feel no tangible response."

VERSICLE: "Incline your ear, and come unto me." Isaiah 55
VENITE: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts." Psalm 139
COLLECT: (Formal prayer, corporate prayer) Hear our prayer, O Lord, and know our thoughts today. May we take our burdens to you, lay them on the altar, and leave them there. Relieve us of our burdens and teach us to trust. Amen.
CANTICLE: (Hymn of Praise) "Pass me Not"
Pass me not, O Gentle Savior, hear my humble cry,
While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me by.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry,
While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me by.

READING OF THE MESSAGE (Daddy's) "Seeing the Invisible"
Text: And Elisha prayed and said, "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see." II Kings 6:17
Introduction:
Syria is in campaign against Israel. King thinks he has a traitor in his camp.
Servant advised that Elisha is the cause of Israel knowing his plans.
King sent a great host to capture Elisha.
Servant sees host, reports to Elisha. Elisha prayed the text, "Open his eyes and let him see."
Man has been taught to see the best things. They say the greatest things are invisible.
Best things in life cannot be expressed in prose. Listen to Tennyson about an eagle:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands, close to the sun, in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He matches from his mountain walls.
And, like a thunderbolt, he falls.

I. First lesson is what we see dominates lives and interprets God to all of us.
1. Backward. Good lessons. "He who looks back is not fit..."
2. Look around us and we sink. Peter on water. Ten spies in Canaan.
3. Look to Jesus and man is saved. Serpent in the wilderness
4. Look heavenward and man is uplifted. Brightens up.

II. Man seeing the invisible --explains some of his habits and customs.
l. Going to church. Not for popularity. Not business. He sees something that other people do not see.
2. Praying. Ask and it shall be given. For himself, neighbors, unsaved world. Prays to find God.
3. Read the Scriptures. Not entertainment.
4. Honest, tell the truth.
5. Come out in the open with your spirituality and profession of faith.
When we open our eyes, help comes that we did not see, "Mountain was full of horses and chariots.' Same is true of other things.

What is my prayer for today? I pray, God, that I will sincerely seek this pilgrimage. I know that my steps have faltered, and even failed and failed to make the mark. I ask for strength and courage along the way as I reach out to grasp the invisible steps which befall me. Amen.