G'day, this is Matt Fradd with Ascension Presents,
and today I want to talk about offering our first thoughts to the Lord.
So when you wake up in the morning, you might feel groggy,
maybe you've got a hundred unconscious thoughts,
or half conscious thoughts, buzzing around in your brain.
At that point, I think it's very important to start our day off right
by praying, by drawing our attention to the Lord and giving him the day that's before us.
And in this little video, I want to share with you three simple ways that you might do that,
going from simple to more elaborate.
So the first thing you might do — and this is something I try to do every morning —
is I'll say “Glory to Jesus Christ.”
That's the first thing that I do.
So if I wake up, there's all these thoughts, I feel totally gross and groggy...
once I'm conscious I'll say “Glory to Jesus Christ.”
Now if my wife's awake, which usually she isn't, she will respond “Glory forever.”
This is something we pray in the Eastern Catholic Church —
“Glory to Jesus Christ,” the response being “Glory forever.”
So this is something that we do in the morning.
As I was saying, my wife's usually still sleeping so I say “Glory to Jesus Christ...
Glory forever” — and I'll say the second half — but that's one way you could start your day.
Sticking with this first way, you might wear a crucifix or have a crucifix next to your bed,
and you might not just say “Glory to Jesus Christ”
but you might pick up that crucifix or take it off your chest and kiss it,
“Glory to Jesus Christ, [kissing sound] glory forever.”
Now in doing that you're probably not gonna feel uber pious and super spiritual and really great.
No, you might feel totally gross.
But it's still important to give our first thoughts to the Lord
and I think that also builds within us a sort of consistency and perseverance that we need, right?
That regardless of how we feel, we are going to worship our Lord.
Alright, so the second thing that you might do is pray the Angelus.
If you're not familiar with the Angelus, you can just look it up online.
It contains some scripture verses, three Hail Mary’s...
but that's a short, simple prayer that you could pray.
Maybe you could get out of bed, fall to your knees and pray the Angelus.
How long is that going to take you? Two, three minutes?
Again, we're building within us consistency, perseverance, even when we don't feel like praying.
And in doing that we're offering our first thoughts to the Lord.
Okay, so the third way is a little more elaborate,
and this comes from the teachings of Saint Francis of DeSales.
He spoke a lot about how important it was to give our first thoughts to the Lord.
Every time you wake up, there are certain things that you do every single day, right?
Well, you get out of bed don't you? That's one thing that you do.
You put your feet on the floor — that's something you do.
Well, you get dressed, right? That's another thing that you do, hopefully!
Another thing that you do maybe is have your coffee, alright.
So suppose these are three things that you do every single morning.
St. Francis DeSales says what we can do is attach a memorized scripture verse to each of these actions.
Let me just suggest three,
though you could read St. Francis DeSales to learn more, or you could choose your own.
What if when you woke up in the morning, if every time your feet hit the floor,
you quoted Ephesians chapter 5, verse 14 and you said
“Awake o sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ shall give you light.”
What a beautiful way to start your morning with Scripture.
So the second thing you probably do is get coffee, right? If you're anything like me, that's what you do.
The one thing I chose is this, and this comes from Philippians, chapter 4 verse 13.
“I can do all things in him who strengthens me.”
*Laughter*
Physically, I need my coffee, you know, to be super charitable to my kids
and to start the day, to give me the strength and the pep that I need.
And of course this can be a reminder for me
that I can do nothing without the Lord, but with him I can do all things;
through him, as I say, who gives me strength.
Now the third thing you might do is simply get dressed.
Well here too you can attach a scripture verse to that behavior,
and here I've chosen Isaiah chapter 61, verse 10.
What if you memorize this, and so from now on, whenever you got dressed you said,
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with a robe of righteousness.”
Now again you can choose the scripture verse, you can decide how long they are, how short they are.
But again if you're doing these things,
you probably have a morning routine whether you've thought about it or not.
And these are things that you're doing every single day.
You also want to be praying every single day,
and so one thing to do
would be to associate particular scripture verses with those behaviors you do every day
and join them together.
So those are just three quick suggestions on how you can begin to start your day right
and give your day and your mind and heart to the Lord.
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