Daily Office discipline: Reflections and prayers

One of the disciplines Scazzero suggests is the Daily Office, deliberately taking the time at specific times during the day to be quiet before God. For so long, I have had to opportunity to do this as a stay-at-home mother but found I could not as I battled feelings of guilt because everyone thought I should be 'working'. Yet doors never opened and precious moments have been wasted. I just sat in a sunny, quiet nook at the library and soaked in God's warmth and I thank Him.
Here are some quotes from Scazzero's Daily Office:

I have a need

of such clearance

as the Saviour effected in the temple of Jerusalem

a riddance of clutter

of what is secondary

that blocks the way

to the all-important central emptiness

which is filled

with the presence of God alone.

~Jean Danielou~

Prayer:

Lord, help me to see how much I lose when I lose You. My perspective on my life and all of life gets distorted when I don't make space for You, obscuring Your love for me. Your love is better than life and truly, I long for more tastes of that love. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

We all must  take the time to be silent and to contemplate,

especially those who live in big cities like London and New York,

where everything moves so fast...

I always begin my prayer in silence,

for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks.

God is the friend of silence--

we need to listen to God

because it's not what we say

but what He says to us and through us that matters.

Prayer feeds the soul--

as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul--

and it brings you closer to God.

It also gives you a clean and pure heart.

A clean heart can see God, can speak to God,

and can see the love of God in others.

~Mother Teresa~

Prayer:

Declutter my heart, O God, until I am quiet enough to hear You speak out of the silence. Help me in these few moments to stop, to listen, to wait, to be still, to allow Your Presence to envelop me. In Jesus' Name, Amen. 

I am busy because I am vain.

I want to appear important.

What better way than to be busy?

The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands of my time

are proof to myself and to all who will notice--

 that I am important.

If I go to a doctor's office and find there is no one waiting,

 and I see through a half-open door the doctor reading a book,

I wonder if he's any good.

Such experiences affect me.

I live in a society in which crowded schedules and harassed conditions

are evidence of importance,

so I develop a crowded schedule and harassed conditions.

When others notice, they acknowledge my significance,

and my vanity is fed.

I am busy because I am lazy.

I let others decide what I will do

instead of resolutely deciding myself.

It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard.

By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing,

establishing values and setting goals,

other people do it for us.

~Eugene Peterson~

Prayer:

Lord, grant me the grace to do one thing at a time today, without rushing or hurrying. Help me to savor the sacred in all I do, be it large or small. By the Holy Spirit within me, empower me to pause today as I move from one activity to the next. In Jesus' Name, Amen.