From today’s Old Testament reading, from Proverbs: ‘The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart’.

Alongside this text, here is another from earlier in the same book: ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Take heed to the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure’.

We have written on these words before, but it is worth repeating, that the ‘guarding of the heart’ is ancient monastic wisdom. It means to filter out from our mind and heart all that does not belong there, all that is not of God, and all that will distract us, draw us away, from the truth of Our Lord within us.

May we have the grace to do this, and may the Holy Spirit strengthen us in this work. May God bless you this day.