Prayer

Mar242017

The start of a Lenten novena

Most holy St. Jude–apostle, martyr and friend of Jesus, today I ask that you pray for the relenting of my thorns! You are the patron of the impossible. Pray for me! O St. Jude, pray that God’s grace and mercy will soothe my thorns. If it is God’s Will, pray for the impossible. Pray that I may have the grace to accept God’s holy will even if it is painful and difficult. St. Jude, you loved our Lord, help me to love Him more. O St. Jude, pray for me that I may grow in faith, hope and love and in the grace of Jesus Christ. Pray for the easing of my thorns. Implore Our Lord to remove the thorns, expose the wound, and let the scars be reminders. Not for the sake of comfort, yet for the opportunity to preserve peace, to abide within the silence of security, providing the opportunity to grow stronger in prayer and purity, becoming a channel of Christ’s love. I have known strife throughout my life. Pray St Jude that it is God’s Will to ease my burdens, granting the sanctifying grace to allow a humble harmonious prospering for the salvation of souls. Plead that Our Lord supplements personal freedom with the wisdom and understanding to concentrate upon an ever-growing devotion to Him and the strength to remain simple. Above all my concerns, pray that I may join you in heaven with God for all eternity. Amen.

O St. Jude, holy Apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, you are honored and petitioned by the universal Church, as the patron of desperate, hopeless and impossible cases. Pray for me. I am so helpless and alone. Intercede for me that Almighty God may bring swift aid where it is needed most. Come to my assistance in my great time of need! Pray for me that I may be given the comfort and help of Jesus. Most importantly, pray that I may one day join you and all of the saints in heaven to praise God in consolation, rest and joy for all eternity. Amen

I was searching for an image of St Jude when I came across the profound stare of this boy.  The sadness within innocence, the charm within suffering, everything was perfect in opening my heart, mind, and will to the determination to seek God’s assistance in confronting the thorns still digging into my life. A resolution to become a greater prayer warrior, a man of simpler demeanor and desires, further formation on into holiness.  Researching the photo it turns out the hospital is in New Haven, Connecticut, synchronizing with the significant other’s upbringing and our visit to the area. Allowing God to present Himself through others, I felt it appropriate to post the image.

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Mar072017

Nightime Lenten Prayer

Supplied by Irish Jesuits: www.sacredspace.ie, assistance in the persistent battle against temptation, before going to sleep, the time my will is the weakest.

Truth and Discernment

It’s difficult to make a good decision when you don’t have all the information. It’s also difficult to move forward while trying to deny part of your reality. Jesus came from a tradition that was brutally honest; just read a bit from any of Israel’s prophets to see how forcefully they spoke the truth. Jesus continued in this vein as he talked about what it really took to be people of God, to participate in the kingdom of God. Jesus knew what John the Baptist knew before him and what the prophets knew before both of them: without truth, people cannot heal. If we ignore the root cause of our wounds, we will continue to be wounded, even if we heal some of the damage. We might fix what has been harmed. But if we continue doing what caused the harm in the first place, we will simply acquire (or inflict) new wounds because the core activity has not changed.

Lent is a good time to stop our activity long enough to look at it carefully, prayerfully, and to determine the specific truths of the situation. —Vinita Hampton Wright, Praying Freedom

The Presence of God

Be still and know that I am God. Lord, may your spirit guide me to seek your loving presence more and more. For it is there I find rest and refreshment from this busy world.

Freedom

“Leave me here freely all alone
In cell where never sunlight shone
Should no one ever speak to me
This golden silence makes me free.”

Part of a poem written by a prisoner at Dachau concentration camp

Consciousness

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the cares of this world. At times like these may I be aware of the comfort of your Presence, Your infinite love for me.

The Word

The Word of God comes to us through the Scriptures. May the Holy Spirit enlighten my mind and heart to respond to the Gospel teachings. (Please turn to the Scripture on the following pages. Inspiration points are there should you need them. YVhen you are ready, return here to continue.) Conversation Jesus, you always welcomed little children when you walked on this earth. Teach me to have a childlike trust in you. To live in the knowledge that you will never abandon me.

Conclusion

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
World without end.
Amen.

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Mar052017

St Dominic Holy Hour reflection and prayer

Christ wants us to answer in the affirmative when He calls us. He doesn’t want our abject submission. He knows we have questions. He knows we have been thinking about this for a while. He knows we want to make changes. He knows we want to make the right move. Although He doesn’t want to be put to the test, He wants us to have all of the information we need so that we can go forward with confidence. Naturally sometimes what we think we need and what He is willing to give us are two different things, but He does not ask for blind faith. He gave us our brains and He expects us to use them.

In this season when we strive to make changes in our lives, let us conduct the due diligence necessary to go forward with confidence and be willing to follow where Christ wants to lead. These two are not mutually exclusive but work in concert to bring His plans to fruition for all His people in this world and in the next.

Lord may our prayers find favor in your sight. Help us to live our lives according to the teachings of the gospel. May we follow in the footsteps of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

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Mar012017

Repentance Psalm 50 (51)

Unto the end, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had sinned with Bethsabee.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee:
That thou mayst be justified in thy words, And mayst overcome when thou art judged.
For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me.
For behold thou hast loved truth:
The uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed:
Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness:
And the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee.
Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation:
And my tongue shall extol thy justice.
O Lord, thou wilt open my lips: and my mouth shall declare thy praise.
For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
With burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion;
that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.
Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings:
Then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.

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Feb122017

Te Deum

I have a new traveling partner,that being the compositions of Arvo Part.

Te Deum, also sometimes called the Ambrosian Hymn because of its association with St. Ambrose, is a traditional hymn of joy and thanksgiving. First attributed to Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, or Hilary, it is now accredited to Nicetas, Bishop of Remesiana; (4th century). It is used at the conclusion of the Office of the Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours on Sundays outside Lent, daily during the Octaves of Christmas and Easter, and on Solemnities and Feast Days. The petitions at the end were added at a later time and are optional. A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who recite it in thanksgiving and a plenary indulgence is granted if the hymn is recited publicly on the last day of the year.  –EWTN website.

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Feb112017

Early morning struggle

Early morning Holy Hour proved difficult, fighting sleep throughout the time of prayer.  I recall a spiritual master declaring the prayers we are forced to struggle through are the most efficacious.  On the natural level, I recall John the Hermit exclaiming that if we are fighting sleep during our prayer time it is our body speaking to us, crying ‘I need more sleep’.  I am working at least six days a week, ten hours a day.  The toll was obvious this morning.  I am content with work, settling more and more comfortable into my position, at peace and liking my coworkers.  The time is not difficult at work, perfect in regards to my desire to accumulate cash.  Perched upon a mountaintop is the allurement of a life with the Carthusians, a life dedicated to prayer, the end of a life succumbing within rest in God, obedient and within the Church.  I have been overwhelmed throughout the week with thoughts of the Franciscan Brothers Minor during Adoration at St Paul Shrine, deeply considering a letter to Father David Mary regarding discernment.  Tomorrow, after the downtown luncheon with the Shrine gathering, I will spend the day with the Man of Prayer.  He is a man who intentionally managed his life around his prayer life, working a nondemanding job for lesser pay than his qualifications and skills could acquire, solely for the purpose of freeing his time for prayer, a greater devotion to the ways of God.  The effort intrigues, lingering as a possibility.  God is good and all giving.

Morning prayers from St Dominic Holy Hour on the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes:

Come, O lord Our God, from Your throne of glory in Your kingdom.  Come and sanctify us, You who sit above with the Father but who is invisibly present with us.  Come and help us give worthy thanks to You for all the gifts You have lavished upon us.  You who have given us these gifts allow us to be faithful witnesses to Your real presence in the Holy Eucharist and let us be united to Your Body and Blood so that we may have Christ dwelling in our hearts.  We pray this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, forever and ever.  Amen. 

On this feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, we remember that Mary is the model of human wholeness—a wholeness that is joyfully and utterly surrendered to God. And so she reflects her Son Jesus who reveals the merciful face of the Father, touching the world with healing and wholeness….We too can echo Mary’s cry ‘The Almighty has done great things for me!”

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