Month: January 2024

Teach Us To Pray

Center of Gravity

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

I’ve recently been having discussions with a “spiritual” person who doesn’t identify with Christianity, despite being baptized and raised in the catholic church.   She states that many of the Christians she knows are not very nice and welcoming people. Do we live out our Christian values?  

Think about that, once we decide to stand with Jesus and determine that he is the supreme good, then every other authority must fall away. Every one of us has something or some set of values that we consider greatest. There is a center of gravity around which everything else turns. Is it money and material things? Perhaps it is power and position. Perhaps it is the esteem of others. Perhaps it is your country, your political party or your ethnic identity. Perhaps it is your family, your kids, your wife, your husband. 

None of these things are bad. However, when you place any of them in the absolute center of gravity, things go awry. When you make any of them your ultimate or final good, your spiritual life goes haywire. When you attach yourself to any of them with absolute tenacity, you will fall apart.

Heavenly Father, I am being held together by you whether I feel it or not.  Help me act accordingly, committing myself to you as the center of my life, surrendering my all. As I learn to love you, I see you are the true love of my life and I forever yearn to see your face. I can always count on you, as your love never fails. You are the guiding hand that directs my path with great plans and purpose.  Use me as your vessel today, be my center and take control. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Prayer of Noticing 

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

Do you ever find yourself so busy you are not focusing on the present moment, the person or task that is right before you? I often get caught up in the doing which leads me to doing more.  I have to consciously invite the Spirit in to help slow me down and notice. Will you pray this prayer of noticing with me today?

Lord, unless I slow down, I tend to see a life that is within my limited perspective. I miss the vast possibilities and nourishment available at my fingertips.  

Looking at the ocean nourishes my soul. It lifts my heart beyond the day to day and brings me to a place of awe and wonder. What a gift it is to contemplate Your power, glory and wisdom as Creator. This view invites me to prefer You rather than focusing on me. 

From the grains of sand between my toes, the healing salt that I taste on my lips to the power of the forceful waves making me work to keep my balance, the ocean is constantly in motion and evolving. Similar to me. 

As I take notice of the details of my life, the balance of my choices help me evolve into the person I become. My virtuous decisions draw me to be reborn and live as You designed me. Being connected to Your beauty, energizes me which flows through my veins and strengthens me. My source of life. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Heaven Awaits

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

We are called to love, to serve, and to accept the responsibility of bringing others to Christ and Christ to one another. Our family, our spouses, our children, our coworkers, and all the people in our lives need our love and attention. And they need good examples – examples they can follow in striving for holiness.

How can we be such examples and gather the strength we need to carry out this important call? We must turn to prayer, calling on God, his mother, and the Saints and angels for help. The heavens await our requests.

Pray, without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Jesus wants us to ask, to seek, and to knock. Allow him in. Every day. All day. Open yourself up to receive his abundant blessing and gifts of grace.

It is not necessary to always be in church to be with God, we can make a private chapel in our heart, where we can retire and commune with him. Peacefully, humbly, lovingly. We are all capable of these intimate conversations with God.

Lord, let me begin this moment. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Orienting My Day

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

One of the first things I do when I start waking up each day is to give God the glory for giving me another day. As I grab my coffee and sit in my prayer chair, I express gratitude for the things that are on my mind and heart since the day before. I pray the Morning Offering to help orient my day:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Growing Up

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

Spiritual life calls us to grow up and seek a level of maturity. John 15:7-8 states, “If you make yourself at home with me, and my words are at home with you, you can be sure that whatever you ask, will be listened to, and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.”

Lord, a tree is known by its fruits and a man is known by his deeds.  A good deed is never lost. Help us sow courtesy and reap friendship. Help us plant kindness and gather love. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Doing My Part

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray.

Matthew 6:14-18 from The Message, tells us how we are to act:

In prayer, there is a connection between what God does, and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.

When you practice some appetite – denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production of it. It might turn you into a small- time celebrity, but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn’t require attention getting devices. He won’t overlook what you are doing; he’ll reward you well.

Lord, let me listen to your voice and act accordingly for my part today. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Pray with simplicity

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

As humans, we overcomplicate things. There is richness in the simple things, when we focus and go deeper within the meaning. Matthew 6:5-14 from The Message is our prayer of simplicity today:

And when you come before, God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for 15 minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

Here’s what I want you to do: find a quiet, secluded place, so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply, and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer ignorant. They are full of formulas and programs and advice, pedaling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God, like this loving you, you can pray very simply like this:

Our Father, in heaven, 

reveal who you are. 

Set the world, right; 

do what’s best – as above, so below. 

Keep us alive with three square meals. 

Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. 

Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil. 

You’re in charge! 

You can do anything you want! 

You’re a blazing beauty! 

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

If Only We Can Be Still

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

When we take the time daily to meditate on the goodness of Jesus, it becomes so much easier to be who He desires us to be. We begin to realize that everything He asks of us is for our own good.

But first, we have to be still in order to know.

Be still and know I am God. Psalm 46:10

Lord, help me be still. Help me know that You are God. Let me be still, calm, peaceful, and open to Your presence.

Teach Us To Pray

A Simple Prayer

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

When I first found myself being drawn into a deeper spiritual relationship with my Creator, there were many time when I would sit and contemplate scripture. Psalm 25 turned into a constant prayer for me and to this day I still say it often as I need the Lord to “make” me lose my self-sufficiency.

Lord, make me know your ways. 

Lord, teach me your paths.

Make me walk in your truth and teach me.

For you are God my savior.

Psalm 25

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

How To Pray

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray.

Sometimes we struggle knowing how to pray. I hope the following wise words give you permission to let go and just be with God.

Remain at rest, in peace and truth, in the presence of our God. Force nothing. Do not aim to make any thoughts and resolutions. Be in God‘s presence as a child with their parent. Think of yourself as belonging to God that God may do with you whatever God pleases. Avoid a lot of words. Separate yourself from all things and direct your gaze at God. Be content to look at our God to whom you belong.

Venerable Francis Lieberman, C.S.Sp.