Month: December 2024

Teach Us To Pray

The Overlooked

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

In this season of Advent, as we prepare our hearts for the coming of our Savior, let us reflect on the love and compassion that Jesus shows to those who are often overlooked in our world. Inspired by the appearance of Mary to Juan Diego, we seek to open our hearts to those in need, to live simply, and to see the face of Christ in everyone we meet. Let us be guided by the light of God’s word, filled with humility and wisdom, and look forward with hope, trust and gratitude for the Lord’s guidance.

Jesus,  I can see your special love
of those who are so often invisible in this world.
You sent your mother to give hope to the poor by appearing to Juan Diego.
Open my heart to fill with compassion
for those who are hungry and without dignity. Grant me the ability to live simply and to see you in the faces of those around me.
In the darkness of these Advent nights
let me be guided by the light of your word. Give me the humility to be led by you and the wisdom to learn from you.
I am grateful for the Savior who awaits us,
and eagerly await the time of rejoicing.
Let me look forward in hope
and turn to you with great trust,
knowing you will guide my steps
along the unknown path of this day.

 Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Stir of Anticipation

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

As we journey through this sacred season of Advent, our hearts naturally turn towards gratitude. It’s a time to reflect on the blessings we’ve received and the love that surrounds us despite the longing we have in our hearts. In this spirit of thankfulness, I want to share a beautiful prayer that resonates deeply with the theme of gratitude and the anticipation of divine presence. We are filled with gratitude and profound joy as we  welcome God’s presence into our lives. Even when we feel lost, there is always a guiding voice calling us back, rejoicing in our return.

May this season be a time of deep reflection, renewed faith, and abundant gratitude.

Almighty God,

I hear it over and over: you are coming to me.
I feel my heart stir in anticipation,
and I sense that you are inviting me
to enter more deeply
into the mystery of your birth.
Help me to feel renewed patience settle in my heart,
and to lift my face in joy.
I have been like a lost lamb,
but I hear your voice calling me
and I feel how deeply you want me to return.
Somehow I know that you rejoice in my desire to find you.
Help me not to be afraid to say out loud, to believe:
Here is God, coming into my life.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Well Lived

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

I’m grateful for the prayers written by those who have walked before us. During Advent, I love meditating on these words as I sit in the waiting, longing for a well lived life in Christ.

May the sounds of Advent stir a longing in your people, O God. 

Come again to set us free from the dullness of routine and the poverty of our imaginations. 

Break the patterns which bind us to small commitments and to the stale answers we have given to questions of no importance. 

Let the Advent trumpet blow, let the walls of our defenses crumble, 

and make a place in our lives for the freshness of your love, 

well-lived in the Spirit, and still given to all who know their need and dare receive it. 

Amen 

By Howard Thurman

Teach Us To Pray

What I Need

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

When we seek to know God’s will, we are always given what we need. Perhaps this doesn’t correspond to what we want but we thank you. 


Lord of all,
you are a God of plenty, a Lord who provides
for us in our need.
As I begin these early days of Advent
help me to believe that you know what I need.
Give me the courage to listen to your voice
and the freedom to open my heart to the graces you are offering me to place my trust in you.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Seeing What Matters

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer.

We can be blind to what truly matters as we walk this journey of life. Our focus can be on the urgent things driven by the demands of our culture and we become blind to the things that enrich our life and provide meaning. 

Blindness in the Bible is very often a symbol of spiritual blindness: the incapacity to see what truly matters. Focused on the worldly goods of wealth, pleasure, power, and honor, most people don’t see how blind they are to the truly important things: giving oneself to the grace of God and living a life of love. If you have not surrendered to the grace of God, you are blind. 

Thank you Lord that we can cry out to God in our need for physical healing and much more. We can ask you for that one thing that finally matters: spiritual vision—to know what my life is about, to know the big picture, to know where I’m going. I can have wealth, pleasure, honor, and power. I can have all the worldly goods I desire. But if I don’t see spiritually, it will do me no good and it will probably destroy me.  Through your love, I am healed and I thank you. Waiting for your renewed arrival this Advent season. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Come Lord Jesus

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, let’s invite God into our plans and preparations with a posture of humility and gratitude.

Lord Jesus,

Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.

We who have so much to do and seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day,

We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.

We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.

We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.

We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.

To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!’

Amen.

– Henri J.M. Nouwen

Teach Us To Pray

Secret of Happiness 

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God. Pray in gratitude every day.

Psalm 100 instructs the soul to, “enter his gates with thanksgiving.” Gratitude is the key to God’s Heart, the place to begin in prayer. When you thank God, you’re acknowledging reality: God is real and He is the Source of all gifts and graces you receive in life —He is the Source of your very life!

Thank Him for Who He is: Savior, Healer, Redeemer, Lover, Friend. Thank Him for what He’s done. For giving you life, for His forgiveness and mercy, for the myriad of ways He’s provided for you both daily and in times of crisis, for speaking to you through His Word and the Church and in the silence of your heart. For blessings and for the beautiful mystery of suffering.

And it will open up your own heart, too. Thanksgiving will lift the veil of comparison and consumerism to see all that God has already done, all that He gives, all that He is. It will lift your heart and inflame your love. Thanksgiving will make you more content with what you have and more hopeful for what’s to come. Practice thanksgiving every single day and soon it will become a habit and your habits will become your life.

Start here: Thank you, Jesus, for…

Teach Us To Pray

The Better Love

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

There are two loves, the love of God and the love of the world. If the love of the world takes possession of you, there is no way for the love of God to enter into you. Let the love of the world take the second place, and let the love of God dwell in you. Let the better love take over. —St. Augustine

Thank you Holy Spirit for giving me the courage and strength to fight for love. You are welcome to overwhelm my heart and enlighten any neglected, hardened darkened places with Your loving light. Help me be a star of light filled with optimism, truth, faith and service. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Recognizing Love

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything. – Thomas Merton

As co-creators with God, look into the mirror of your day and contemplate the following questions. Where do you see God’s loving presence and where did you turn away from God? 

• Where did my eyes linger today?

• Where was I blind?

• What did I learn today?

• What did I read?

• What new thoughts visited me?

• What differences did I notice in those closest to me?

• Whom did I neglect?

• Where did I neglect myself?

• What did I begin today that might endure?

• How were my conversations?

• What did I do today for the poor and excluded?

• Did I remember the dead today?

• Where could I have exposed myself to risk something different?

• Where did I allow myself to receive love?

• With whom today did I feel most myself?

• What reached me today? How did it imprint?

• What did I avoid today?

• From the evidence – why was I given this day?

From A Book of blessings by John O’ Donoghue