Teach Us To Pray – Page 18 – Smitten With Goodness

Hope for Us All

July 14, 2024July 13, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Lets pray for a culture of nonviolence and a society where our needs are met and our desires are right ordered. This prayer by the late Benedictine Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki, a poet and peace activist, provides words of hope and inspiration for us all.

Prayer for the Decade of Nonviolence

I bow to the sacred in all creation.
May my spirit fill the world with beauty and wonder.
May my mind seek truth with humility and openness.
May my heart forgive without limit.
May my love for friend, enemy, and outcast be without measure.
May my needs be few and my living simple.
May my actions bear witness to the suffering of others.
May my hands never harm a living being.
May my steps stay on the journey of justice.
May my tongue speak for those who are poor without fear of the powerful.
May my prayers rise with patient discontent until no child is hungry.
May my life’s work be a passion for peace and nonviolence.
May my soul rejoice in the present moment.
May my imagination overcome death and despair with new possibilities.
And may I risk reputation, comfort, and security to bring this hope to the children.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Lead Us to Peace

July 13, 2024July 11, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Lord, Lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Let peace fill our hearts, our world and our universe. Let us dream together, pray together and work together, To build one world of peace and justice for all.

Prayer for Peace

On This Day….

Mend a quarrel
Search out a forgotten friend
Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust
Write a love letter
Share some treasures
Give a soft answer
Encourage youth

Manifest your loyalty in a word or deed
Keep a promise
Find the time
Forego a grudge
Forgive an enemy
Listen
Apologize if you were wrong

Try to understand
Flout envy
Examine your demands on others
Think first of someone else
Appreciate, be kind, be gentle
Laugh a little more.
Deserve confidence

Take up arms against malice
Decry complacency
Express your gratitude
Worship your God
Gladden the heart of a child
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth

Speak your love
Speak it again
Speak it still again
Speak it still once again….

~ Author Unknown

Teach Us To Pray

Trust and Confidence

July 12, 2024July 11, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Do you need a boost of faith? I think we all do. Faith is the key that puts every other truth into its proper place. Triumphs become opportunities for gratitude instead of pride. Tragedies become opportunities for growth instead of despair. Life just makes more sense and our faith in God gives us joy even when we face what can feel like insurmountable trials. We all need healing and miracles in our lives. Let’s pray:

Padre Pio’s Prayer for Trust and Confidence:

O Lord, we ask for a boundless confidence and trust in Your divine mercy, and the courage to accept the crosses and sufferings which bring immense goodness to our souls and that of Your Church.

Help us to love You with a pure and contrite heart, and to humble ourselves beneath Your cross, as we climb the mountain of holiness, carrying our cross that leads to heavenly glory.

May we receive You with great faith and love in Holy Communion, and allow You to act in us as You desire for your greater glory.

O Jesus, most adorable Heart and eternal fountain of Divine Love, may our prayer find favor before the Divine Majesty of Your heavenly Father.

Come Holy Spirit, light a fire in the hearts of your people. Help our faithlessness turn into faithfulness allowing us to be more like you. Your faithfulness is never ending. I pray for all your people who have lost hope, or who need the seed of faith you planted in their heart to grow big and wild like a mustard seed. I’m standing in the gap for them today. Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Perfect Surrender

July 11, 2024July 11, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

In a world with so much suffering it is only in true surrender to God that we can accept the gift of peace. Surrender is not a destination, a place where we arrive at some point but a life practice. A practice where we explore the places in our life and ultimately our heart and have the realization we need God. In the constant lifting of the veil of my heart, I invite God in to take the lead in those areas I’ve protected and kept to myself. As I fall more deeply in love with the King of the Universe, I surrender in love through love.

There is a prayer by St Ignatius of Loyola that we can pray often to help us on our way.

Suspice

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

My memory, my understanding, and my entire will.

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; dispose a bit, holy, according to your will.

Give me only your love, and your grace,

That is enough for me.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Light of the World

July 10, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

As our world seems to descend into greater darkness, we can be confident that our Advocate and Savior is with us and that He is “the light that shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Litany of Light

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Christ, Light of the World, hear us.
Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Mother of the New Dawn, pray for us.

Holy Trinity, source of all light, illuminate the darkness in our world:
To the minds of those dimmed by sin, bring your light.
To the hearts of those gripped by pornography, bring your light.
To those suffering depression or mental illness, bring your light.
To the souls enslaved by substance abuse, bring your light.
To those burdened by same-sex attraction, bring your light.
To those gripped by anxiety and fear, bring your light.
To the hearts of those who mourn, bring your light.
To the souls and bodies of abusers and the abused, bring your light.
To those with no place to call home, bring your light.
To those intent on killing in the name of God, bring your light.
To abortion clinics, bring your light.
To brothels and human-trafficking locations, bring your light.
To hospitals, pharmacies and nursing homes, bring your light.
To classrooms of despair, confusion and falsehood, bring your light.
To violent and drug-infested streets, bring your light.
To war-torn territories, bring your light.
To lands darkened, flooded, or destroyed by natural disasters, bring your light.
Wherever there is confusion, despair, loneliness and anger, bring your light.

St. Joseph, pray for us.
St. Mary Magdalene, pray for us.
St. Lucy, pray for us.
St. Augustine, pray for us.
St. Hildegard of Bingen, pray for us.
St. Claire, pray for us.
St. Albert the Great, pray for us.
St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
St. Bonaventure, pray for us.
All the Choirs of Angels, pray for us.
Mary, Light in the Darkness, pray for us.

Light of the World, who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Light of the World, who take away the sins of the world graciously hear us, O Lord.

Light of the World, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Search for Peace

July 9, 2024July 9, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

With the pace of our world today with the constant changes, it’s hard to live a peaceful life. But this is a battle worth fighting to search for and maintain a peaceful heart. We know that what is in our hearts is what we bring to our relationships and our world so let’s fight the good fight for interior peace. Let’s not look externally for comfort, security and satisfaction when we can be still, know the heart of God and accept His gift of peace. Let’s pray this prayer, similar to the Litany of Humility, for interior peace.

The Litany for Interior Peace

Jesus, meek and humble of heart,

Make my heart like unto Thine.

From the desire of being esteemed,

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved,

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire to be sought, etc.

From the desire to be mourned,

From the desire of praise,

From the desire of preference,

From the desire of influence,

From the desire of approval,

From the desire of authority,

From the fear of humiliations,

From the fear of being despised,

From the fear of repulse,

From the fear of calumny,

From the fear of oblivion,

From the fear of ridicule,

From the fear of injury,

From the fear of suspicion,

That others may be loved more than myself,

Jesus, grant this desire.

That others may be more highly esteemed,

Jesus, grant this desire.

That others may grow and increase in honor, and I decrease,

Jesus, grant that I may desire it.

Jesus, mercy.

Our Lady, help us.

Let Us Pray.

Pour forth Thy grace into our hearts, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we who refrain from sin by self-denial, may be afflicted in time rather than condemned to eternal punishment, through Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Glory Be

July 8, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

All glory needs to be given to its proper source. In a world that wants to be relevant, it is easy to take our lives for granted thinking this is our only life. But true living is living a life of authenticity and love which is understood by having an eternal perspective. This lens draws us to glorify God who is love. This posture is right and just our duty and salvation. When our hearts realize this truth, nothing can hold back our divine praises.

The Divine Praises Litany

Blessed be God.

Blessed be His Holy Name.

Blessed be Jesus Christ, True God and True Man.

Blessed be the Name of Jesus.

Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.

Blessed be His Most Precious Blood.

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.

Blessed be the Great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy.

Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception.

Blessed be her Glorious Assumption.

Blessed be the Name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.

Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most Chaste Spouse.

Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints.

May the Heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Discipline of Asking

July 7, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

God insists that we ask, not because He needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking. We need to wrestle with knowing our needs, wants and desires in Christ free from the pull of the secular world in which we find ourselves.

An omniscient God must know what we desire before we ask. God knows that what we really need most is reliance on Him. And how do we develop reliance? Like most other things, by practicing.

If it weren’t for the need to remind ourselves daily or hourly that all power flows from our Creator, we could just say a quick prayer at the beginning of each week, or each year, and be done with it. Surely God would fill our requests a year ahead of time. But getting our wishes granted isn’t the purpose of prayer. Getting to know God is the purpose. I need to be in touch with my Creator every hour of the day.

Prayer for the Church:

Let’s pray St Augustine’s prayer for all Christian’s to love without measure.

Scattered about the entire earth, your mother the Church is tormented by the assaults of error. She is also afflicted by the laziness and indifference of so many of the children she carries around in her bosom as well as by the sight of so many of her members growing cold, while she becomes less able to help her little ones. Who then will give her the necessary help she cries for if not her children and other members to whose number you belong. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Call to Intercession

July 6, 2024July 5, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Let’s cultivate the virtuous habit of intercessory prayer while performing great spiritual works of mercy in the same breath. In the words of Pope Francis:

“We are all leaves on the same tree: each one that falls reminds us of the great piety that must be nourished in prayer, for one another. So, let us pray for each other. It will do us good and do good for everyone.”

We can also take action to intercede for others in our personal prayer time with the following ACTS:

Adoration: we begin our intercession by adoring God, by praising Him for who He is; our Lord, Saviour, Creator etc,
Contrition: we acknowledge our sinfulness before Him because we have fallen short of His glory,
Thanksgiving: we thank the Lord for all His blessings, including the trials that come our way, and for His accompanying us through every moment of blessing and trial,
Supplication: we place the needs of those whom we are praying before God in faith and trust that He will hear our pleas in His time and in His way.

Lord, help us pray as you do today. Let us know your heart, help bear the burden of sin and disconnection with you and teach us to pray through your will. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Giver of Life

July 5, 2024July 3, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

As we celebrate freedom, we must fear what kills the soul more than what kills the body. True freedom is only achieved by rooting out the thoughts and actions that are not in alignment with our beliefs.

In a world that declares itself independent of God, we make ourselves slaves to the world. As we examine our consciences to see how we can change, we will be restored to right order and walk the path as God designed. We must seek the giver of life.

All the nations you have made shall come to bow before you, Lord, and give honor to your name. For you are great and do wondrous deeds; and you alone are God” (Psalm 86:9-10).

Prayer for our Nation
God our Father, giver of life, we entrust the United States of America to your loving care. You are the rock on which this nation was founded. You alone are the true source of our cherished rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Reclaim this land for your glory and dwell among your people.

Send your Spirit to touch the hearts of our nation’s leaders. Open their minds to the great worth of human life and the responsibilities that accompany human freedom. Remind your people that true happiness is rooted in seeking and doing your will.

Through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, patroness of our land, grant us the courage to reject the “culture of death.” Lead us into a new millennium of life. We ask this through Christ Our Lord.
Amen.