Gift – Page 11 – Smitten With Goodness

Surrender Novena

April 10, 2024April 7, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Day 8

Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of my grace; close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation. Repose in me, believing in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that if you say, “You take care of it,” I will take care of it all; I will console you, liberate you and guide you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

Teach Us To Pray

Surrender Novena

April 9, 2024April 7, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Day 7

I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed miracles, not even among the saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God.

So don’t think about it any more, because your mind is acute and for you it is very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. Do this for all your needs, do this, all of you, and you will see great continual silent miracles. I will take care of things, I promise this to you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

Teach Us To Pray

Surrender Novena

April 8, 2024April 7, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Day 6

You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything and you surrender to human strength, or worse—to men themselves, trusting in their intervention—this is what hinders my words and my views.

Oh, how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you; and how I suffer when I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to remove you from my protection and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. So, trust only in me, rest in me, surrender to me in everything.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

Teach Us To Pray

Easter People

April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Yesterday we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord. As Christian’s we are Easter people. Sprinkled with Easter water, we are strengthened in faith to serve the Lord and one another.

We also renew our baptismal promises. Let me ask you a few questions:

Do you reject Satan, including all of his works and his empty promises?

Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?

I Do!

With a resounding “I do!,” may these promises live on in our hearts.

God, the all-powerful Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and forgiven all our sins. May he also keep us faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Lightening Prayers

March 22, 2024March 17, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Our brains are amazing and our minds work faster than supercomputers. Think for a minute about how quickly we have an answer in our minds when somebody says something we dislike. We are usually quick to form a response! If you are in a full season of life right now, it might be hard to pray as much as you like or have a regular prayer time. Rather than beat yourself up, try to keep a few of these lightening prayers on hand to help lift your heart to God:

God, may my sacrifice of today remind me of my dependence on You for all the blessings I enjoy. Amen.

Heavenly Father, I’m truly sorry for the moments today where I missed the mark. I ask for your forgiveness and the strength to better follow Your call tomorrow. Amen.

God, I lift up (name of the person you’d like to pray for) today. I ask that you bless them abundantly today and throughout Lent. Amen.

Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything. Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Father of All

February 24, 2024February 22, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

God is our loving Father. Jesus tells us that God the Father knows what we need before we ask him. Still, we should ask, because in asking we become aware that we have needs that only God our Father can grant us. We learn to ask God what we most need for our salvation. That is why Jesus taught us the “Our Father.”

Praying the “Our Father” reminds us that he is the father of all, and therefore every human person is truly our brother or sister. In praying the “Our Father,” we essentially ask for three things: that God has the first place in our lives, that he gives us our material and spiritual sustenance, and that he grants us his forgiveness.

Lord, teach me how to pray.

Teach Us To Pray

Attitude Adjustment

February 19, 2024February 16, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

Traditional Prayers Teach Us the Correct Attitudes to Have Towards God. We can think of them helping give us an attitude adjustment.

What better prayer could we devise than a prayer using the very words Jesus taught us here? Yet the “Our Father” is a traditional prayer, a prayer with set words, prone to be recited merely by rote. But in fact, traditional prayers are an invitation to meditate, set up in a way that appeals to beginners.

In the “Our Father,” as in all traditional prayers, we repeat phrases that express the essence of a correct relationship with God. Whether we already hold these attitudes in our heart or not, the beauty of traditional prayers is not what we say, but how we say it. If we pray these words, trying to make them our own, conforming our heart to the attitudes they express, then little by little we will form a Christian heart, a heart that loves the way it should.

Lord, teach me through the “Our Father” to pray more deeply.

Teach Us To Pray

Wake Up to Trust

February 7, 2024February 7, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

I’m waking up with praise this morning, after my time in scripture, Psalm 45, which lets me know God’s heart and that I can trust.

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Teach Us To Pray

Power of Silence

February 5, 2024February 5, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

It is impossible to habitually spend time in silence and not know yourself. I think much of the world numbs out through constant noise and distraction to keep from going deep within. I know I did this with my busyness.

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Teach Us To Pray

Willpower or Grace

February 3, 2024February 2, 2024 Smitten With Goodness

The older I get, I’m learning a light touch is better than a hammer. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart and how I relate to others. Approaching difficult situations by sheer willpower fails me and I believe there must be a Higher Power which helps me. I think of that power as the grace of God.

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