Tag: Gift

Teach Us To Pray

Call to Intercession

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

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

Most Like Christ

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

We are nudged, prompted, and motivated to do what we ought to do because we first have been inspired by the instigator of all good prayer, the Holy Spirit.  We are never more like Christ than in prayers of intercession. 

One way of laying down our lives is by praying for somebody.  In prayer, I’m saying, “my life for yours.” My time, my energy, my thought, my concern, my concentration, my faith – here they are for you. This is my labor of love, no sigh or small prayer is ever lost but rises to the ear of God. 

Intercession is giving our very self, our time, strength, energy, and attention to the needs of others in a way that no one but God sees, no one but God will do anything about, and no one but God will ever reward you for. 

TIPS FOR INTERCESSORY PRAYER

  • Still yourself, put yourself in God’s presence
  • Bring to mind someone you love
    • Ask Jesus what he wants you to pray for that person
    • Pray that prayer
  • Bring to mind someone you don’t know very well
    • Ask Jesus what he wants you to pray for that person
    • Pray that prayer
  • Bring to mind someone you are in conflict with or are struggling with
    • Ask Jesus what he wants you to pray for that person
    • Pray that prayer
    • Reflect on what God is teaching you
    • Reflect on what grace God is offering to you
  • Close your intercessory prayer time with
    • The Our Father
    • The Hail Mary
    • The Glory Be
Teach Us To Pray

Lightness of Laughter

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

Sometimes I take life too seriously and need to lighten up.  As I’m getting older, I’m appreciating the lightness of laughter and realizing a good sense of humor is actually good for us.  My husband loves to watch comedy specials for a good laugh and tries to get me to appreciate them. Much is lost on me however there are a few that resonate and cause me to laugh and have a shift of perspective. Most of the time my humor throughout the day is directed towards myself when I notice I’m setting unrealistic expectations or being too hard on myself. I’m learning to laugh, lean in and be gentle with myself. 

Do you need to cultivate good humor in your day? Praying this prayer by St. Thomas More frequently can help!

Prayer for Good Humor

Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Every Step of The Way

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

The “Litany of the Way, Prayer for the Journey” is a beautiful prayer that serves as a guide and companion for those embarking on life’s many journeys. Rooted in the tradition of Christian litanies, this prayer offers a series of heartfelt petitions and invocations, seeking divine guidance, protection, and strength for travelers on both physical and spiritual paths. Whether one is setting out on a literal journey, navigating the complexities of daily life, or embarking on a profound spiritual quest, the “Litany of the Way” provides a profound sense of comfort and assurance. Its rhythmic cadence and evocative language draw us into a contemplative state, fostering a deep connection with God and an enduring sense of peace and purpose. This prayer reminds us that, no matter where our journey leads, we are never alone, and the divine presence accompanies us every step of the way.

Litany of the Way, Prayer for the Journey

As Jesus sought the quiet of the desert,
teach us to pray.

As Jesus washed the feet of his disciples,
teach us to love.

As Jesus promised paradise to the thief on the cross,
teach us to hope.

As Jesus called Peter to walk to him across the water,
teach us to believe. 

As the child Jesus sat among the elders in the temple,
teach us to seek answers.

As Jesus in the garden opened his mind and heart to God’s will,
teach us to listen.

As Jesus reflected on the Law and the prophets,
teach us to learn.

As Jesus used parables to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom,
teach us to teach.

Teach Us To Pray

Gift of Self is the Greatest Gift

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

It is fascinating to read the Old Testament, especially Leviticus describing all the different offerings to God, including burnt offerings. Through Jesus, all this changed by giving back to God “His due”, our heart.  

The burnt offerings are something external to us. Even today, we let go of things (money, used clothes, old furniture) much faster than we let go of our time and our way of thinking. We give things but not ourselves.

We are called to give of the gift of ourselves. When I search my heart, can I say with conviction I give my time generously to the my Church community? If not, Why?

Lord, I come before you humbly. As one who has frequently fallen into sin, I am aware of my weakness. Your great love, though, assures me that your grace can keep me on the path to holiness. Help me resolve to offer to do a favor to someone that is costly in personal terms today.

Teach Us To Pray

Embracing Silence 

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

How well do you sit still? Maybe you’re like me and busy yourself barely having a break. Or maybe you live alone and the silence is painful so you distract yourself with noise. We need silence in our life where we can be still and know God. Where we can sort out what it means to be human.

Prayer, leading to friendship with God, means walking with him, simply being in his presence, shutting everything else out of our minds. Prayer means embracing silence.

Lord, thank you for meeting me in the silence of my life so I can see you throughout my life. Amen 

Teach Us To Pray

Eternal Perspective

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

Do you live with a sense of Kingdom urgency, with confidence you have a soul to save and live life for the eternity that awaits us? With the tug of the world, we desperately need to keep an eternal perspective like Jesus. 

This perspective was lightning focused on the mission that matters: bringing God’s love to the world, and being a conduit of grace. We live in a noisy world and as a result, we can no longer hear the voice of God in our lives. Through prayer we accept the gifts we have been given by God.  Gifts like Faith. Hope. Love.

Prayer is talking to God and an elevation of our soul, offering homage and asking for God to grow us in holiness for His glory.  The sanctification of the soul is the work of God. Our work is the intention and desire to transform our hearts through prayer and penance.  Developing our awareness to eliminate anything that separates us from the love of God.  When we begin to pray, we cease to sin. When we cease to pray, we begin to sin. Let’s keep an eternal perspective today!

God, give me an eternal perspective. Help my understanding of eternal life become bigger so that the cares of this world become smaller. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

True Healing

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

How many times do I let my small soul cover up the image of God within me by living from the narrow spectrum of my fearful desires? Lord have pity on me. Summon the depths of my being and call the great soul within me to rebirth and reconfiguration.

Like Bartimamaeous, the blind man begging to be healed, let me refuse to be silent in my need. Let me come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

Gracious and loving God, grant us humility, that we may know our own blindness. Convict us with perseverance in prayer as we call on your son to convert our hearts. With each dawn, let us see your glory with new eyes and with each evening let us rest in peace. Through Christ, our Lord, Amen 

Teach Us To Pray

Rewards of Detachment

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

Peter began to say to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Mark 10:28-31

At first glance Peter seems to be selfish, as if he were saying, “We have given up everything, now what’s in it for us?” His question is not prompted by selfishness, but rather is a response to Jesus’ previous statement that it is very hard for a rich man to enter heaven. In light of the difficulty of riches, Peter wants to know what the chances of entering the Kingdom of God will be for someone who has given up everything to follow Christ. 

How detached from material possessions must we be in order to be assured a place in heaven? 

Jesus does not give us a concrete answer to this question, but he does tell us that those who have given up everything will not only receive a reward of eternal life in the age to come, but also ample reward in this life.

Lord, I come to you to pray. Even though I cannot see you, I trust that you are present and want very much to instruct me in your teachings. In the same way that you demonstrate your love for me by spending this time with me, I want to express my love for you by dedicating this time to you with a spirit of faith, confidence, and attention. Here I am, Lord, to listen to you and respond with love. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Striving for Perfection 

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

God is constantly inviting us to perfection whether we are aware of it or not. Not as the world defines perfection but perfect as the mirror of Christ. We are to be light in a dark world. All monotheistic religions are drawn into this state of being. 

As Christians, we need to be serious about striving for perfection which is perfect, agape love. Essentially, the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity, first and foremost, in the love of God, then and the love of neighbor. Our call is to use whatever state of life we are in to reach this perfection by renouncing ourselves in order to allow Christ to do all things in us. In every prayer, we say, and every reaction we perform, and every suffering we endure, and our every act of love, we must come to realize that we are a member of Christ, and that Christ wishes still to pray, act, love, and suffer in us. He thirsts for this, to create the Mystical body of Christ living our vocation to form Christ in others. 

Let us strive to allow Christ to transform us rather than the arduous task of our will, imitating Christ and being so consumed by the fire of God’s love that we say, “I live, now, not I: but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.

Shine through me, and be so in me That every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!

Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others; The light, O Jesus will be all from You; none of it will be mine; it will be you, shining on others through me.

Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.

Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.

Amen

Cardinal Newman