Tag: Good Living

Being Loved

Receiving God’s Love

Smitten With Goodness

I recently read an article that reminded me of a profound truth: God is the one who causes the growth of grace in our souls. Yet, we freely participate in this divine process. Last year, Smitten With Goodness focused on the seasons of prayer: Blessings and Adoration, Petition, Intercession, and Thanksgiving. Prayer creates the sacred space for a relationship with God. One of the most vital ways we engage in our spiritual growth and the growth of grace is through petitionary prayer.

Petitionary prayer holds a unique and often overlooked place in the spiritual life. Essentially, you and I can ask God to cause His grace to flourish within us. It is a simple yet profound petition: “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, and please increase Your grace in my soul.” Few people think to ask for such a thing, and some might even consider it selfish. However, it is not selfish; it is an act of humility. To ask for the growth of grace is to acknowledge God’s power at work in our spiritual life and our need for Him in everything, including the growth of grace. It pleases God to grant this request.

“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?… If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9, 11)

The Lord is not referring simply to temporal blessings but even more to spiritual blessings. What greater spiritual blessing is there than an increase of sanctifying grace and union with God? Let’s ask for what we need: the grace to see how much God loves us and for God to open our hearts to receive this love.

Why not make space in your life today and rest in the reality that you are loved by the eternal God?

Being Loved

Where is Your Star

Smitten With Goodness

There’s a reason we are to aim for the stars. Perhaps not in the way our culture expresses this aspiration. But like the wise man (magi or kings), who traveled a great distance, following a star, to find baby Jesus after he was born, what distance will you travel this year to know your belovedness?  

We plan time for daily prayer, reading scripture, slowing down enough to catch our breath to notice God but the daily stress and chaos of life always suck us into the vortex. When you find yourself in this mess, do you go it alone like our culture ingrains in us or like the wisemen do you stop and look to the stars and seek Him? 

We have a choice and this is the spiritual battle. We can be distracted by things of this world, even the good things. 

What star do look for? Am I focused on God’s will for my life, or am I  distracted by lesser “stars” of media, status, and material goods? In what ways can I better acknowledge Jesus as my King, our God, and our Savior in the coming year?

If we follow our North Star of Christ, we can rest in the chaos knowing we are loved. When we seek Him, we find Him. We find God, truth and the beauty of our faith.

Inspiration

A New Perspective

Smitten With Goodness

With the start of another new year, we can use the calendar to help us with new resolve. So many times are attitudes affect our vision of how we see the world. We can believe the right things and do the right things, but we must have love at the foundation of everything.

Mary can be our role model for a new loving perspective. She achieved so much by her silent presence along with her son at many of the moments of his life, his birth, his first miracle at Cana and his death on the cross. She is for a model of silent contemplation as she ponders with great faith and devotion the mystery that unfolded before her in the life of her Son.

What perspective do you bring into this new year? Will you work tirelessly to seek God in everything? Will you strive for your faith to be visible through your actions? Do you plan to tell your family and friends you love them? How often will you tell God you love him? Will you give God thanks for your many blessings? Will you be bold in your faith? How do you plan to grow interiorly? Will you trust God’s plan and know you are exactly where you need to be? Will you endure the suffering you experience well? Will God come first in your life?

Ponder these things in your heart for a new loving perspective for 2025! Let’s be smitten with Gods goodness.

Teach Us To Pray

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

In this season we find ourselves in let us always remember that we are in the holy presence of God.


Loving Creator,
We asked for strength, and you gave us difficulties to make us strong.
We asked for wisdom, and you gave us problems to solve.
We asked for prosperity, and you gave us purpose and brains to use.
We asked for courage, and you gave us fears to overcome.
We asked for patience, and you gave us situations where we were forced to wait.
We asked for love, and you gave us troubled people to help.
We asked for justice, and you called us to be just and to lead with integrity.
Lord, we have received nothing that we asked for or wanted.
And yet, we received everything that we needed.
For this, we give thanks.

–Dr. Colleen Hanycz, 35th president of Xavier University

Teach Us To Pray

Prayer for Our Leaders

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

Let us pray for President-elect Trump, as well as all leaders in public life, that they may rise to meet the responsibilities entrusted to them as they serve our country and those whom they represent. Let us ask for the intercession of our Blessed Mother, the patroness of our nation, that she guide to uphold the common good of all and promote the dignity of the human person, especially the most vulnerable among us, including the unborn, the poor, the stranger, the elderly and infirm, and migrants.

Teach Us To Pray

Prayer After an Election

Smitten With Goodness
Season of Thanksgiving in prayer

God of all nations, Father of the human family,
we give you thanks for the freedom we exercise
and the many blessings of democracy we enjoy
in these United States of America.

We ask for your protection and guidance
for all who devote themselves to the common good,
working for justice and peace at home and around the world.

We lift up all our duly elected leaders and public servants,
those who will serve us as president, as legislators and judges,
those in the military and law enforcement.
Heal us from our differences and unite us, O Lord,
with a common purpose, dedication, and commitment to achieve liberty and justice in the years ahead for all people,
and especially those who are most vulnerable in our midst.

Amen

From USCCB

Teach Us To Pray

Happy All Hallows’ Eve

Smitten With Goodness
Season of thanksgiving in prayer

All Hallows’ Eve, commonly known as Halloween, has deep roots in Catholic tradition. The term “Halloween” is derived from “All Hallows’ Eve,” which is the vigil of All Saints’ Day, celebrated tomorrow. This day is dedicated to honoring all the saints in heaven, both known and unknown.

Continue reading “Happy All Hallows’ Eve” →
Teach Us To Pray

Set Free

Smitten With Goodness
Season of neediness in prayer

It’s counterintuitive to my self-reliant heart the freedom of surrendering to my neediness. Not a popular stance by the world’s account but oh how I see the joy on my Savior’s face and the warmth of love radiating from His sacred heart when I do.

Breathe holiness in me. Put fresh winds in my sails. Unbutton my lips, dear God and I’ll let loose with your praise

I need you, Lord, I need you. Every hour I need you my one defense my righteousness oh how I need you. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Easter People 

Smitten With Goodness
Season of goodness in prayer

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

Attitude Adjustment

Smitten With Goodness
Season of goodness in prayer

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.