Tag: Perspective

Teach Us To Pray

Combating Busyness

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

As we start the new year, where does your relationship with God fall on your list?  As seekers, our spirituality needs to be more important than anything. When my day is divinely ordered, miracles occur and I do what needs to be done.  

Thank you Lord for blessing me with the gift of being responsible. People know they can count on me to take care of things. For better or worse, I’ve learned to be the epitome of responsibility when it comes to my job, children, appearance and social commitments. But when it comes to taking care of myself spiritually, I likely don’t rate so high. Yet you are showing me that nothing else should be so high on my list. It is from my spirituality that friendship and love spring up like flowers. This includes learning to love myself and meditating on how you see me. It is from the depth of my spirituality that I become more able to forgive. And it is the quality of my spirituality that determines how well I can accept reality and let go of what needs to be released.

Help me live a Spirituality that is not a luxury to be pursued only if I have time left after everything else is done. Make me prioritize quiet time, time with friends, time to read, pray, and walk in the woods – the things that are important in the proper care of my spiritual life. Help me resist the temptation of busyness that leads me to be separate from You. Today please slow me down and order my priorities according to Your plan for me. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Center of Gravity

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

I’ve recently been having discussions with a “spiritual” person who doesn’t identify with Christianity, despite being baptized and raised in the catholic church.   She states that many of the Christians she knows are not very nice and welcoming people. Do we live out our Christian values?  

Think about that, once we decide to stand with Jesus and determine that he is the supreme good, then every other authority must fall away. Every one of us has something or some set of values that we consider greatest. There is a center of gravity around which everything else turns. Is it money and material things? Perhaps it is power and position. Perhaps it is the esteem of others. Perhaps it is your country, your political party or your ethnic identity. Perhaps it is your family, your kids, your wife, your husband. 

None of these things are bad. However, when you place any of them in the absolute center of gravity, things go awry. When you make any of them your ultimate or final good, your spiritual life goes haywire. When you attach yourself to any of them with absolute tenacity, you will fall apart.

Heavenly Father, I am being held together by you whether I feel it or not.  Help me act accordingly, committing myself to you as the center of my life, surrendering my all. As I learn to love you, I see you are the true love of my life and I forever yearn to see your face. I can always count on you, as your love never fails. You are the guiding hand that directs my path with great plans and purpose.  Use me as your vessel today, be my center and take control. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Prayer of Noticing 

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

Do you ever find yourself so busy you are not focusing on the present moment, the person or task that is right before you? I often get caught up in the doing which leads me to doing more.  I have to consciously invite the Spirit in to help slow me down and notice. Will you pray this prayer of noticing with me today?

Lord, unless I slow down, I tend to see a life that is within my limited perspective. I miss the vast possibilities and nourishment available at my fingertips.  

Looking at the ocean nourishes my soul. It lifts my heart beyond the day to day and brings me to a place of awe and wonder. What a gift it is to contemplate Your power, glory and wisdom as Creator. This view invites me to prefer You rather than focusing on me. 

From the grains of sand between my toes, the healing salt that I taste on my lips to the power of the forceful waves making me work to keep my balance, the ocean is constantly in motion and evolving. Similar to me. 

As I take notice of the details of my life, the balance of my choices help me evolve into the person I become. My virtuous decisions draw me to be reborn and live as You designed me. Being connected to Your beauty, energizes me which flows through my veins and strengthens me. My source of life. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Heaven Awaits

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

We are called to love, to serve, and to accept the responsibility of bringing others to Christ and Christ to one another. Our family, our spouses, our children, our coworkers, and all the people in our lives need our love and attention. And they need good examples – examples they can follow in striving for holiness.

How can we be such examples and gather the strength we need to carry out this important call? We must turn to prayer, calling on God, his mother, and the Saints and angels for help. The heavens await our requests.

Pray, without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Jesus wants us to ask, to seek, and to knock. Allow him in. Every day. All day. Open yourself up to receive his abundant blessing and gifts of grace.

It is not necessary to always be in church to be with God, we can make a private chapel in our heart, where we can retire and commune with him. Peacefully, humbly, lovingly. We are all capable of these intimate conversations with God.

Lord, let me begin this moment. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Orienting My Day

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

One of the first things I do when I start waking up each day is to give God the glory for giving me another day. As I grab my coffee and sit in my prayer chair, I express gratitude for the things that are on my mind and heart since the day before. I pray the Morning Offering to help orient my day:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month. Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Pray with simplicity

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

As humans, we overcomplicate things. There is richness in the simple things, when we focus and go deeper within the meaning. Matthew 6:5-14 from The Message is our prayer of simplicity today:

And when you come before, God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for 15 minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

Here’s what I want you to do: find a quiet, secluded place, so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply, and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer ignorant. They are full of formulas and programs and advice, pedaling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God, like this loving you, you can pray very simply like this:

Our Father, in heaven, 

reveal who you are. 

Set the world, right; 

do what’s best – as above, so below. 

Keep us alive with three square meals. 

Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. 

Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil. 

You’re in charge! 

You can do anything you want! 

You’re a blazing beauty! 

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Amen

Teach Us To Pray

If Only We Can Be Still

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray

When we take the time daily to meditate on the goodness of Jesus, it becomes so much easier to be who He desires us to be. We begin to realize that everything He asks of us is for our own good.

But first, we have to be still in order to know.

Be still and know I am God. Psalm 46:10

Lord, help me be still. Help me know that You are God. Let me be still, calm, peaceful, and open to Your presence.

Teach Us To Pray

How To Pray

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray.

Sometimes we struggle knowing how to pray. I hope the following wise words give you permission to let go and just be with God.

Remain at rest, in peace and truth, in the presence of our God. Force nothing. Do not aim to make any thoughts and resolutions. Be in God‘s presence as a child with their parent. Think of yourself as belonging to God that God may do with you whatever God pleases. Avoid a lot of words. Separate yourself from all things and direct your gaze at God. Be content to look at our God to whom you belong.

Venerable Francis Lieberman, C.S.Sp.
Teach Us To Pray

Teach Us To Pray

Smitten With Goodness
Teach us to pray.

This year’s theme for Smitten with Goodness is prayer. In the previous post, Prayer is Allowing God to Love You, there are many ways we can connect with God. Sometimes we need to slow down and go back to the basics. This helps us to open our minds and hearts to God. 

In Matthew 6:9-15, Jesus teaches us how to pray. Focusing on the Our Father, presents us with a great opportunity to go back to the basics of prayer. Meditating on this prayer allows us to open our minds and hearts and be in communion with God.

Our Father, 
Who art in Heaven, 
hallowed be Thy name; 
Thy Kingdom come, 
Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in Heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread; 
and forgive us our trespasses 
as we forgive those who trespass against us; 
and lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil. 
Amen.

If the Gospel is a message of Joy, then it is one we should be eager to pursue. We can do this by diving into a deeper, prayerful encounter with Jesus Christ this year. He will teach us to pray.

Inspiration

A Pledge of Peace

Smitten With Goodness
Poem by Jim Blackburn. Art by Scurry Chapman.

Its almost a new year a good to time to take stock of our lives. I hope you will take a few minutes after the busy holiday season to take a few moments to see what has worked for you and the areas where you might need improvement. One thing we can all integrate in our lives is peace. The work we do to bring our own peaceful heart to the world will sow many dividends. 

All of us have been wrestling with the hate in the world, and I would like to suggest that we take a stand for peace in the new year. We are not taught much about peace we are taught about war.  Sustainability is one of our premier global challenges and war is inimical to sustainability.  Peace is a part of a sustainable future.

Lets start a new conversation, a new direction , a new ethic, and peace might offer such an opportunity. Take in the words of poet and environmental attorney Jim Blackburn and artist Scurry Chapman as you find peace on your journey.

Peace

              Peace – an excellent state of being,

              Peace – a goal worth achieving,

              Peace – a faraway place

              Peace – let me argue its case.

              Peace – why is it so hard?

              Peace – no holds barred,

              Peace – put down the guns,

              Peace – let’s protect our sons.

              Peace – I love the idea,

              Peace –  but is it panacea?

              Peace – always out of reach,

              Peace – is it what we teach?

              Peace – between friend and foe,

              Peace – no war no mo

              Peace – I want it now

              Peace – but we don’t know how.

              Peace – should be in our books

              Peace – it gets many looks,

              Peace – will it come on my watch?

              Peace – It takes more than Scotch.

              Peace – we need to work today,

              Peace – we must find a way,

              Peace – oh such a dream,

              Peace – just watch me beam.

              Peace – between Jews and Palestinians

              Peace – between Pakistanis and Indians,

              Peace – between Republicans and Democrats

              Peace – between luddites and technocrats.

              Peace – for the sake of the Earth

              Peace – a value with worth,

              Peace – will the dream come true?

              Peace – it’s up to me and you.

              So welcome to Earth Church,

              Where doves land on your pew,

              And we take the pledge

              To bring peace to you.