Tag: Perspective

Teach Us To Pray

Holy Wednesday. Aloneness

Smitten With Goodness
Season of goodness in prayer

Today is Holy Wednesday, the day of Jesus’ aloneness. It is hard to get my head and heart around how he must have felt knowing the events ahead and what Judas will do. But Jesus knew the part Judas played in salvation history just as he knows the part we all play today. 

Reflect what might have been in Judas’ heart. He must have been on edge as he sat at the table of the Last Supper with the others. Through the exchanges at the table, we see it is Judas’ own conscience that implicates him, not Jesus. 

How does my conscience implicate me today? Do I love God through all the challenges I’m experiencing? Do I endeavor to see my fellow human person as God sees them? Do I see the divine who is infused in all of creation? Or do I betray God in my prideful pursuit of earthly desires?

God, you formed us as temples of your Spirit.  Here, our prayers and grant that in the cracks and brokenness of our hearts we may offer you fitting worship and praise for the saving cross of your son, that conquers all evil, and brings us your healing light. Through Christ, our Lord Amen.

Teach Us To Pray

Living By the Rules

Smitten With Goodness
Season of goodness in prayer

We are God’s people, created and sent by Him.  Through his words and tradition we learn how to live the fullness of life. As we prepare our hearts for Holy Week, we continue to assess how we are living a life with God at the center, loving God and His ways with all our heart and soul. 

The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your souls. Deuteronomy 26:16

Examine your conscience, in prayer, with what God asks of us::

Love God more than anything else.

Don’t make anything in your life more important than God.

Always say God’s name with love and respect.

Love and respect your parents.

Don’t kill (spoiler alert, anger is the first step in the path of killing).

Do not take anything that isn’t yours.

Always be faithful to your spouse.

Do not lie.

Be content with what you have and don’t wish for other people’s stuff.

Don’t neglect the things of God. 

Lord, help us know and live your ways. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Seeing the Face of Jesus

Smitten With Goodness
Season of goodness in prayer

There are moments throughout our day where we feel the sacredness, where the divine inside connects with the divine in another.  Psalm 27:7-9 says it beautifully: “Here, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!

“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me.”  As we see the face of God in our neighbor our interactions change. We become move loving. Let’s praise God for showing his face through love which is truth and beauty, today. 

Dear God, 

please reveal to us your sublime beauty

that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere,

so that we will never again feel frightened.

My divine love, my love,

please let us touch

your face.

– St. Francis of Assisi

Teach Us To Pray

Delivered 

Smitten With Goodness
Season of goodness in prayer

We are all familiar with temptation, that desire from within that invites us to act, contrary to what we know to be right. We are called to seek God‘s guidance and strength to persevere against temptation, for God does not tempt us. Rather, he offers us the ability to resist the temptation to grow in holiness. We are called to be pure of heart, and when we walk with God at our side, we are more easily able to achieve that goal. We are delivered. What are the things that tempt you? Ask for God’s help to identify and persevere against them.

God of all understanding, you are our source of strength and perseverance, in the midst of trials and Temptations. You lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. Protect us oh, Lord, from fear and doubt, from sadness, and a spare, from isolation and loneliness, from trials, and temptations, from persecution, weariness us, the tendency to give up, apathy, pain and hardship, sickness and death. Help us recognize you are by our side, offering compassion and assistance, so that we may overcome the wearisome burdens. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen 

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