In Latin

Crux sacra sit mihi lux! Nunquam draco sit mihi dux! (May the holy cross be my light! May the dragon never be my guide!).

Vade retro Satana! Nunquam suade mihi vana! Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas!
(Begone Satan! Never tempt me with your vanities! What you offer me is evil. Drink the poison yourself!)

Easier said than done...

It seems to me that the person who is about to come to prayer should withdraw for a little and prepare himself, and so become more attentive and active for the whole of his prayer. He should cast away all temptation and troubling thoughts and remind himself so far as he is able of the Majesty whom he approaches, and that it is impious to approach Him carelessly, sluggishly, and disdainfully; and he should put away all extraneous things.

This is how he should come to prayer, stretching out his soul, as it were, instead of his hands, straining his mind toward God instead of his eyes, raising his governing reason from the ground and standing it before the Lord of all instead of standing.

All malice toward any one of those who seem to have wronged him he should put away as far as any one would wish God to put away His malice toward him, if he had wronged and sinned against many of his neighbors or had done anything whatever he was conscious of being against right reason.

On Prayer
Origen of Alexandria

In memoriam...

Mourn. Grieve. Let your soul ache the pain it feels.

But this is the chief thing: Be not perturbed.
There is a season for all things - the coming in and the going away.
And in a little time each one of us will be no-one and
no-where, blended back into the mystery.

As he once was, we still are.
As he is now, so we will be, all too soon.
Fear not. We have been there before.
It’s OK. It is the way of all things.
The coin of in-the-meantime is all we have to spend.
What will you do until your time comes?
What is, after all, really important?
What will you leave behind in the hearts and minds of others?

Because we don’t know when we will die,
we think of life as an inexhaustible well.
Yet everything happens only a certain number of times,
and a very small number, really.
How many more times will you remember a certain
afternoon of your childhood?
Perhaps four or five times more.
Perhaps not even that.
How many more times will you watch the full moon rise?
Perhaps twenty. It all seems limitless. But it’s not.

Don’t miss the good times.
Notice and hold on to the lovely things.
Don’t miss the chance to leave a memory behind you as
one who loved this sweet life,
and one who loved others.
Remember to be kind.

And always believe that love is stronger than death.
Live in peace, trying always to do unto others as you
would have others do unto you.

Amen.

A simple prayer

Lord, take my tired body, my confused mind, and my restless soul into Your arms and give me rest, quiet simple rest, where I can be alone with You and You can be my all.

Ora Pro Nobis

I kneel before your Miraculous Image Oh Most Holy Mother of God - Our Lady of Czestochowa... Mother of the Dark and Saddened face.

Enfold me Oh Mother of all Graces in your most loving arms as you enfold your beloved Son. Let me, sinner though I am, experience your Motherly love and protection.

With all humility of heart, I seek your powerful intercession with God and your most beloved Son, Jesus Christ. With your loving eyes - look kindly upon the petitions I place before you at this time...

I come before you a sinner - undeserving of your slightest glance.

I come before you knowing full well how often I have failed to listen to the voice of your beloved Son.

I come before you unworthy of your love and yet full of confidence:

Confident that your love can change me.

Confident that your intercession can save me.

Confident that your motherly love will be open to me.

Confident that your prayers can gain for me the ability to accept God's will.

Obtain for me Oh Most Holy Mother of Czestochowa those blessings that will assure me eternal salvation.

Mother Most Holy- Queen of Poland- present my petitions before the throne of God and of your Most beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

I promise to always spread devotion to your Miraculous Image - Oh Most Holy Queen of Poland and Lady of Czestochowa. Under your protection I place my life and all my needs.

OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA, PRAY FOR US

Modern Labyrinth

(A newly acquired piece at Buffalo's Albright Knox Art Gallery. The bar in the middle of it moves slowly in the circle, creating the grooves at one end and erasing them at the other, continuously. See a quick video clip of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjeGQXdt6bI) h/t BDP


Prayerfulness of heart has much to do with finding the Center then living out of that Center in everyday centeredness. Space and time for God are necessary for that centeredness that becomes habitual - the very baseline of one's personal melody in the Spirit.

I once ventured to ask a markedly prayerful married woman how she prayed. She gave a surprising answer: I just putter. She worked and accomplished tasks, but with a free interior heart - free for God, free for holy musings, and free for praying for others.

Puttering is rather right-brained; it is not highly focused, not agenda-oriented, and not a charge up a mountain. Artists, poets, writers - creative and spiritual people - need non-agenda time in which to putter and live in 'interior space' where inspiration can happen. They need to cultivate the vessel of the heart: open, empty, and ready for inspiration - gift of the Spirit.

Sr. Donald Corcoran, OSB Cam.
The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality

A prayer...

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe. I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from the desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always, thought I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
-Thomas Merton

A prayer...

I hope you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for - maybe even worth dying for - something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead.

I can't tell you what it might be - that's for you to find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start looking, and to support you in your search.

-Sr. Ita Ford (Martyr)

A simple prayer

O Lord,

if I, with every breath on my lips,

do not sing your praise
Then, with every beat of my heart,

let me beg your mercy.
-Gomez-

Easter...

This Easter,

may the resurrection be as real in your life

as it was in His

Step back... and take the long view...

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime

is only a tiny fraction of

the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete,

which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted,

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,

and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,

a step along the way,

an opportunity

for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference

between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

(While attributed to +Oscar Romero, it is not by him, but about him. Regardless, with this changing of the year, maybe now is one of those times "to step back and take the long view". Happy 2008. All the best...)

Searching for God

O Lord, my God, teach my heart this day
where and how to see you
where and how to find you.

You have made me and remade me,
and you have bestowed on me
all good things I possess
and still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
for which I was made.

Teach me to seek you in desire.
Let me desire you by my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.

-St. Anselm

On Prayer...

When you come before the Lord,

talk to him if you can;

If you can't, just stay there,

let yourself be seen,

and don't try too hard to do anything else!

-St. Francis de Sales

Totus Tous

Lord, I give this day entirely to You -- I retain none of it for myself. It is Yours. If on this, Your day, You send me joy -- I thank you. If on this, Your day, You send me loneliness -- I will draw closer to You. If on this, Your day, You send me sorrow -- I accept it. If on this, Your day, You send me peace -- I will share it with the anxious. If on this, Your day, You send me pain -- I will suffer it with You. If I accept good things from You, should I not also accept unpleasant? Since this is Your day, which You graciously have given to me, and which I now in intention return to You, help me to live it well; not to waste what You have given on idleness but to use it as You have designed. Help me to remember how well the day goes when it is given to You. I trust that You will give to me this day all that I need and that all that is given or withheld is for my good. With all this in mind, help me to live this day with You in joy. Amen.