Praying 10 minutes today: FRIDAY 3/1

Find a quiet time and place to pray... take a few deep breaths...

be still... and know that God is near...

A word to reflect on:   
Create in me
a clean heart, O God...

 -Psalm 51

(Before moving on to the reflection below,

   spend some quiet time with the scripture verse above...)

In the quiet of my prayer each day, Lord,
   my heart speaks to yours
      and yours to mine...

I pray today for a deep quiet in my heart and mind,
   that sweet stillness of your presence where, without a word,
      your heart speaks to mine 
         and mine to yours...  

Give me a heart blessed
   with the silence of your presence
with its peace and power to calm my fears
   and soothe my worried soul... 

Create in me
   a clean heart, O God...

Help me make a time to be with you
   and in my heart of hearts to find the silent place within
where your heart beats in mine,

   pulsing strong, steady, true and without fail... 

Sometimes my heart's heavy with grief and problems;

sometimes my mind's confused, unsure of what to think;

sometimes my soul is sick with hurt and fear;

sometimes the noise within screams out

   though no one hears or knows the pain it shouts... 

Create in me

   a clean heart, O God... 

I need more than silence, Lord,

   I need the healing stillness of the quiet only found

      in finding you and resting by your side... 

Though I long for answers and solutions

   and for what I want and think I need;

      though I stew in my own juices and pity my own plight;
 I know that what I need the most 

   is to find in you the peace that only you can give,

      the quiet place prepared for me within your heart...

     

Take the tension from my neck

   and the tightness from my shoulders:
relax me, Lord, and let me be at ease in trusting   
   that you're always there to comfort and to strengthen me...

Help me lay down my burdens 
   as I enter the grotto of prayer to find your peace,
   as I walk the holy ground of your presence within me,
   as I seek the quiet stillness where your silent word 
      can soothe and heal and mend me...

Create in me
   a clean heart, O God... 

Create in me a clean heart, O God:
   a heart prepared to welcome you,
   a heart swept clean to call itself your home,
   a heart renewed by mercy and your pardon,
   a heart refreshed by hope that lifts me up,
   a heart restored to courage by your Spirit,
   a heart whose silence waits your quiet presence
      and the stillness of the peace it brings...    

Come, Lord, and meet my in my prayer, 
   in the silence, in the quiet, in the stillness:  
      create in me a clean heart, O God,
      and put a new and steadfast spirit in my soul...  
     

To ponder and pray over...

What quiet, what silence, what stillness
   does my heart desire?  long for?  need? 

What cleansing, what healing, what mending 
   does my heart need - today?
Does anything keep me from accepting
   the clean heart the Lord offers to create within me?
What "house cleaning" might I do in my heart,
   to welcome in the Lord?
What will I ask of the Lord today?
From this prayer time, what word or phrase will I keep with me
   to carry through the rest of my day?

(After you spend some time with these questions,

   pray the reflection above one more time...)

Here are some tips for praying 10 minutes a day.  If you find these daily prayer reminders helpful, please let me know - and share them with others. 

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The last tweet @Pontifex

The last tweet from Pope Benedict XVI:

     Grazie  Merci  Gracias  Thank you   Obrigado


(more on the image above)


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TOMORROW is a Friday in LENT

... a day to abstain from eating meat.

What does that mean?  

Catholics over 14 years of age 

are expected to abstain from eating meat 

on the Fridays of Lent.

If this seems to be asking too much, check out the story in this earlier post...

Note: Individual, personal health concerns and "doctor's orders" always take precedence over regulations for fast and abstinence!

Fast and Abstinence In Lent

All Christians are called to special prayer, fasting and caring for the poor in the season of Lent. 

Each person determines how he or she will personally live out these ancient Lenten exercises. 

In addition to personal Lenten practices, Catholics are also called to a communal practice of self-denial through fasting and abstinence.

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February 28: a special day

Image source

This day is significant for me for two reasons: the pope has left the Chair of Peter - and it's my mother's birthday.  She would have been 91 today.

An email I received this morning had nothing to do with either the pope or my mother but included the following quote from Dorothy Day:

St. Bonaventure said that after the long fast of our Lord in the desert, when the angels came to minister to him, they went first to the Blessed Mother to see what she had on her stove, and got the soup she had prepared and transported it to our Lord, who relished it all the more because his mother had prepared it.  Of course...

Reading that I couldn't help but think of my mother's grilled cheese sandwiches, meat loaf, shepherd's pie (with top and bottom crust) and, on cold winter nights, hot butterscotch pudding over vanilla ice cream.

Of course...



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I am just a weary pilgrim...

(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

The introductory verse to The Saints Go Marching In:
     "I am just a weary pilgrim, plodding through this world of sin,
     getting ready for that city, where the saints go marching in..."

Pope Benedict XVI, arriving at Castel Gandolfo as his papacy ends:
    "You know this day is different for me than the preceding ones: 
     I am no longer the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, 
     or I will be until 8 o'clock* this evening and then no more.
     I am simply a pilgrim beginning the last leg of his pilgrimage 
        on this Earth..."


*2:00 p.m. Eastern Time 



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A midday prayer: THURSDAY 2/28

Lord, you still the roaring of the seas,

   the roaring of their waves, 

     the tumult of the peoples...

-Psalm 65

 

 

If you would, Lord, 

   calm the seas on which I sail;

   quiet the roaring that threatens my peace;

   and still the waves that rock my boat...

 

Give me safe passage home, Lord,

   through this day's winds and storms,

     to the harbor of your peace...

 

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Sede Vacante

At 2:00 Eastern Time today, February 28, Pope Benedict XVI leaves the office of the papacy.

The image above is the coat of arms of the Camerlengo, the cardinal who directs the work of the conclave to elect a new pope.  The Camerlengo has no papal authority in the interregnum.

The umbrella and blank shield and scroll are indications that the Chair of St. Peter is empty or sede vacante.

Let us pray for the Pontiff Emeritus as he leaves the papacy;  for the cardinals who will elect his successor; and for the people he will serve.

Come, Holy Spirit!


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A midday prayer: WEDNESDAY 2/27

 How good it is, how pleasant,

   where people dwell as one...

- Psalm 133

 

 

Among the people I'll meet today,

   whose company I'll keep,

whether family friend or stranger:

   help me bring peace, Lord...

 

May my share in others' lives

   be good and pleasant;

may I dwell in peace 

   with all whose paths cross mine...

      

    

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Praying 10 minutes today: WEDNESDAY 2/27

Find a quiet time and place to pray... take a few deep breaths...

be still... and know that God is near...

A word to reflect on:   
Be still

and know that I am God...

- Psalm 46

(Before moving on to the reflection below,

   spend some quiet time with the scripture verse above...)

Slow me down, Lord...

Especially when I can't stop the merry-go-round on my own:    
slow me down... 

When my ears and mind are filled with noise,    
slow me down and show me a path to a quiet place... 

When I'm standing still but moving at 60 inside,    
put the brakes on and bring me to a stop by your side, 
in a place where I can hear my own breathing         
and the breath of your Spirit within me...

Help me hear my heart beat
and to trust that you listen to every beat...

Help me savor the silence
and find peace within it
and peace within my soul...

Help me make the time to find the calm, 
to find the quiet I need
to hear the birds sing, the tide come in, 
the sun rise and the moon wax full in the skies above... 

Let me find the time, Lord, for the rhythms of my life    
to slow down and rock me not to sleep but to peace,       
to that serenity that only you can give...

Let this place and time of prayer become for me    
a wellspring of sweet waters for a thirsty heart,       
a place where I will want to come often, every day,          
to draw and drink from its depths,             
to slake my thirst for what truly satisfies                
and gives me life... 

Bring me to a quiet place, Lord, 
wherever in my day that may be    
and let me find the time to sit with you there       
to drink in the peace that's only yours to give... 

Help me to be still, Lord,    
that I might know that you are God,       
that I might know that you are near...   

 

 
     In my own Lenten experience this year, I find that silence is becoming an important reality.  As background for that, let me share with you that I wake up to a clock radio – either music or news.   I’m a person who tends to turn on the car radio as soon as I’m on the road.  When I walk into my rooms at day’s end, the radio or a favorite CD fills the quiet almost immediately. All this and not to mention that I spend a good part of my day talking with people. There’s a lot of sound in my day. 

      Near the beginning of Lent I was heading out of town for an appointment and for some reason, perhaps the nudge of the Spirit, I didn’t turn on the car radio.  After a couple of miles I realized that I was in relative silence and I simultaneously knew that I was enjoying it, finding it peaceful.  Almost immediately I began to wonder if I’d leave the radio off or turn it on before I reached my destination – about a half hour away.  But the silence was something like a cold drink on a very warm day.  I think you know what I mean here.  When you’re thirsty on a hot and humid day, just a sip isn’t enough!  You want more and you just keep gulping that cold drink and enjoying its refreshment which is sweet even if it's only water.  That’s how it was with me and the silence in my car.  No, I didn’t turn the radio on before I arrived at my stop.  And since then, I’ve found myself more and more driving in silence and enjoying it as time, sweet time, in peace and prayer, with the Lord.  Like a glass of cold water on a hot summer’s day… 

 

            Silence isn’t easy to find these days and in some of our households, it’s almost impossible to find a quiet  moment or two.  I know that’s true for someone like me who lives alone so I can only imagine how difficult it is when you’re raising children! But silence is what we need if we want to listen for the breath of God breathing within us, for the Spirit of God moving within us, for the voice of God speaking within us... 

Be still and know that I am God...

Be still and know that I am... 
Be still and know
Be still...
Be... 

 

To ponder and pray over...

If I took an "inventory" of the sounds and noise in my life...
What sounds, what noise might I give up for Lent?
What are the times in my day or night when I might find some quiet?
Where are the places in my day or night 
   where I might find some silence?
Can I imagine the quiet as a time of peace, 
   silence as a place of peace?   
What will I ask of the Lord today?  
From this prayer time, what word or phrase will I keep with me    
   to carry through the rest of my day?
 

(After you spend some time with these questions,

   pray the reflection above one more time...) 

Here are some tips for praying 10 minutes a day.  If you find these daily prayer reminders helpful, please let me know - and share them with others. 

(H/T to a cyber friend for the Listen/Silent graphic above!)
  
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Midday Prayer: 2/26

 

I wear glasses, Lord: tri-focals!

Without my glasses my vision is

   unclear, unfocused and fuzzy.

Without my glasses I miss the details

   of beauty, knowledge, safety and direction.

 

Be my glasses, Lord!

Let your word, your truth and your wisdom

   correct my blurred vision and bring it into focus...

 

Help me see what's up ahead of me;

   help me see what's right in front of me;

      and help me see what's in between...

Help me see what I miss at my hasty, first glance... 

 

Help me see the detail I so often miss

   in the beauty of the world around me,

   in the truth of your word,

   in the ways you direct my steps along your path... 

 

Help me see myself and others

   as you see us, Lord... 

  

 

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A midday prayer: MONDAY 2/25

 

I know I'm not a saint, Lord

   so why's it so hard for me to call myself a sinner?

 

I know I'm not perfect, Lord,   

   so why's it so hard for me to admit my mistakes? 

 

I know I need to make some changes, Lord,

   so why's it so hard for me to start to make them?

 

I know my offenses, Lord: my sin is always before me.

Have mercy on me, in your kindness;

in your compassion, cleanse me of my sins.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and steadfast spirit in my soul...

- Psalm 51

 

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Monday Morning Offering - 228

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

Every Sunday my parish prays:
For a spirit of generosity in the hearts of us
who have more than we need... 

I have so much more than I need, Lord!

I have too much stuff...

I have too many things...

I have things I've forgotten I have...

I can't find all the things I have
because they're lost among all the other things I have... 

I have too many old things and too many new things... 

I collect things I don't need...

I have too many clothes
(too many that fit and too many that don't)...

I have too much money...

Well, the money thing helps me define this, Lord:
it's not so much that I have a lot of money - I don't -
but when I look around the world, 
I know I have more money than I need...

When I look around the world, Lord, 
I have more than I need of just about everything I have...

That's the hard question, Lord:
how much of anything do I really need...?

When I'm honest about that
I know I have more than I need...

I'm not going to offer you all my stuff, Lord,
all my things:
you don't need them or want them!

But this Lent I ask you to help me give up:
my desire to have more and more...
my desire to have more than I need...
my desire for collecting things
- for the sake collecting them...
my desire to have more for the sake of having more...
my desire to have more than others have...
my desire to buy, to have and to own
the biggest, the smallest, the fastest, the newest,
the sleekest, the priciest - whatever!

I offer for your mercy and healing my desire to have:
full shelves, full closets, full bank accounts,
a full tank, a full stomach
and boxes full of whatever I want
or might want
or think I want
or have been told I should want...

I offer for your mercy and healing
my tendency to stuff and clutter my mind and heart
and load my imagination with junk, with filler, with crap,
with so much less than my heart deserves,
so much less than my mind  deserves,
and with so much less than you deserve, Lord,
to find in my heart where you make my home...

I offer for your mercy and healing my complicity
in filling my heart with anything other
than the grace and peace, the lasting treasures,
for which my heart was made...

Help me to simplify my life this Lent, Lord...
Help me to give up, give away,
clean out, cast off, go without,
do without, strip away,
and just generally lighten the load:
to empty my heart of anything
that doesn't fill it as it deserves to be filled,
as it longs to be filled,
as you would fill it...

And make me generous, Lord,
in sharing and giving to others whatever I have
and for which they have a much greater need...

Such is my heart's offering this morning, Lord
and through these holy days and nights of Lent...

Amen.

(And here's a related post!)


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