Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 3/15

First, a little background on this day. It's Laetare (Rejoice!) Sunday, the halfway point of Lent. There are two ways to look at this day: "Lent is half over!" - or - "We're halfway to Easter!" Or both! Today the somber purple of Lent is lightened to rose, calling us to rejoice, even in this season of sacrifice and penance. Sometimes life is like this - is it not? We're called to rejoice when our hearts are heavy... We're called to be at peace in the midst of war... We're called to believe when our doubts are many...  In such times and in every season, we''re called to find what we need most in God - from whom all blessings flow...

Let''s pause and pray: 

Lord, help me find the joy of your Spirit
   even and especially 

        when things aren't going well...

 

Help me find your consoling peace
   when I'm burdened 

        with sorrow and with grief...

 

Help me find my refuge in you
   when I'm and feel

        I have no place to go...

 

Help me find the gift of faith
   when my thoughts are all unsure

        and my mind is filled with doubt...

 

Help me know your wisdom, Lord, 
   when I'm tempted to be foolish,

        negligent or careless...           

Help me find new hope in you
   when my hope is all but gone

        and I'm not sure whom to trust...

 

Help me find your grace and strength
   when surrounded by temptation,

        when I'm tempted to give in... 

 

Help me find your healing love
   when my heart is scarred by hurt

        and my memories wear me down...     

 

Help me know your faithful presence

    when I'm longing for some company 
       and feeling all alone...     

 

Help me find my joy in you, Lord 
   in the middle of this Lent

and halfway now to Easter

    and the peace your promise holds...

Amen.

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Night Prayer: SATURDAY 3/14

I was working on this prayer for another purpose and thought I might share it here with you.  It's based on the story of the prodigal son who, when he found himself alone, broke and remorseful, came to his senses and decided to return home to his father...

 

Lord...

 

When guilt and shame consume me

   - help me come to my senses -

and remember how your mercy never fails me...

 

When I’m confused and don't know where to turn,

  - help me come to my senses -

and learn to trust your Spirit guides me...

  

When I’ve made some foolish choices

   -- help me come to my senses -

and turn to the truth of your wisdom, word and will…

 

When I'm down and I’ve hit bottom,

  - help me come to my senses -

and take the hand you offer

   to help and lift me up… 

 

When I'm lost in grief and sadness

  - help me come to my senses -

and remember you’re my peace, my consolation...

 

When I’m afraid of what you think of me,

  - help me come to my senses -

and trust in your forgiveness, love and mercy…

 

When I’m hiding in self-pity

  - help me come to my senses -

and turn to those who care for me…

 

When the walls are closing in on me,

  - help me come to my senses -

and find freedom in my faith…

 

When I wonder if you’ll take me back,

  - help me come to my senses -

and see you have already

   - and will never let me go…

 

When I fear that you’ve forgotten me,

  - help me come to my senses -

and find that you’re right there,

   that you’re always by my side..

 

When I'm backed into a corner, Lord,

  - help me come to my senses -

and see that moving toward you

   is the only way to go…

 

When the time drags on and on,

    - help me come to my senses -

and remember you are with me,

   all day long and through the night…

 

When I'm jealous, green with envy,

  - help me come to my senses -

and be grateful for the gifts I have,

   the blessings that are mine…

  

When I'm afraid of what's ahead of me

  - help me come to my senses -

and trust all shall be well,

   that all things shall be well…

 

When I feel like all is lost, Lord,

   - help me come to my senses –

and remember - I’m already found…

 

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep rest in your peace...

 

Amen.

 

Find My Way Home by Nonah

 

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Pause for Prayer: SATURDAY 3/14

 

Lord, it's very likely 

    that sometime today someone will 

        push my buttons

        challenge my good will   

        misread my intentions   

        tick me off     

        try my patience 

        rattle my cage  

        judge me in haste, 

        test my kindness
          - or do all of the above...

 

When this happens, Lord,

    give me the grace I'll need
        to respond with patience
        to trust and accept
        to listen carefully
        to handle with care
        to be understanding
        to reach out in peace
        to be fair and just
        and to strive to be good 
            in all my words and deeds...

I know this is a lot to ask, Lord,
   but I need your help
if I'm to do for others
    as I'd have them do for me...

Amen.

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NIGHT PRAYER: Friday 3/13

For several years I've posted a weekly Lenten series on a selected topic.  This year, on Fridays, I'll be featuring songs we sing to honor the Cross of Jesus. (Here are links to the first and second and third posts in this series.)  The very fact that we sing of the Cross on which Jesus died is a testimony to our faith and belief that in his suffering we find our healing and our life...  Tonight's selection is Faithful Cross by fellow Rory Cooney and Tom Kendzia.  I find Cooney's lyrics here to be among the finest I've encountered in contemporary church music...

I suggest you pray with the song first, and then move on to my Night Prayer...  

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Night Prayer

These lyrics remind us, Lord:

    how present is your Cross

    in our lives and in the tragic news

    that wounds our hearts and yours...

 

The mighty arm of Caesar 

still dares to claim your name

to defend its iron arrows 

    launched with lusty, lethal power,

    mingling human blood and spirit 

    with the mud of mother earth...

 

Your kingship, Lord, is humble,

your reign, a life of service:

    you stoop to wash our dusty feet

    to teach us now to kneel 

    and tend our neighbors' many needs...

 

Your prophet's cry still echoes, Lord,

still shouts above the fray:

    "Beat your weapons into farm tools

    and go out into the fields

    to yield a crop of justice

    and a harvest of my peace..."     

 

Your Cross reveals your wisdom, Lord,

it's gilded with your love:

    it shines with grace, 

    with light undimmed,

    enlightening every heart...

 

On the Cross you told our story

with redeeming, saving grace:

    help us now to lay down our lives,

    to let go our greed and pride,

    to surrender to your love, Lord,

    to the victory you have won... 

   

Protect us, Lord, while we're awake

    and watch over us while we sleep

that awake, we might keep watch with you

    and asleep rest in your peace...

 

Amen. 

 

Perhaps you'd like to pray the song a second time...

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1. Who shall dare to sing the praises

Of the gallows tree whose limbs

Bore the carpenter of Nazareth,

Tree whose wood was borne by him?

Sing as his dear blood and spirit,

Mingled with the air and earth,

Make the tree a new creation,

Recreate the universe.

 

2. Mighty is the arm of Caesar

Who to God's own name pretends,

Strong the iron of the arrow,

Stronger still the oak that bends.

Christ's the empire unlike others,

All must put away the sword.

Here the king becomes the servant,

He who washes feet is Lord.

 

Rising from the earth to heaven,

Stretched between the mud and stars,

Terrible in pain and purpose,

Beautiful the wooden bars.

Rooted in the glades of Eden,

Tree that shaped the saving ark,

Light your frail human burden:

He the light undimmed by dark.

 

3. "Better one life than the nation,"

Argue those who plot and arm.

Guarding their civilization:

Violence and threats of harm.

Thus are prophets' voices silenced.

Privilege that fears its loss

Summons servant of the violence,

Forges nails, and builds the cross.

 

4. Love's astounding transformation

Gilds the instrument of death,

Love confounds sophistication,

Takes away the cynic's breath

Ever shunning power and glory,

Love has stripped the cross of shame,

So God saved the human story,

Taking human flesh and name.

 

5. Lifted up, his heart laid open,

Robbed of breath, his body torn,

Still his arms recall the rainbow

Promising a world reborn.

Gazing on the cross, look upward,

Til his heart arrests the glance,

And his arms direct us outward

To the world, with healing hands.

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TODAY is FRIDAY in Lent

 March 13

 is a FRIDAY in LENT 

 - a day of ABSTINENCE.

What does that mean?  

On the Fridays of Lent 

Catholics over 14 years of age

are expected to abstain from eating meat.

 

For more on this topic, 

check out this earlier post.

 

 Note: 

 Individual, personal health concerns and "doctor's orders" 

always take precedence over regulations 

for fast and abstinence!

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Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 3/13

 

As I make my way through Lent...

 

Open up my heart to see my troubles start to shrink, Lord, when I reach to help my neighbors bear what weighs upon their hearts...

Open wide my eyes that I not miss my neighbor's spirit, bent beneath the weight of worry often hidden, out of sight...

 

Open up my ears to hear the silent cries of others when they've lost the breath, the words they need to ask someone's help...

Open, Lord, my timid lips to speak what mends and heals - and let me know when silence whispers all that needs be said...

Open wide my arms to catch the frail, the faint, the falling: lifting them with prayer and strength to face another day...

Open wide, Lord, all I am and all I have to offer: for when I we give my heart away,  I give it back to you...

 

Amen.

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NIGHT PRAYER: Thursday 3/12

 

Sometimes - actually often,  Lord -

it boggles my mind, it amazes my soul:

    that you want to know me,

    that you can be known,

    that you desire to share in my life,

    that you want to be one with me...

 

I'd be nothing, Lord,

    no more  than the small, mortal being I am,

were it not for your curious, eternal interest 

    in my singular existence

and your holy abiding presence in my heart

and your Spirit always moving deep within me

and your loving, caring gaze 

    upon everything I do

and your gentle, guiding hand,

    laid oft upn my shoulder

and your passionate desire

    that you and I be one...

 

I'm humbled 

    when I ponder that you know me,

        that you call me by my name...

 

My imagination faints before your  ancient beauty, 

    uncovered and disclosed. revealed for me to see...

 

It blows my mind that I can know

    the One who is all-knowing...  

 

And my heart's too small to take in all

    the peace your pardon offers...

So I shiver in my flesh, Lord,

    before your wounded body:

hung upon the Cross, in love

    and given up for me...

I've done nothing, Lord, to merit

    all this love I don't deserve:

it's all pure grace - your gift divine -

   the mystery of your mercy...

  

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep rest in your peace...

Amen. 

I Have Loved You by Michael Joncas 

 

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I have loved you with an everlasting love, 

I have called you and you are mine;

I have loved you with an everlasting love, 

I have called you and you are mine.

Seek the face of the Lord and long for him: 

He will bring you his light and his peace.

Seek the face of the Lord and long for him: 

He will bring you his joy and his hope.

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