Prayers/Reflection

[LeeLeePot]

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she died happy.... she's pretty btw.

[petite fleur]

REMAIN IN ME

Thank you for staying with me, Lord Jesus. If I had to remain in you by my force alone, I would soon betray your presence. You tenderly implanted me into yourself through the mystery of Baptism. How often I broke my oneness with you and hindered its unfolding. But you constantly restored the loving union that was lost. You attracted me;you permeated me with the sweet scent of your presence. I beg you, Lord Jesus, let your silent presence in me be a power of self-formation.


I hear you whisper in my soul: Remain in me, then I will remain in you. Your loyalty to me, my Lord, can never be questioned. You are fidelity itself. You loved me and pruned me before I could love you. Your acceptance of me is not hemmed in by impossible conditions. You are all for me even when I am against you. You cherish me no matter how I feel or am. It is only I who can be unfaithful to you. Therefore you have to ask me:"Remain in me." You assure me once and for all:"Then I will remain in you."


How direct and simple is the promise of your presence. You don't tell me that it is anything out of the ordinary. It is not a question of elated experiences. They may or may not accompany your presence in me. Your presence is not only for people more exalted than I, people unusually graced and gifted. It is also for me, a simple believer in your daily love and care.

To remain in you is not a feat of feeling or perfection. To remain in you is to believe in you, to surrender to you in faith, hope and love.

When I ask to remain in you, I ask for a special dimension of the grace of faith, the dimension of faith that is fidelity.

Please, Lord, let faith and fidelity abound in me; let them fill the empty spaces of my life!

[petite fleur]

REFLECTIONS from Fr. Jerry Orbos
from the book
“just a Moment"

A Nervous Tourist

The story is told about Dan Torres from Bicol who was so afraid and nervous because of his illegal immigration status in the United States. When told by the guy at a gas station to “pay first”, he thought the guy was asking for his papers. When asked if he had a Master Card or Visa credit card, he got nervous all the more because he thought that the guy was asking for his visa. When asked whether he was a tourist, he got scared thinking that the guy knew his name was Torres. And when the guy (observing he was tooo nervous!) told him to “be cool”, he fainted in fear because he thought the guy even knew that he was from Bicol!

Fr. Jerry’s ending per his book:

A MOMENT WITH THE LORD

Lord, I need not fear because You are near. Amen.

A MOMENT WITH THE WORD

Fear not, I am with you, be not dismayed, I am your God! Isaiah 41:10

[petite fleur]

Look at your hands. your hands that used to be little hands of an infant. Remember how your parents held your hand as they guide you while you were little,
hands that work
hands that love
hands that hurt
hands that offer everything to God
hands that give thanks
hands that pray and ask for forgiveness
hands that are gently pressed in prayer, just like a little child, in all humility praying.

[petite fleur]

Jul 20, Night Prayer for Wednesday of the 16th week of Ordinary Time


Maker of this heart of mine
You know me very well
You understand my deepest part
More than I know myself
So when I face the darkness
When I need to find my way
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

Keeper of this heart of mine
Your patience has no end
You’ve loved me back into Your arms
Time and time again
So if I start to wander
Like a lamb that’s gone astray
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

You’re the beacon of my nights
You’re the sunlight of my days
I can rest within Your arms
I can know Your loving ways
So let the cold winds blow
Let the storms rage all around
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

Giver of this life in me
You’re what I’m living for
For all my deepest gratitude
You love me even more
So as I walk through valleys
Listening for the Master’s call
I’ll trust in you
Shepherd of my heart

You’re the beacon of my nights
You’re the sunlight of my days
I can rest within Your arms
I can know Your loving ways
So as I walk through valleys
Listening for my Master’s call
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

[petite fleur]

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL.
book by St. John of the Cross

What is this Dark Night?

In silence, aridity, & darkness of the soul that we have experienced, it is through this stages that we are molded painfully and perfectly by the divine hand. He choose to hide himself so that we may be able to SEEK more of His love.


Mother Teresa's Dark Night

“In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss,” she wrote in 1959, “of God not wanting me — of God not being God — of God not existing.”

St. Therese's Dark Night

“If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into,”

St. Edith Stein

Edith went to the synagogue with her mother. It was a hard day for the two women. "Why did you get to know it [Christianity]?" her mother asked, "I don't want to say anything against him. He may have been a very good person. But why did he make himself God?


Even Jesus

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"



GOD OF SILENCE
Prayer of St. John of the Cross (Song)
‪God of silence‬‏ - YouTube

The God of silence beckons me
To journey to my heart
Where He awaits
O Lord, I hear You calling tenderly
To You I come to gaze
At the beauty of Your face I cannot see

To rest in Your embrace I cannot feel
To dwell in Your love hurting but sweet
To be with You; to glimpse eternity

God of night, fount of all my delight.
Show Your light . . . that my heart, like Yours, burn bright.

Be still the torment of the night
Will not encumber you, if you believe
My child this darkness isn't emptiness
For here I mold your heart
Unto My image painfully you long to see

The self you yearn to be, but fear to know
The world from which you flee in Me find home
All these I give you, if you remain in Me


COUNTERPOINT:
I am ever here
My child, you need not fear
The dark will set you free
And bring your heart to Me

I am ever here
My child, you need not fear
The dark will set you free
And bring your heart to Me

The God of silence beckons me
To journey to my heart
Where He awaits me.

----
The Dark Night of the Soul is the Gift of Illumination in Higher Consciousness
~ Dr. Darryl Pokea

Pain is never permanent.
St. Teresa of Avila

....the endurance of darkness is preparation for great light.
St. John of the Cross

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Carl Gustav Jung


"The Dark Night of the Soul is a lonely painful process in which consciousness is clouded by uncertainty to unravel the entanglements of ego within the self. As the pain and suffering within self and the world are faced and embraced, eventually the heart-beat of love is freed to express its many rhythms of service to others, God, and self, one and the same. We can only enter the dark corridors of this purification of consciousness if we accept the courage that comes from our Spirit. Courage sustains our mind and body on our journey through the deepest agony, suffering and pain. The Dark Night of the Soul is entering a cloud of unknowing, through which profound illumination in consciousness may emerge. By entering and accepting the intense pain and emptiness that accompany this state, liberation, enlightenment, and participation in Mystical Consciousness replace the ego's distorted clouded perceptions with clear flowing light. The anguish and suffering within the self and the world can be transformed to profound understanding and joy."

[petite fleur]

What self-deception to think that the young
are not capable of virtue!


"Experience teaches us that mature years
bring knowledge but not necessarily wisdom."

~Imitation of Mary

My God, how many know You but do not
love You!

I should be inconsolable at the
thought. But, if I am easily consoled, can I at
least say that I have at last begun to love You?

If I were only a child once again! I would
want mind and heart, thoughts and affections,
everything in me, to be given to You.

Thank You for Your great mercy in preserving
my life while I spent it in offending You.

I beg for Your grace! May it help me to
serve You until my dying breath, and to serve
You all the more faithfully as I have begun so
late to be Your servant.

~Imitation of Mary Chap5

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O God you are neither known nor Loved.

[clidim]

Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart with Your holy gifts.
Let my weakness be penetrated with Your strength this very day that I may fulfill all the duties of my state conscientiously, that I may do what is right and just.
Let my charity be such as to offend no one, and hurt no one's feelings; so generous as to pardon sincerely any wrong done to me.
Assist me, O Holy Spirit, in all my trials of life, enlighten me in my ignorance, advise me in my doubts, strengthen me in my weakness, help me in all my needs, protect me in temptations and console me in afflictions.
Graciously hear me, O Holy Spirit, and pour Your light into my heart, my soul, and my mind. Assist me to live a holy life and to grow in goodness and grace.
Amen..... this is my everyday prayer

[petite fleur]

“Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?”

"Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is enough to keep us in love with Christ unless both are proceeded by a personal encounter with Him. Theological insights are gained not only from between two covers of a book, but from two bent knees before an altar. The Holy Hour becomes like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world."

- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

[bowee]

Make me a Channel of your Peace.


Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord
And where there is doubt true faith in You

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there's sadness ever joy

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul

Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
It is in giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life