|
Back to Top
|
Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console.
To be understood, as to understand,
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we
are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
Prayer of St. Catherine of Siena
Be my companion
through the darkness of this night.
From the beginning
you created me to your own image and likeness
in order that I might have eternal life,
that I might partake of you,
tasting your eternal sweetness and goodness.
But we travel by a broken road
on broken limbs.
I cannot arrive at eternal life
without your support.
I cannot go it alone.
Be my companion,
my guide,
my support.
You have loved me
even before I existed,
and knowing this,
I can place my trust
in your love
and set aside every fear.
Amen.
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
Prayer of Thomas Merton
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me
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 that the desire to please you
Does in fact please you.
And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this,
You will lead me by the right road
Though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always,
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
And you will never leave me to face my struggles alone.
|
|
Back to Top
|
Prayer Inspired by the Our Father
"O OUR most holy FATHER,
Our Creator, Redeemer, Consoler, and Savior
WHO ARE IN HEAVEN;
In the angels and in the saints,
Enlightening them to love, because You, Lord,
are light Inflaming them to love, because You, Lord,
are love Dwelling (in them) and filling them with happiness, Because
You, Lord,
are the Supreme Good, the Eternal Good
from Whom comes all good
without Whom there is no good
HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME;
May our knowledge of You become ever clearer
That we may know the breadth of Your blessings,
the length of Your promises,
the height of Your majesty,
the depth of Your judgments
YOUR KINGDOM COME;
So that You may rule in us through Your grace and enable us
to come to Your kingdom
where there is an unclouded vision of You
a perfect love of You
a blessed companionship with You
an eternal enjoyment of You
YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN;
That we may love You with our whole heart
by always thinking of You with our whole soul
by always directing all our intentions to You and
by seeking Your glory in everything and with our whole strength
by spending all energies and affections of soul and body
in the service of Your love and of nothing else and may we love
our neighbors as ourselves
by drawing them all with our whole strength to Your love
by rejoicing in the good fortunes of others as well as our own
by sympathizing with the misfortunes of others
and by giving offense to no one
GIVE US THIS DAY;
in memory and understanding and reverence
for the love which (our Lord Jesus Christ) had for us
and of those things He said and did and suffered for us
OUR DAILY BREAD;
Your own beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ
AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES;
Through Your ineffable mercy
through the power of the Passion of Your beloved Son
together with the merits and intercession
of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all Your chosen ones
AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST
US;
And whatever we do not forgive perfectly, do you, Lord,
enable us to forgive to the full so that we may truly love (our)
enemies
and fervently intercede for them before You
returning no one evil for evil
and striving to help everyone in You
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION;
Hidden or obvious
Sudden or persistent
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
past, present and to come
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever,
AMEN.
|
Back to Top
|
|
The Rowing Endeth
I'm mooring my rowboat
at the dock of the island called God.
This dock is made in the shape of a fish
and there are many boats moored
at many different docks.
"It's okay," I say to myself,
with blisters that broke and healed
and broke and healed...
saving themselves over and over.
And salt sticking to my face and arms like
a glue-skin pocket with grains of tapioca.
I empty myself from my wooden boat
and onto the flesh of The Island.
"On with it!" He says and thus
we squat on the rocks by the sea
and play...can it be true...
a game of poker.
He calls me.
I win because I hold a royal straight flush.
He wins because he holds five aces.
A wild card had been announced
but I had not heard it
being in such a state of awe
when he took out the cards and dealt.
As he plunks down His five aces
and I sit grinning at my royal flush,
He starts to laugh,
the laughter rolling like a hoop out of His mouth
and into mine,
and such laughter that He doubles right over me
laughing a Rejoice-Chorus at our two triumphs.
Then I laugh, the fishy dock laughs
the sea laughs. The Island laughs
The Absurd laughs.
Dearest dealer,
I with my royal straight flush,
love you so for your wild card,
that untamable, eternal, gut-driven ha ha
and lucky love.
Anne Sexton
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
A Different Spirit
I want to tell you this:
The moment will surely come
when the Holy Spirit
will be within you:
a wild goose
stretching and straining
through storms
with her taut body,
determined
For that moment
there will be nothing dove
about the Spirit
as she fiercely leads you
through wholesome refusals
and undreamt-of-surrenders
out into those
wonderfully clear choices
within the boundaries of which
you will land so akwardly;
but you will be like her:
exhilarated in your every part
by such strong-winged
full-feathered
single-hearted
flight!
Bernadette McCarrick, RSM
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
Falling in Love
Nothing is more practical than
finding God, that is, falling in love
in a quite absolute, final way. What
you are in love with, what seizes
your imagination, will affect every-
thing. It will decide what will get
you out of bed in the morning, what
you will do with your evenings, how
you will spend your weekends, what
you read, who you know, what
breaks your heart, and what amazes
you with joy and gratitude. Fall in
love. Stay in love. And it will
decide everything.
Pedro Arrupe, S.J.
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
Light In the Mist
Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented
and fabulous?" Actually who are you not to be? You are a
child
of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is
nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't
feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the
glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in
everyone
and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our
own fear our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
I encourage you
To prepare yourself humbly
To receive with all patience what
God wills to do in you.
Angel to St. Francis at Mt. La Verna
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
Be a Builder!
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of
the magnificent enterprise
that is the Lord's work.
Nothing we do is complete.
We plant seeds that one day
will grow. We water the
seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold
future promise. We lay
foundations that will need
further development.
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 the Lord'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. We now go
forward in the name of God
the Liberator.
Archbishop Oscar A. Romero
El Salvador
|
|
Back to Top
|
|
Vocation Contact
Feel free to contact Sister Patty Podhaisky, OSF, with any vocation
questions:
- Sister Patty Podhaisky, OSF
5314 Columbine Rd
Denver, CO 80221
303 458-6270, ext. 227
- E-mail: patty@marycrest.org
|
|
