Tag: pray

Agony

Kneeling by the couch once more,
I nod off, just as they did many years ago.
Position doesn’t matter kneeling, standing, sitting, plank…
In any position I sleep.
Watchful nights come easily to me 364 days of the year.
But on this night, the night He asks us to
Stay awake,
Watch,
And pray,
I sleep.
As dawn breaks, I wake up and I am sad.
He was alone, once again.

When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.  “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
Luke 22:45-46

The work of prayer

Oh the great weight of joy we feel when we realize that we too have been called to the work of prayer, the work of tending the garden of each soul we encounter.

My Sweet Lord, let our prayers be to Your Glory!

Thessalonians 5:16-18 – “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 

A house of prayer

Sweet Lord, please let the waters of my body remember the prayers You have gifted me to pray so that my whole being will be immersed in the infinite ripples of praise and prayer for You and to You in all moments of my life. For then I too can be Your House… A House of Prayer.

Isaiah 56:6-7
And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Giving us Time

He who does not know TIME – came up with the idea for TIME.  This alone should awe us into silence and yet there is so much more.

He designed an amazingly wonderful plan for creating soul filled beings that could learn, change and grow within TIME.  It is in these few moments that we have here on this earth that we have an opportunity to grow.  Watching as we learn, change and grow, greatly pleases Him.  We amaze Him as we strive for and grow in Holiness, and we bring Him great sorrow when we don’t, yet He is always cheering us on, giving us many more chances and opportunities to grow by giving us TIME.

When the final bell tolls on our life, our opportunities for change and growth end too.  It is this final state of our soul that is grafted into His infinite, eternal moment, and determines the depth of joy and pleasure we will be able to hold as we dig deep and explore His infinite love and goodness.

Oh my sweet Lord – please let the rest of my life be a prayer for all of my brothers and sisters to fully surrender to Your Holy Will so we may all grow in love and holiness as we journey through TIME.  Please teach me how to be Your gardener!

John 9:4
As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

What awaits…

I often think of infinity in terms of time stretching on forever, but within infinity there really is no such thing as time.  In the infinite time is rolled up into an instant leaving space for many other things to extend to infinity within that infinite moment!

Oh Lord, here in this world pure change and growth are free while everything else feels oppressed within the finite bounds of spacetime, but in an instant our chains will be loosed and our souls will fly free.  I pray that what awaits in that instant is for our souls to explode forth with infinite Love, Praise and Glory for You! Prepare us, Oh Lord, for the infinite moment that awaits us all.

Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

And His fire spreads…

My sweet friends, I am not looking for readers, I don’t advertise this blog.  I am just sharing tiny bits of my journey with the hope and prayer that a little light is given to those who find these words (His words I hope) and they are pointed towards Our Sweet and Precious Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ…
~ h ~  o  ~  m ~  e  ~.

I usually have 1 or 2 readers a day at the most (one of which is usually my sweet Dad), but yesterday after writing about the torches we carry and praying for the sweet and precious Holy Spirit to..  “keep their flames strong and continue to spread the fire of Your love by reigniting many torches that have grown cold.” 23 people found this site.

Don’t forget – the Holy Spirit is active and working in our lives! Let us pray to give Him the freedom to do His work through you, me, all of us –
Thy Will be Done!

Glory Be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit  – AMEN

Hail Mary

About two years ago I started feeling called to pray the Rosary.  I was excited to pray it and wanted to spread the call. I asked a friend to pray with me.  I bought Rosaries to give to the homeless and asked them to pray with me, and I bought a book about the Rosary, The Secret of the Rosary by Saint Louis de Montfort.

And then the time came to pray… every time I would begin to pray, I lacked patience, the desire to complete it left me as soon as I began and honestly I kept falling asleep in the middle of saying it.  My attempts became fewer and fewer and my excitement waned.

Then about six months ago I had an interesting discussion regarding the strong connection between our physical actions and our prayers, and I decided to begin trying to pray the Rosary again, but in action this time.

I decided to connect praying the Rosary with an exercise I love, yoga. Below is how I have been been praying the Rosary of our sweet and wonderful Mother, and I hope that if you struggle to pray the Rosary this will help you.  Use this as a guide to pray with me, or as a spark to ignite a new idea within you to honor and pray the Rosary of our sweet Mother Mary!

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I begin the Rosary by praying the Apostle’s Creed in the humble position of prayer on my knees with my hands together in prayer.

I then pray the Our Father with my arms spread wide and my face tilted upward open to both receiving and giving according to His Holy Will.

For each Hail Mary I go through a vinyasa yoga flow.

I begin in the downward-facing dog pose, a humble position showing Mary that I desire to learn from her.

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.

I then flow into a plank pose, a position of strength acknowledging the great and unimaginable strength required by her to FULLY surrender to our Lord.

Blessed art thou among women,

I then lower into a prostrate position and spread my arms wide to form a cross as I speak of her Holy and Blessed Son, Jesus.  I desire to be one with the dust of the ground when speaking of our Lord.

And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God

I then bring my hands in and press up into a cobra pose, the pose of a snake acknowledging that I have sinned and I have caused others to sin just as the snake in the Garden of Eden did so long ago.

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Pressing back into downward dog pose, I continue this flow for each Hail Mary.

Then at the end of the first 3 Hail Mary’s or at the end of each decade I sit back into a child’s pose, a pose of rest and humility, honoring the Trinity, begging for forgiveness and mercy and once again acknowledging that Mary is my mother, and I long to learn from her as I pray.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.

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Acts 1:14
They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

A call to prayer

Many are fasting for various reasons these days, especially right now in the middle of Ramadan.  As I finished reading a book on fasting, The Roots and Fruits of Fasting by Mary Ruth Swope, I ran into 5 people who told me they were fasting.

I pray when and if we fast, we let the feelings of hunger, the rumblings within act as an internal bell tolling and calling us to prayer, calling us into deeper communion with our Lord.

Joel 2:12
Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.

Pray Outside the Dimension of Time

My friends, I think we need to remove ourselves from the DIMENSION of TIME when we pray.  This is where our sweet and holy Lord resides and longs for us to join Him in prayer.  Removing TIME from our prayers removes one more constraint that He placed on Himself, with the knowledge that we would set Him free.

Rise above our vast timeline, rolling it up in your mind into a ball and praying over all generations, past, present and future, trusting that He knew that YOU would sit by His side, and pray a blessing over all of His children from generation to generation.

Hope is NEVER lost, for to Him every moment is NOW.  He set us free and He patiently waits for all of us to join Him in prayer and set Him FREE!

Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

PRAYER

In the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, St. Catherine asked our Lord what fruit souls receive?

His response to her was “The fruit which I destine for them, constrained by the prayers of My servants…”
Treatise on Divine Providence, page 11

Our Infinite, Mighty and Sweet Lord allows Himself and His Gifts to be CONSTRAINED by our prayers for each other.

His Infinite, Mighty and Sweet Gifts, Graces and Fruits flow freely to those for whom we pray – start at home, pray for your spouse, your children, your family, your neighbors and watch as our Lord fills them with His Good and Holy Graces, and also changes and expands your heart as He greatly desires for us to pray for everyone and at all times.

Pray, pray, and pray more my friends – for with deep, humble and heartfelt prayer for others and the world, we set free our Infinite, Mighty and Sweet Lord from the constraints He has given Himself and open the door for His Infinite Ocean of Grace and Mercy to pour down on the whole world!

Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.