2/1/05

Prayer at the start of the year

Lord, I sometimes wonder where I’m going
and what is the meaning of my life.
I wonder especially
what the new year holds for me.
Will it bring joy or sorrow,
success or failure, life or death?
But then I remember that you came on earth;
and that you still travel the road of life with me.
And so I say to my soul:
"Go out into the darkness,
and put your hand in the hand of Christ, your Brother;
that will be better than a light,
and safer than a known path."

9/1/05

Baptism

Baptism was not over and done with
the day we were taken to the font.
We are baptised by all that happens to us in life.
We are baptised by hardship; in its turbulent waters.
We are purified of all that is false and useless.
We are baptised by suffering; in its murky waters
We grow in humility and compassion.
We are baptised by joy; in its gurgling waters
We experience the goodness of life.
We are baptised by love; in its singing waters
We blossom like flowers in the sun.
Baptism is like the planting of a seed
It will take a lifetime for this seed to grow and ripen.

16/1/05

Healing the wounds of the heart

All of us are wounded by sin.
The part of us which is most deeply
Damaged by sin is the heart.
The heart is beautiful, so innocent,
But it can be betrayed, scorned and broken.
Darkness of heart is the blackest night of all.
Emptiness of heart is the greatest poverty of all.
A heavy heart is the most wearisome burden of all.
A broken heart is the most painful wound of all.
Only love can heal the wounds of the heart.
Lord; send your Holy Spirit to us,
To heal the wounds of our hearts
So that we may produce the fruits of love.

23/1/05

Foundations

In Christ, God lays for Christians a common foundation
on which we meet the challenges of today’s society.
This sure foundation implies a common goal –
the unity of all Christ’s followers.
Our understanding of Christ as cornerstone
inspires the character of each activity
whether undertaken together or apart.
The capacity to survive even overwhelming difficulties
lies in Christ being always the beginning and the end.
This is a source of thanksgiving and humility.

[From "Christ, the one Foundation of the Church" – Churches Together 2005]

30/1/05

The Beatitudes

The beatitudes are the badges
of a true disciple of Christ.
They are the marks of a child of God.
They make us rich in the sight of God.
They open our minds and hearts
to a new way of seeing and judging.
They give us a whole new set of bearings.
The things the beatitudes stand for
are very beautiful and very precious things
such as peace, goodness, joy, love,
gentleness, compassion, mercy, integrity.
A person who lives according to the beatitudes
is already living in the kingdom of heaven.
Eternal life will merely be the full blossoming
of the plant that is green with life.

6/2/05

Let your light shine

The most important thing about each of us
is our capacity for goodness.
We can be a source of light.
We have hands that can care,
eyes that can see, ears that can hear,
tongues that can speak, feet that can walk,
and above all hearts that can love.
Unfortunately, through laziness, selfishness,
and cowardice, our light can be dimmed,
so that we become shadows of the people we could be.
Lord, help us to believe in our own goodness,
and to let the light of that goodness shine.
On seeing this light others find their way,
and you will be glorified.

13/2/05

Pruning Time

Pruning time is a painful time for a fruit tree.
The pruner rids it of all those suckers
which use up a lot of energy but produce no fruit.
However, the aim of this surgery is not to inflict pain,
but to help the tree produce more and better fruit.
Lent is a kind of spiritual pruning time.
There is much that is useless
and perhaps harmful in our lives,
which saps our energy,
and diminishes our spiritual fruitfulness.
Of what shall we prune ourselves this Lent
so that we may become more fruitful branches
of Christ, the true Vine?

20/2/05

God’s Presence

On Mount Tabor, three apostles were filled
with awe and wonder in the presence of God.
When we come in to the Real Presence of Our Lord
in the Eucharist our reaction ought to be similar.
There is a time for stillness, for contemplation,
for wonder, for adoration in the presence of God.
A time to heed the words of the psalmist
"Be still and know that I am God"
Sometimes we are too busy.
We would be better to be silent, to be listening
to be wondering, to be adoring in the presence of God.

27/2/05

Thirsting

There is a thirst in every human heart.
Each of us is like that lonely Samaritan woman.
We are thirsting for something;
something that will satisfy all our longings.
But often we search in the wrong places.
We draw water from the many wells:
the water of praise to quench our thirst for self-esteem;
the water of success to quench our thirst for importance;
the water of pleasure to quench our thirst for joy.
But we still get thirsty.
Only God can give us what we are looking for.
He alone can cause a spring to well up inside us.
The water from this spring will sustain us
on our journey to the Promised Land of eternal life.

6/3/05

Blindness

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."
Selfishness blinds us to the needs of others.
Insensitivity blinds us to the hurt we are causing others.
Snobbery blinds us to the equal dignity of others.
Pride blinds us to our own faults.
Prejudice blinds us to the truth.
Hurry blinds us to the beauty of the world.
Materialism blinds us to spiritual values.
Superficiality blinds us to a person’s true worth
and causes us to judge by appearances.

13/3/05

Death

I believe in death.
I believe that it is part of life.
I believe that we are born to die,
to die that we may live more fully;
born to die a little each day
to selfishness, to pretence and to sin.
I believe that every time we pass
from one stage of life to another,
something in us dies and something new is born.
I believe that we taste death in moments of loneliness,
rejection, sorrow, disappointment and failure.
I believe that we are dying before our time
when we live in bitterness, in hatred and in isolation.
For those with faith, death is not extinguishing the light;
it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
(Anon)

20/3/05

Prayer for forgiveness

Lord, remember not only people of good will
but also people of ill will.
Do not remember only the sufferings
that have been inflicted on us,
but remember too the fruit we have bought
as a result of this suffering:
the comradeship and loyalty,
the humility and courage,
the generosity and greatness of heart
that has grown out of it.
And when they come to judgement,
let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.

(Prayer found in Auschwitz)

27/3/05

On Easter Day we still feel pain,
our own pain and the pain of others.
But a new element has been introduced.
It doesn’t remove the pain,
but it gives it a meaning, and lights it up with hope.
All is different because Jesus is alive
and speaks his words of peace to us.
Therefore, there is a quiet joy among us.
and a deep sense of peace.
Jesus has broken the power of death,
and given us the hope of eternal life.
Lord, guard this hope with your grace,
and bring it to fulfilment in the kingdom of heaven.

3/4/05

Faith

Some people think that if you have enough faith
Life will be plain sailing for you.
But this is not so.
The fact that we can swim doesn’t prevent us
From being knocked about by the waves
In the same way faith doesn’t shield us
From the hard knocks of life or death.
What, then, does faith do?
It gives us bearings and thus enables us
To live in a topsy-turvy world
Without getting lost or giving in to despair
Believers entrust their lives to the power of God
Who brought His Son, Jesus Christ back from the dead.

10/4/05

Prayer for Pope John Paul II

O God,
from whom the just receive an unfailing reward,
grant that your servant John Paul, our Pope,
whom you made vicar of Peter
and shepherd of your Church,
may rejoice for ever in the vision of your glory,
for he was a faithful steward here on earth
of the mysteries of your forgiveness and grace.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
May he rest in peace. Amen.

17/4/05

Prayer for Vocations

Jesus , Son of God,
in whom the fullness of Divinity dwells,
You call all the baptised to "put out into the deep",
taking the path that leads to holiness.
Waken in the hearts of young people the desire to be witnesses
in the world of today to the power of your love.
Fill them with your Spirit of fortitude and prudence,
so that they may be able to discover the full truth
about themselves and their vocation.

24/4/05

Going Home

Going to heaven!
I don’t know when,
pray do not ask me how.
Going to heaven!
How dim it sounds!
And yet it will be done
as sure as flocks go home at night
unto the shepherd’s arms.
If you should get there first,
save just a little place for me
close to the two I lost.
The smallest robe will fit me,
and just a bit of crown;
for you know we do not mind our dress
when we are going home.

Emily Dickinson

1/05/05

Returning to God

We are born in exile and die there too.
As soon as we set sail on the great voyage of life,
we begin our return.
We spend our lives dreaming
of a homeland we have never seen.
Like homing birds that are released in a strange country,
and know no rest until they return home,
so it is with us.
When we die,
we do not so much go to God as return to him.
You have made us for yourself, O Lord,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

8/5/05

The Human Spirit

Our spirit is our most precious possession.
It is our greatest source of energy.
However, while it can be very strong,
it can also be very brittle.
It can be an oak unmoved in a storm,
or a frail reed swaying in the wind.
It can be a piece of granite or a piece of china.
What is it that enables the spirit to soar,
and what is it that causes it to sink?
Sadness weighs it down; joy lifts it up.
Criticism erodes it; praise builds it up.
Failure shrinks it; success enlarges it.
Despair causes it to wilt; hope breathes new life into it.
Rejection wounds it ; acceptance heals it.
Hatred poisons it; love purifies it.
Fear cripples it; solitude calms it; prayer strengthens it.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us.

15/5/05

The Eucharist

If we really understand the Eucharist,
If we really centre our lives on Jesus’ Body and Blood,
If we nourish our lives with the Bread of the Eucharist
It will be easy for us to see Christ in that hungry one next door,
The one lying in the gutter,
The alcoholic man we shun,
Our husband or wife, or our restless child
For in them, we will recognise the distressing disguises of the poor:
Jesus in our midst

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

22/5/05

Blessed are the hungry

Blessed are the hungry; they shall get their fill.
It is in our emptiness that we are filled.
It is in our confusions that we are guided.
It is in our weakness that we are strengthened.
It is in our sins that we are forgiven.
It is in our hunger that we are fed.
We believe that God has a homeland prepared for us
where all our hungers will be satisfied
and all our hopes will be fulfilled.
This conviction makes it possible for us
to travel onwards with an ache in our hearts
and an unquenchable longing in our souls.

29/5/05

Building on Rock

There is nothing sure or lasting in this world.
Human opinions change from day to day,
but the words of Christ do not change or pass away.
However, those who listen to his words
but do not act on them are building on sand.
Time will erase his words from their minds;
nothing will remain, nothing will come of them.
On the other hand, those who listen to his words
and act on them, are building on rock;
they will have something to show for their efforts,
something to be proud of,
and something that will last – last eternally.

5/6/05

In India the untouchables did not belong to any caste.
They were barred from the temples.
In the cities they lived in slums,
and did only the most menial jobs.
In the country they were forbidden to use the wells.
Yet it was precisely the untouchables
whom the great Mahatma Gandhi befriended.
He ate and drank with them,
and played with their children.
He once said: "I do not want to be reborn.
But if that should happen,
I would like to find myself among the untouchables
in order to share the suffering they are subjected to.
In this way, I would have the chance to liberate them
and myself from their miserable condition."

12/6/05

Compassion

The person in misery does not need
a look that judges and criticises,
but a comforting presence.
Jesus looked at the ordinary people,
and seeing how needy they were,
he had compassion on them
and began to minister to them.
Compassion means that I suffer with you;
I accept into my heart the misery in yours;
I become one with you in your pain.
I may not be able to relieve that pain,
but by understanding it and sharing it,
I make it possible for you to bear it.
Lord, give us warm and generous hearts
so that we may be agents of your compassion to others.

19/6/05

A Celtic Prayer

I rise today
with God’s strength to direct me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eyes to look before me
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to uphold me,
God’s pathway before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me –
from temptations,
from one man or many
that seek to destroy me.
Amen

26/6/05

A Prayer for the end of the day

Grant, O Lord, that each day
Before we enter the little death of sleep,
We may undergo the little judgement of the past day
So that every wrong deed may be forgiven
And every unholy thought set right.
Let nothing go down into the depths of our being
Which has not been forgiven and sanctified
Then we shall be ready
For our final birth into eternity
And look forward with love and hope
To standing before you
Who are both judge and saviour
Holy judge and loving saviour.

Bishop Appleton

20/11/05

The greatest evil in the world
Many today are starving for ordinary bread.
But there is another kind of hunger –
the hunger to be wanted, to be loved, to be recognised.
Nakedness too is not just the want of clothes,
but also about the loss of dignity, purity and self-respect.
And homelessness is not just want of a house;
there is the homelessness of being rejected,
of being unwanted in a throwaway society.
The biggest disease in the world today
is the feeling of being unwanted and uncared for.
The greatest evil in the world is the lack of love,
the terrible indifference towards one’s neighbour.

Mother Teresa