Vol.5 No.43 DoM E Message
Spiritual Gift of the Week
We pray for the grace to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and reorder our lives accordingly.
We pray to live for Jesus as Mary lived for Jesus.
We pray and proclaim with Mary: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”
Spiritual Instruction of the Week
Pray daily. Listen to the word of God. Let God love you and love him in return.
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Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary,
Children at home, family vacations, weekend visitors…trips to the swimming pool and the baseball field…long hot days and cooler (or not so cool) evenings—summer sometimes makes our commitment to daily prayer more difficult. The following thoughts are meant to encourage a regular, rich, and meaningful prayer routine.
• Prayer is a grace. The saints teach us this. Read their counsel. They teach that prayer is a tremendous grace—and yet, it is a grace that we habitually resist. To break our habit of resistance to prayer we might follow the pattern used when breaking any habit, that is, we act against or ‘agere contra,’ as Ignatius of Loyola said. We must simply resist resistance. If we don’t want to pray, pray anyway. If we want to cut our prayer short, pray longer. Respond to God’s grace and pray. I think here of the old Nike commercial: “Just do it√.” Just pray!
• Prayer is a joy. We are filled with the Spirit of God and this is cause for abiding joy. In truth however our hearts are always filled with sickness and suffering. So in prayer, our focus is often our sorrow and sin—our needs and the needs of our loved ones—or even the needs of the world. Petition and penance are most certainly important to authentic prayer. Equally important, and ever more transforming are prayers of praise and love and joy! God is not only healer, but also friend and lover. Prayer is a time to rest in God’s love. It is a time to encounter God’s love. “God loves us madly,” as Kaye Hinckley has said, “so let him.” Just enjoy prayer!
• Prayer is not magic—and if we take this logic one step further—God is not our magician. Christian prayer is not cultish. The ritual of prayer has no power. Rather, our triune God, who is love, is sovereign and all-powerful in our hearts. We pray for our hearts to know God. We pray and give our hearts to Christ. We pray to discern the movement of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and in our lives. As Jesus said, ‘pray always and do not lose heart.’ (Luke 18:1). Just pray from the heart!
• Prayer is personal. Pope Francis said recently: “The love of God is not generic, God looks upon every man and woman, calling them by name.” God loves each one of us as we are. Sinners and saints, happy or sad, distracted or focused. God is there for all, working through all. There is no exception. There is no expectation. We have heard the often used phrase: “God meets us where we are.” Prayer is a “come as you are” moment. Just show up, get personal—and pray!
• Prayer is about trust. We “meet God where God is,” as Thomas Green S, J. wrote. Be assured, God is with us, even when we do not feel his presence. Be firm in this conviction. Scripture attests to God’s presence and love—as the psalmist says: “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). In truth, prayer is a time to listen for God’s love—in his Word—in our hearts—and in the Church. God is in charge. We are not. Love is in charge. We are not. Meet God confidently—knowing that God will always get his way—trusting that God’s way is love. Just pray, trust, and love!
Dear beautiful Daughters of Mary, our summer message on prayer is clear: Listen to the word of God. Let God love you and love him in return. And finally, just pray… pray daily!
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Fortnight for Freedom Prayer
From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ‘Statement on Religious Liberty” —
To all our fellow Catholics, we urge an intensification of your prayers and fasting for a new birth of freedom in our beloved country. We invite you to join us in an urgent prayer for religious liberty:
Almighty God, Father of all nations,
For freedom you have set us free in Christ Jesus (Gal 5:1).
We praise and bless you for the gift of religious liberty,
the foundation of human rights, justice, and the common good.
Grant to our leaders the wisdom to protect and promote our liberties;
By your grace may we have the courage to defend them, for ourselves,
and for all those who live in this blessed land.
We ask this through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness,
and in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
with whom you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Veni, Spirito Santo, la misericordia di Dio ci salva—
Come Holy Spirit, it is by God’s mercy that we are saved,
Deb
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