Category: Prayer Reflections

A Visit to Our Lord

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I’ve been absent for a while…it’s been a long year to find writing footing again.

The more I pay Our Lord Jesus these little visits, the more I want to stay there with Him and never leave–especially with the way the world seems these days.

But we must carry on.

A short prayer that came to me on this visit:

Lord help me to do what You want of my life
Not what my selfish inclinations want for me
Nor what the world may tell me what should be.
If it is contrary to Your Will help me to know that I may be at peace with the Child of God You made me to be. 

That’s all I got tonight.  The tank may be low for my writing but I refuse to give up.

Please keep me in your prayers and I will keep you all in mine.

Let’s reflect Christ to everyone we meet and let Him touch us in others.

 

PRAYERS FOR THE JOURNEY: PRAYER OF TRUST BY THOMAS MERTON

PRAYER OF TRUST

by Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

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My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that 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 I have that desire in all I am doing.

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, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

(from Thoughts in Solitude)

Thoughts in Solitude Thomas Merton 0385044607 9780385044608 Thoughts in Solitude
Originally published in 1961

Trivia for the Day:

The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani which was home for Thomas Merton from 1941 to 1968 is the oldest monastery still in operation in the United States located in Bardstown, Kentucky. The monks belong to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (the Trappists). The monks follow the Rule of Saint Benedict which is a contemplative life of prayer and work.

My Absence From Posting & Lessons in Trust

I really meant to post this last Wednesday, January 16 but dealing with weather in Ohio along with the depression, working full-time and other obligations often takes my energy so I tend to sleep too much when I should be writing.  That “confession” aside, perhaps I just needed several days to reflect on this powerful prayer.

My parish, Holy Name of Jesus, in the dark

First of all, the ruminations for this post started last Tuesday night (January 15) while I sat in church, dark except for the candles gleaming off the Tabernacle, where unconsumed Consecrated Hosts are kept including the “Luna” Host used at Adoration/Eucharistic Exposition; there is always a Host in the Tabernacle (except on Good Friday) so Jesus in His Eucharistic Presence is always present in the Church. So while I waited to pick up my mom Kathy (she helps with the classes for R.C.I.A. — in Catholic “lingo” this is the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, which is their journey to enter fully into the Catholic Church), I tried to pray about the direction of my life as I’d hoped to get to the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday.

So in the quiet, I had the inspiration come as if God were speaking: “I have something beautiful (planned) for you, you just have to trust Me.”

This got me thinking. I have a great love for and devotion to the Divine Mercy which is all about trust in Jesus but am I trusting EVERYTHING to Him? Too often, as I continued examining my conscience, do I worry about what other people (and the world) thinks about me? Do I worry about seeking the approval of others instead of only being concerned about what God approves of?

And the big ones, for me, are:

  1. Am I trusting the ability to cope (and heal) from depression to Him?
  2. Am I trusting the writing vocation (if this is part of His plan) to Him?
  3. Am I trusting my financial difficulties to Him?

So I was led to today’s prayer–in the Catholic Prayer Book edited by Msgr. Michael Buckley, an old book that like an old friend returns with wise words when needed. I didn’t know anything about Thomas Merton when I found the prayer; I am still by no means an expert in his writings.  That didn’t matter–what mattered is like long ago, this prayer stuck with me to keep going even though we don’t know the road ahead.  It was a prayer found long before the image of The Divine Mercy with the words “Jesus, I Trust in You” engaged me in my friend Casey’s Emmaus Catholic Bookstore when I was checking out in 1992.

Question #2 on the trust issues is my big one.  See I’ve been struggling with “wanting” to be a fiction writer all of my teen into adult life (and I’m in my early fifties now) and if this is God’s plan for me, why is it always on the backburner?

God-incidentally before the visit to church last Tuesday, a good friend of mine (who came into my life because of my full-time job) told me after our exercise class at the library that God would make the writing happen at the “appointed time.” This friend Jeannie has been a great cheerleader for the writing along with another friend Kaye (also met through my job) who never gives up on hearing about the adventures of Ian, my Scottish detective, and Cate, my American illusionist/escape artist.  So always be on the lookout for occasions, especially the “small” ones, in which God speaks to you about your direction.  As Thomas Merton says, we must trust God “always” even when we may seem “lost in the shadow of death.”

Friday’s Holy Hour, the “Purpose of Me” & Trust

I prayed the Thomas Merton prayer once again at my Friday night Holy Hour. I also revisited a BeautyBeyondBones’ very kind comment back to me on Thursday when she wrote, “God has designed your path just as it is!” All this praying oddly led to a favorite quote by E. L. Doctorow that is my preferred method of plotting stories: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” 

So more questions came to write to Jesus:

Where am I going?

The E. L. Doctorow quote led me beyond writing.  When it comes to my journey, I can only see as far as my “headlights” and need to trust God that as long as I am working to do his will (like the prayer of trust reminds us), He will lead me on the road trip of a lifetime into eternity.

What is the “purpose of me?”

It’s a question we like to ask, especially when doing vocational discernment. Yet in the end, only God knows my purpose as well as the purpose of every other person He created.  But we have to trust.

So it all comes down to that word: TRUST.

May we not fear what may lay ahead or if we made a “wrong turn” in life. Let’s cry out with the words of this prayer, “Therefore, I will trust You always.”

TODAY’S PRAYER MISSION

Say Thomas Merton’s Prayer of Trust in a quiet place and let the Holy Spirit speak to you through this prayer.

As an extra reflection, if you like music, look up a great song that echoes the thoughts of this prayer called “The Long Way Home” by Neon Feather.

 

 

 

PRAYERS FOR THE JOURNEY: PRAYER FOR OURSELVES AND OUR VOCATION

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

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Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This closes the Christmas Season as it recalls Our Lord’s Baptism in the Jordan River which is found in all four Gospels and which is a manifestation of the Holy Trinity as the Heavens open and in the Gospel of Luke we hear today “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22)

So in thinking on these words and the Sacrament of Baptism in which we receive the gift of Sanctifying Grace I wanted to do a prayer today that reflected our gift through that baptism of being “beloved sons and daughters” of Our Father as Father Paul remarked in his homily and our call to each of our unique vocations.  So I found this prayer (a different prayer than I originally started with for this post.

 

PRAYER FOR OURSELVES AND OUR VOCATION

(Thanks to the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, Cincinnati Province for letting me share this prayer; check out more prayers at cpps-preciousblood.org/prayers)

In the water of baptism, Lord God,
Your voice called out,
“You are my beloved sons and daughters,
with whom I am well pleased.”

You breathed your Spirit upon us,
and washed us in the saving blood of the Lord.

Open our ears to hear Your Word,
our minds to understand Your call,
our hearts to respond faithfully.

Give us courage to answer,
strength to persevere,
and a willingness to be sent.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Christ,
in whose blood we have been saved.

Amen.

Trivia for the Day:

Vocation comes from the Latin vocare which means “to call.”

Vocational Guidance

We are ALL created by God for a specific vocation and it is through discernment and prayer that we work at finding that as God will not force His will on us to accept His call.  There is one’s “Primary” vocation (being called to the priesthood/religious life, marriage, or life as a celibate single person) and there is our “Secondary” vocation (what we do in our daily life) that helps fulfill God’s mission for each of us.

Some of us may find our vocation early in life; some of us may be still searching for it. No matter where you are, the important thing is to keep praying and when you may be unsure, look to Scripture for that vocational guidance.

As someone who often struggles to “find” my vocation (and hopes I haven’t “missed” it as a single person), I often turn to the call of Samuel the prophet in the Old Testament (1 Samuel, Chapter 3) as one of my places to turn. When we battle the confusion of the world in fulfilling our mission, the best thing to do is find a quiet place to ask, like Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.” You may not hear the peal of thunder from Heaven (more likely, it will be a “small still voice”) but God will speak. We just need to trust.

Trust, Prayer and Never Giving Up

On that “Secondary” vocational front, I have wanted to be a fiction writer of some sort since middle school. It seems that every time I get moving back in the “right direction,” real life obligations or some crisis arises that diverts my path.

So as I write this, I find myself praying about that “right direction” God wants me to go. The one thing that gives me hope is that I am a beloved daughter of God. I was created for a purpose that may not be revealed to me in this life but I will trust, pray and never give up.

In the end starting this blog was to share writing (it may not be all the stories that populate my imagination) and hope that in someway, a word or prayer may help someone else in whatever small way God wills.

TODAY’S PRAYER MISSION

Reflect on the vocation prayer and some of its key points:

  1. You are a beloved son or daughter of God
  2. You have been saved by the blood of Jesus.
  3. Open your mind and heart to respond to God.
  4. Don’t be afraid to answer your unique call.

 

 

PRAYERS FOR THE JOURNEY: THE MASS COLLECT FOR THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

* A good friend suggested a combined weekend post so this seems like a good time to explain why Catholics offer a Saturday Vigil Mass that fulfills the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday.  The Vigil Mass was instituted to reflect the Jewish roots of Christianity as Jewish sabbath goes from sundown to sundown (not midnight to midnight).

THE COLLECT FOR THE VIGIL MASS OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

May the splendor of Your majesty, O Lord, we pray shed its light upon our hearts,

that we may pass through the shadows of this world and reach the brightness of our eternal home.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

 

THE COLLECT FOR THE MASS DURING THE DAY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

O God, who on this day revealed your Only Begotten Son to the nations by the guidance of a star,

grant in Your mercy that we, who know You already by faith,

may be brought to behold the beauty of Your sublime glory.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Catholic Mass Word of the Day:

The Collect is a short prayer spoken by the priest at the end of the Introductory Rites of the Mass–it reflects the theme of the Mass and like the phrase “collect one’s thoughts” suggests, it is a good time to do our best to focus our minds to enter into the mystery of the greatest prayer of all–the Holy Mass of which receiving the Eucharist is the “Source and Summit” of that prayer.

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

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The Nativity Story (2006) the Magi visit the Holy Family.

Trivia for the Day:

William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will was first performed on February 2 (the feast of Candlemas which celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Mary and Joseph) in 1602 as entertainment to close the Christmas Season.

About this Feast Day:

Epiphany (a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being) is the great feast day of the Church that celebrates the manifestation of the Christ Child to the entire world as represented by the magi “from the East” bearing gifts to the King of all Kings.

Epiphany celebrated on January 6 is the Twelfth Day of Christmas (Twelfth Night) as Christmas celebrations should not end on December 26.  Our parish, Holy Name of Jesus celebrates our annual Christmas party on the weekend of Epiphany with the highlight being the Christmas play with music and narration provided by our teens as the children of the parish act out the roles. It’s our own version of the Charlie Brown Christmas paegant.

The Scripture Behind Epiphany:

We meet the magi in the Gospel of Matthew (2: 1-12) as they arrived in Jerusalem looking for “the newborn king of the Jews.” We do not know how many they were in number but the tradition is to show three to represent the known world at the time (as Deacon Larry mentioned in his homily)–the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Epiphany represents the manifestation of Jesus Christ as the Savior of all humankind.

In reading Scripture the magi follow the Star to “the place where the child was.” “They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary, His Mother.” (Matthew 2:11)  Notice anything interesting in this verse?

The magi entered a house, not the manger where Jesus was born. What does this indicate? By the time they arrived, Mary and Joseph had moved into a house.

What of the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh? I love how the Nativity Story presents this scene (even if it appears the Magi get there right after the shepherds). In the movie, Melchior presents gold for the “King of Kings,” Balthasar gives frankincense for the “Priests of all Priests,” and lastly, Gaspar offers myhrr to “honor Thy Sacrifice” since myhrr was the oil used in embalment (foreshadowing Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross).

We do not know how old Jesus was when the Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and Joseph is likewise warned in a dream about King Herod’s threat to kill Jesus which prompts the flight into Egypt. According to Scripture, when the Magi do not return: When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. (Matthew 2:16)

To learn more about the mystery of the magi and their role in Scripture, I recommend Three Kings, Ten Mysteries by Grzegorz Gorny (published by Ignatius Press) which I shared with our R.C.I.A. class at dismissal today.

Three Kings, Ten Mysteries

PRAYER MISSION

Read over the story of the magi and reflect upon how God has manifested His Presence in your life and what gift, uniquely yours, you can offer to others in service of Christ and His Church.

PRAYERS FOR THE JOURNEY: PRAYER BY SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON

PRAYER BY SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON

Lord Jesus

Who was born for us in a stable,

lived for us a life of pain and sorrow,

and died for us upon a cross;

say for us in the hour of death, Father, forgive,

and to Your Mother, Behold your child.

Say to us, This day you shall be with Me in paradise.

Dear Savior, leave us not, forsake us not.

We thirst for You, Fountain of Living Water.

Our days pass quickly along, soon all will be consummated for us.

To Your hands we commend our spirits, now and forever.

Amen.

MEMORIAL OF SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON (1774-1821)

100-Pack - St Elizabeth Seton Holy Card

Trivia for the Day:

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American to be canonized (officially recognized to be in Heaven, a saint with a capital “S”) by the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified (a step when a saint is called “Blessed”) in 1963 and canonized (named a Saint) in 1975. In 1980, Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek Voyager/Orange is the New Black fame played Mother Seton in a made-for-television movie A Time for Miracles.

About Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was a wife, mother who after being widowed, entered into to religious life. She established the first free Catholic school in the United States and was foundress of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Scripture and this prayer:

This morning in search of my prayer, a Google search lead me to Catholic News Agency (catholicnewsagency.com) this beautiful prayer written by Mother Seton. It calls to mind the Christmas Season (“Lord Jesus, Who was born for us in a stable”–Luke 2:7) that we are still in by the way (January 6 is the 12th Day of Christmas, the feast of Ephiphany). And how, God in His Divine Weaving, chose to call Mother Seton home on this 10th day of Christmas, January 4, 1821 (Memorials of Saints usually are set on the day they died, and entered into eternal life.

Tonight during my weekly Holy Hour (for those not familar with Catholic devotions, this is the prayer practice of spending an hour in Jesus’ Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament), I ended up on the other side from where I usually sit close to our Nativity. While meditating on today’s prayer I looked from the stable to our Crucifix to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and felt an overwhelming joy at the immense love of God for us. So what a great “God-incidence” that I found this prayer that Mother Seton wrote to take us from the stable to the cross and how beautifully she used some of the last words of Christ to apply to each of us.

“Father, forgive” (Luke 23:34) as we are reminded that even when we are at our worst, Jesus is there to offer us mercy when we only ask for it.

“Behold your child ” as Jesus gave us all His Mother from the cross (John 19: 25-29) and if you read the Scripture, pay attention to what comes next: “After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I thirst.'” Jesus’ last action from the Cross was to give John (and us) His Mother to love and to pray for us.

“This day you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43) as like the repentant thief we are offered the promise of Heaven by our Savior who never stops fighting for us to join Him in Heaven.

“Into Your hands, we commend our spirit” echoes the words of Jesus as he gives up His Spirit (Luke 23:46), completing His sacrifice so that we may have Salvation.

All this reflection on our last moments of life leads into something that has been on my writing radar of late.

Memento Mori, Being Mindful of Our Ultimate Goal

Memento Mori is Latin for “remember that you will die” which at first glance might sound like a gothic morbidity. Yet as we reflect on Scripture, we can cry out with St. Paul from 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O Death Where is Your Sting?” For a great song to remind us not to fear death, check out Matt Maher’s “Christ is Risen.” As long as we live each day to its fullest, to our fullest potential to be the person God created us to be and to humbly and contritely ask God’s forgiveness when we sin, we can be mindful of our ultimate goal–to be in Paradise with Christ our Savior.

So as I reflected today on what Memento Mori really is (not a morbid fascination with death) what crossed my mind as a writer was this writing prompt for my Season 3 alternate universe Once Upon a Time Re-Imagined fan fiction I wrote for our Writers Group on New Year’s Eve. Why? Because it elicited a light-hearted response on Facebook from a writer friend and sister in Christ:

Been in a writing rut so believe it or not this was inspired by today’s first reading from 1 John 2:18 about being in the last hour.

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#MondayMotivation #Rumple #OUAT
Down to the last hour. Rumple had never felt this powerless before. And when the hourglass sands were spent Hades would be ready to make the transfer of Dark One powers to Papa and Rumple would forever be trapped in this Hades’ hell.
#amwriting

My friend Diane (a very talented artist and children’s author) jokingly responded: Well, being trapped forever in Hades’ hell is depressing. We need to find you more pleasant thoughts.

SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t watched Season 3 of Once Upon a Time

Without spoiling all of my Rumplestiltskin-centric fan fiction “Love As Strong As Death” I can say that it involves a redemption arc that got lost in the second half of the show’s third season. The reason Rumple gets “trapped in Hades’ hell” is he makes a heroic sacrifice to keep his son Baelfire/Neal from dying in the episode “Quiet Minds,” which is why this is Once Upon a Time Re-Imagined and he’ll find a way back to his beloved Belle in the Enchanted Forest with the added blessing of having his son alive.

So no, my writing is not all “rainbow kisses and unicorn stickers” to quote the character of Regina, but I hope both the fan fiction and my original work reflect my faith in a way that doesn’t get heavy-handed but offers hope, even when the characters may be in what seems hopeless situations. Likewise, I believe keeping to what Memento Mori truly is presents an opportunity for becoming mindful to focus on what God has for us in the here and now, praying to be who He created us to be and to stop worrying about things beyond our control.

TODAY’S PRAYER MISSION

In these last days of Christmas (even if you already took down the tree and all the decorations), pause to reflect on the immense love of Jesus Christ for each and every one of us from the Stable to the Cross.And as we hoepfully slow down to do so, we may look upon Jesus as a baby in the manger, we say a prayer that the right for every child to be born will be respected by all and that we all do our part to defend and protect children, especially those in vulnerable or abusive environments.

Prayers for the Journey: The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus

LITANY OF THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy

God our Father in heaven have mercy on us

God the Son, have mercy on us

Redeemer of the world have mercy on us

God the Holy Spirit have mercy on us

Holy Trinity, one God have mercy on us

Jesus, Son of the living God have mercy on us

Jesus, splendor of the Father have mercy on us

Jesus, brightness of everlasting light have mercy on us

Jesus, king of glory have mercy on us

Jesus, dawn of justice have mercy on us

Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary have mercy on us

Jesus, worthy of our love have mercy on us

Jesus, worthy of our wonder have mercy on us

Jesus, mighty God have mercy on us

Jesus, father of the world to come have mercy on us

Jesus, prince of peace have mercy on us

Jesus, all-powerful have mercy on us

Jesus, pattern of patience have mercy on us

Jesus, model of obedience have mercy on us

Jesus, gentle and humble of heart have mercy on us

Jesus, lover of chastity have mercy on us

Jesus, lover of us all have mercy on us

Jesus, God of peace have mercy on us

Jesus, author of life have mercy on us

Jesus, model of goodness have mercy on us

Jesus, seeker of souls have mercy on us

Jesus, our God have mercy on us

Jesus, our refuge have mercy on us

Jesus, father of the poor have mercy on us

Jesus, treasure of the faithful have mercy on us

Jesus, Good Shepherd have mercy on us

Jesus, the true light have mercy on us

Jesus, eternal wisdom have mercy on us

Jesus, infinite goodness have mercy on us

Jesus, our way and our life have mercy on us

Jesus, joy of angels have mercy on us

Jesus, king of patriarchs have mercy on us

Jesus, teacher of apostles have mercy on us

Jesus, master of evangelists have mercy on us

Jesus, courage of martyrs have mercy on us

Jesus, light of confessors have mercy on us

Jesus, purity of virgins have mercy on us

Jesus, crown of all saints have mercy on us

Lord, be merciful Jesus, save your people

From all evil Jesus, save your people

From every sin Jesus, save your people

From the snares of the devil Jesus, save your people

From your anger Jesus, save your people

From the spirit of infidelity Jesus, save your people

From everlasting death Jesus, save your people

From neglect of your Holy Spirit Jesus, save your people

By the mystery of your incarnation Jesus, save your people

By your birth Jesus, save your people

By your childhood Jesus, save your people

Jesus, save your people Jesus, save your people

By your hidden life Jesus, save your people

By your public ministry Jesus, save your people

By your agony and crucifixion Jesus, save your people

By your abandonment Jesus, save your people

By your grief and sorrow Jesus, save your people

By your death and burial Jesus, save your people

By your rising to new life Jesus, save your people

By your return in glory to the Father Jesus, save your people

By your gift of the holy Eucharist Jesus, save your people

By your joy and glory Jesus, save your people

Christ, hear us Christ hear us

Lord Jesus, hear our prayer Lord Jesus, hear our prayer

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us

Let us pray.
Lord, may we who honor the holy name of Jesus enjoy his friendship in this life and be filled with eternal joy in the kingdom where he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

THE MEMORIAL OF THE MOST HOLY NAME OF JESUS

Trivia for the Day:

A litany is a prayer divided in two parts: in public use, one person recites the first part, then the rest of the people answer with the response. Litany is from the Greek word lite which means prayer or supplication.

About this Memorial:

Our beautiful parish, Holy Name of Jesus, in the Cincinnati Archdiocese (photo taken September 23, 2018). Like Belle in “Beauty in the Beast,” musical, I found “Home” (and it’s been my parish since 1983).

We were blessed to have a beautiful Mass at our home parish, Holy Name of Jesus, since this day marks the feast for our parish. Father Paul gave an excellent homily about how we should regard the Holy Name of Jesus. God’s Holy Name was reverenced from the Old Testament times as today’s first reading from Exodus 3:14 God tells Moses “I AM WHO AM” and the Third Commandment given to Moses is “You shall not take the name of the Lord in Vain” (more on this below). The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Phillipians (2:10-11) is also mindful of the reverence due Jesus’ Most Holy Name: “So that at Jesus’ name every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Reverencing the Holy Name

In my teen years in the 1980s I believed the “f word” to be worst curse word ever.

Starting out as a fiction writer in high school, how did I (a professed Christian) deal with the issue of cuss words in my work? Yes, I certainly avoided that “f word” but I occasionally had a character use the name of Christ without a thought to doing it.

Why didn’t I give it a thought? I didn’t really think about that question until 2011 or 2012 when I was asked to sponsor someone at R.C.I.A. (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, instruction in the faith folks take to enter fully into the Catholic Church) and attended Father Tom McCarthy’s adult education classes. Father McCarthy was talking about taking God’s name in vain. He said that while shows bleeped out the “f word” they failed to block out misusage of God’s name. And the more I thought on it, the more Father McCarthy made sense. Which was worse? The “f word” or profanations of God’s Holy Name?

Today in his homily, Father Paul talked about some of the craziness modern society has bought into when we no longer reverence the Holy Name of Jesus. So it left me again with a question that as a writer, if I want “realism” when my characters are speaking, how do I handle language?

My Scottish detective hero Ian is a practicing Catholic; occasionally temper gets the better of him and yes, like all of us imperfect human beings, he fails and utters a cuss word or two, and yes, it’ll will probably be that “f” one because if Ian utters Jesus’ name, it would most definitely be in a prayer, even if it’s “Sweet Jesus, help me,” his most used aspiration (short prayers like “My Lord and My God”). And in the end, I’ve found that aspirations are the best way to combat profanation of Jesus’ Holy Name. For a while now when I hear someone in public using Christ’s name wrongly, I will try to pray “Praise His Holy Name” even if it’s a quiet utterance.

TODAY’S PRAYER MISSION

In whatever way you like, praise Jesus’ Holy Name. And maybe, when you hear His name misused (or read it in that new best-selling novel) get in the habit of praising His name and praying for all of us to be mindful of how we speak it.

If you need help with short aspiration prayers here are a few of my favorite ones:

Jesus, I trust in You.

I love you, Lord, my Life.

Praise His Holy Name.

Sweet Jesus, Savior, help me.

Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross, you have saved the word.

My Lord and My Life.

Praised be Jesus Christ.

Prayers for the Journey: An Old French Prayer for Friends

AN OLD FRENCH PRAYER FOR FRIENDS

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care.

Make their way easy and their labors fruitful.

Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall.

Amen.

Trivia for the Day:

France is called the “Eldest Daughter of the Church” and has a rich Christian history that reaches back into the early centuries of the Church. After the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West, it was the first of the emerging countries to be identified as Christian. January 3 (besides being the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, my parish’s name) is also the feast day of Saint Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, who lived from 419 to 512, a courageous Catholic woman, about 1,000 years before God called Saint Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans.

Image result for saint genevieve

Saint Genevieve & Me

I have a special love for Saint Genevieve. Looking back, God must have planted the seed for it in high school as in 1984 our English teacher showed us the 1967 musical Camelot (with Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Harris and Franco Nero) and “Saint Genevieve” is the first song we hear Guinevere sing as she prays to her patron to spare her this arranged marriage with the king of Britain Arthur. One of the best things that came out of that love affair with Camelot was that my mother got tickets to see Richard Harris at the Victory Theatre in Dayton in a tour of the Broadway version of Camelot and looking back, that was a true fangirling moment to be a few rows back from the stage enthralled by Mr. Harris long before he transformed into the best version of Dumbledore in my humble opinion.

In one of life’s “God-incidences” (a term I learned from a Cincinnati priest, Father Jim Willig, as he courageously battled cancer before passing in June of 2001) in the year 2005 a long-haired white cat showed up and made her home with us and being in love with France at the time (my character Cathleen in the ever-evolving search for the right story was married to a French archaeologist), we named the cat Genevieve. And in 2015, my “sweet Genevieve” passed away on January 3. In my grief I had forgotten it was Saint Genevieve’s feast day until chatting on Facebook with Tracey, one of my best friends and sisters in Christ, messaged to tell me her husband was reading his missal–another God-incidence. Which leads to God’s precious gift of friendship and today’s prayer selection.

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Sweet Genevieve, the stray who came in a winter snow.

An Old French Prayer for Friends

This morning I had a completely different prayer in mind before I realized it would be late when I got to this post and settled on this prayer I found in my poor battered Catholic Prayer Book and equally weathered Manual of Prayers. I probably landed on this prayer back in those “Franco-phile” days (and attempts to learn to pray in French for a character with a French husband). I don’t have an original French version only this lovely English one.

Prayers like this are great to say for one’s personal compline (prayers said before bedtime) devotions and I hope to explore more of them as I continue the meditations. Once again we have a prayer that calls upon our Blessed Mother to pray with us for our friends.

“Blessed Mother, of those whose names you can read in my heart” is a great reminder that if you get worried you forgot someone, God and His Angels and Saints in Heaven can read those names written in our heart.

“Watch over them with every care,” as when we are blessed with the people God brings into our lives we wish only good for them and their protection in this crazy world as we add, “Make their way easy and their labors fruitful.”

Then like a good prayer for bedtime it covers everyone we care about: “Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall.”

TODAY’S PRAYER MISSION

Whether you choose the Old French Prayer for Friends or your own words, before you go to bed, get in the habit of praying for those you love, especially if you have a friend for whom it seems trouble is pouring in from all sides and that friend cannot catch a break.

Prayers for the Journey –The Hail Mary

THE HAIL MARY

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,

Blessed art thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

Now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

Trivia for the Day:

The “New Year” for us in the Catholic Church actually begins with the first Sunday of Advent so as we enter a new “calendar” (or secular) year, the Church is still in the days of the Christmas Season yet pauses to start the calendar year with this feast of Mary.

About this Feast Day:

Catholics do not set January 1 apart to “worship” Mary. Like other Christian brothers and sisters, we only worship 1 God in the Mystery of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Rather, we honor Mary as the “Mother of God” a title given to her at the Council of Epheseus in 431 that touched not so much on Mary but on the true nature of Jesus Christ our Savior as “fully God, fully man” (vocabulary word for the day: hypostatic union) that beginning in the 3rd or 4th centuries, Mary was honored as the “God-bearer” (Theotokos, today’s Greek lesson). So today to start the year off, we’ll look at the HAIL MARY prayer from it’s origins in Scripture to the prayer we Catholics know by heart.

The Scripture Behind the “Hail Mary”:

We meet Mary in the Gospel of Luke after the announcement of her cousin Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy in old age.

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” are words spoken in Luke 1:28 by the Archangel Gabriel who is God’s messenger. Hail is really just another way to say “hello” by the way so Gabriel is first greeting Mary, then announcing that God is with her. And this in the story of our salvation is the way Emmanuel, God with us, enters into human history with the “fiat” (yes) of Mary at accepting her role as mother of God.

“Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” (Jesus) are words spoken in Luke 1:42 by Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, when Mary visits her. The infant in Elizabeth’s womb (John) leaps for joy at meeting His Savior Jesus in Mary’s womb. Mary is blessed because she is the mother of the Messaiah Jesus.

Origins of the second part of the Hail Mary:

I won’t go into all the history behind the development of the rest of the Hail Mary, but according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the prayer was put together as early as 1050 then developed into the prayer we recognize today.

“Holy Mary, Mother of God,” this is established as a title of Mary from as early as the 3rd century.

“Pray for us sinners,” the Church recognized the Church Triumphant, the saints in Heaven, as able to pray for us on Earth, as we would ask brothers and sisters in our church community to pray for us.

“Now,” we ask for Mary to be with us in the present moment.

“And at the hour of our death. Amen.” We ask Mary to be with us in our “final hour” to pray for us as we ask family members and friends to pray for a peaceful passing to reach our Heavenly Home.

TODAY’S PRAYER MISSION

For those comfortable with the Hail Mary: Say the words of the prayer slowly (instead of that quick “go-to” prayer of Catholics in trouble, as well as the occasional football quarterback desperate for a miracle play at the end of a big game).

And if you’re not comfortable with a Catholic prayer? How about as we start a new calendar year, just tell Mary “thank you” for saying yes to being the “God-Bearer” of Jesus, our Savior.