INTRODUCTION
O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
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. Alleluia.
HYMN
Come, Holy Spirit, live in us
With God the Father and the Son,
And grant us your abundant grace
To sanctify and make us one.
May mind and tongue made strong in love
Your praise throughout the world proclaim,
And may that love within our hearts
Set fire to others with its flame.
Most blessèd Trinity of love,
For whom the heart of man was made,
To you be praise in timeless song,
And everlasting homage paid.
SOURCE: Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal York, United Kingdom
Posted via Universalis
http://www.universalis.com/20190502/terce.htm
Trivia for the Day
In the Catholic Church we have what is called The Divine Office and part of that tradition are the “Canonical Hours” which have seven prayer times appointed for each day. This has its roots in the Old Testament: “Seven times a day I praise you.” Psalm 118/119:164
- Matins & Lauds (during early morning 2 a.m. and Dawn)
- Prime (early morning, around 6 a.m.)
- Terce (Mid-morning the 3rd hour around 9 a.m.)
- Sext (Noon the 6th hour)
- Nones (Mid-afternoon 3 p.m. the 9th hour)
- Vespers (Evening around 6 p m.)
- Compline (Night around 7 p.m. or bedtime)
A Topsy-Turvy Bit of a Week (or why I’m posting a few days after reading this prayer)
Monday morning this week before work I was struggling again with the depression, my frustrations at where I am in life and overall exhaustion. I had a talk with my sister-in-law Debbie that helped me carry on, only to be hit with some news at work. I was happy for the person directly affected by a change yet facing the unknown of another change and another occasion of feeling like I was standing still while others moved on. I was suddenly as unmovable as that stuck clock on the library tower in Storybrooke on the pilot of Once Upon a Time.
Depression as well as the devil like to play games with one’s mind (it’s above my pay grade to discern which, or if both, were working on me last week). I began playing the self-pity card. My life regrets and the what-if scenarios took over. What happen to giving up worry for Lent?
I battled fatigue, stress and overall uncertainty that night. It was the Monday after Divine Mercy Sunday, why was I slipping back into old bad habits of worry, thinking it was all on my shoulders and losing sight of Jesus, my Lord and my Life, without even realizing it.
What happened to my dreams? Why was I suddenly unraveled by change?
And what was I going to do about it?
Where Does Your Treasure Lay? Where is Your Heart?
One lesson I did learn from Gary Zimak’s Give Up Worry for Lent was that God will always provide (often in ways we don’t expect). When I woke up Tuesday morning the verse that came to me was Matthew 6:21 as I tried to sort out where my heart is at this point in my life.
Thinking on this led me to post a call for help on Facebook and Twitter plus text messaging friends who don’t use Social Media.
Prayer request to do God’s will for me and follow where He leads me right now. Keep saying that verse wherever your heart is there your treasure is. Right now it is hard finding where my heart is and need prayers. Thank you
I received an outpouring of prayers from my Facebook family composed of church family, work family, friends from high school to fellow Christians especially #CatholicTwitter and fellow “Oncers” (fans of Once Upon a Time). Someone from St. Max a neighboring parish even reminded me to say the Memorae to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And what started happening? All these prayers started giving my crumbling spirit hope. A Michigan priest I follow on Twitter, Father Joseph Krupp who does a daily #TalkedtotheBoss posted this: “He said He watches over it all & will guide you if you let Him.” I sent Father Krupp a thank you for the tweet and he responded with an encouraging “I am praying right now and I asked Jesus to bless you and give you strength” and another person whom I don’t know also responded with praying and that he was going through something similar in life. In all of this, God reminded me that none of us go through life alone (even that loner Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold I’ve been revisiting in fan fiction needs a light now and then). A co-worker even must have been worried about that Facebook post — she sent me three texts in the span of a minute or two, reminding me of we have to be careful of what we post on social media because it lacks the tone only human speech can reveal.
I went back to reflecting on my last confession with Father Paul and the advice he gave to me. He has been a true anchor in the storm of this depression and I praise God for his counseling and pastoral support. When I left work, I stopped to make my usual visit to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament on my way home. So I thanked Father Paul and everyone for their prayers. Tuesday night I posted this:
Thank you everyone for the prayers. Please keep them coming and be assured of my prayers for you all. I hope to find God’s will in all things as to what He wants me to go. Does He want me to “stand still” where I am and wait or does He want me to move to something new. As I said this verse came to me for a reason. I know my true treasure is Jesus Christ and my 💓 must rest in Him before anything else.
Actually something I was writing struck home on Sunday as a character appeared “out of the blue” on Friday & while this character is literally short-lived she taught me a lot about what kind of attitude I should be living and for the first time in too long, I fell in love with what I was writing yet at the same time was reminded of unfulfilled dreams to be a writer and only a writer. It’s all I ever wanted, I just have to make sure it is what God wants.
To add to the healing spirit of the day, God granted me a peaceful evening doing the latest rewatch of Once with my friend Teresa who used to co-edit then edit the best fan page out there for the show (Once Upon a Fan). Since the episode on the dock Lady of the Lake lacked an appearance by the amazingly gifted actor Robert Carlyle, I hadn’t rewatched it in a long time. I found myself swept up in the magic of the good days of the show, a very catharthic experience courtesy of Teresa’s own wish to do a rewatch of this life-changing show (more on that later). And yes, even without Mr. Carlyle’s Rumplestiltskin, I enjoyed it. I laughed at Emma Swan out of her element of our world and facing the dangers of the Enchanted Forest with her mother Snow White. The Grandpa Charming and Henry bonding reminded me of how much the family dynamics in the show made it even more special.
And as He is never outdone in generosity, God kept sending me gentle nudges of His immense love for us.
Listening to God in a Distracting World
A while back I subscribed to the Morning Offering sent to my email in the wee hours of morning (a modern version of Matins) as it shows up between 2 to 3:30 am in my inbox. I look forward to these and God sent this message on Wednesday morning:
And to double the effect of the power of listening, before I went to Wednesday morning Mass (a treat because I took a vacation day from work) I caught a quick video on EWTN: The Call. This one featured Father Leo Patalinghug and the clincher for me was the piece of advice Father Leo offered to pray “God what do you want me to hear today?”
Here is the link to the YouTube video: The Call: Father Leo
What a great way to start every day–asking God what He wants us to hear. We must become attentive to each moment of the day–to live in the now (another thing I often forget).
The blessings kept coming. Wednesday morning into afternoon inspiration struck and I worked on my newest Once project Threads of Gold which will be published on my Archive of Our Own page when ready. It is a Season 1 fan fiction exclusively from the point of view of Mr. Gold right before he remembers he is Rumplestiltskin to the end of Season 1. God continually reminds me of his blessing to let me find Robert Carlyle’s work through this ABC show as I realized it will be exactly six years this May 12 from the Season 2 finale which led to inspiration to raise the bar of quality storytelling for my original “gritty spiritual suspense” novel that needed a face-lift.
Thursday both a friend’s daily devotion she texted to me was a reminder of trusting in God’s planned journey for our lives. Between this and the discovery by random “accident” (I am not a believer in mere coincidence) of the Universalis Terce prayer that “just popped up” on my Google Chrome search on the phone out of the blue, all the craziness of life came into perspective. God has got us–we just have to trust.
Everyday Blessings
I guess what this retrospective on a crazy week should offer is an awareness of the everyday blessings God gives to us when we are paying attention.
To close off my week, Friday was the blessing of seeing our high school book club as part of my work. These young people, like the teens in our youth group, bring my life sparkles of light and immense hope. They are uniquely the people God made each to be just as we all are. My Friday nights are spent at Adoration, enjoying the Real Presence of Our Lord, for an hour. Yes, I began this post Friday night.
Saturday, I received one of the best compliments ever from one of the teens’ mothers and felt blessed to have found a fellow writer and traveller on the journey with this beautiful young lady who wanted her mom to meet me. Maybe standing still isn’t so bad when we stop to listen and accept the everyday blessings God sends us.
These everyday blessings are in a way like the canonical hours I started this post out with. When we let our eyes be open to what God wants us to hear each day, we move back into a rhythm like these prayers, as old as time (sorry I can’t resist a Beauty and the Beast reference), that call us to be mindful of God, not just one hour a week on a Sunday but every day of our lives until prayer becomes as natural as breathing to us.
TODAY’S PRAYER CHALLENGE:
Take Father Leo’s advice each morning and ask God what He wants you to hear. And be mindful of the extraordinary in the ordinary. God loves us and wants us to see His hand in the weaving of our lives even though we may not be able to see His plan clearly at whatever stage of life we find ourselves in.