If the only prayer you said in your whole life
was, "thank you,"
that would suffice.

~Meister Eckhart

This has been a good week to count blessings, and I have many… so very many. May God bless all those who have enriched my life, and may God bless me with the ability to bless other’s lives as well. <image source>

As we express our gratitude,
we must never forget that the highest appreciation
is not to utter words,
but to live by them.

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our prayer this day, the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time also recognized as Catechetical Sunday.

Here is the path we shall take as ”Agents of the New Evangelization”: walking before the Lord in the land of the living. With God’s help, we will neither stumble or fall in disgrace. Gracious is the Lord; just and merciful. We take up His cross, and we follow. 

The Lord God will be our help along the path set before us, God hears our voices in supplication. Lord Jesus, You are the Christ. We lose our lives to the path of faith, demonstrating our faith to You from our works. Who can prove us wrong in following the Gospel of salvation?

We love the Lord and the path we shall take has been laid before us. <image source>

Our prayers for this day, the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lord, we will always try to remember to wash our hands… Really, it is the simple stuff that help us to observe Your commandments most carefully. We aspire to truly be a wise and intelligent people.  If we walk blamelessly, living in the presence of the Lord, we will do justice.

We seek to honor You, Lord with our lips and aim to be doers of the word and not hearers only.   Give us strength to slanders not with our tongues or take up a reproach against our neighbors.  We are just a bunch of messy handed people.

Humbly, we seek to welcome and nurture the Word that has been planted within us. <image source>

We are heading off on another summer break, shutting the blog down throughout all of next week where we will celebrate our nation’s independence. As it our Friday practice, here’s a quotable h/t Rocco, although a little longer that usual. The Prayer for the Nation was composed and first delivered in August 1791 by John Carroll of Baltimore: founding bishop of these United States, and a cousin of the lone Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence….   We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.

We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope Benedict, the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, N., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his/her excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability. We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance.

To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

So, this was, of course, bound to happen once I took a summer break from offering Sunday prayers over the lectionary readings – - which, by the by, is not a justification of taking the summer off from weekly Mass but a recognition that many change weekly programming in the summer.  Anywho, this Sunday, we find that here comes the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

Which brings me to one of my favorite wall hangings amidst my collection of angels at home.  I purchased this in the Holy Land and it is a painted stone in relief image of John the Baptist’s father Zechariah regaining his voice after responding in faith, albeit better late than never.  The Gospel reads that “Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.”  This image suggests that if the angel Gabriel was involved in the removal of Zechariah voice, then the recovery of voice was also angelically induced as well.

And, in my mind, as suggested by the artist, Zechariah’s first utterance came as a response to being goosed by a heavenly entity. WOOOoooOOO!

And, that is my understanding of inspiration as well – a prompt so strongly felt that a spontaneous response just blurts out before we can determine how inappropriate or right it might be.  Pentecost was a few weeks back with it’s end of the Gospel’s spiritual tongues of flame… but Zechariah’s beginning of the Gospel’s story of angelic intervention hold just as much of a call to be “light to the nations, (so) that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

This Sunday, we won’t run a prayer, but The Canticle of Zechariah, the response of Zechariah, which is edited out of this weekend’s Gospel, might serve…

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.
He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant,
even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old:
salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,
to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that, rescued from the hand of enemies,
without fear we might worship him in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord – to prepare his ways,
to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us
to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.

Our prayers this day, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

O Lord, our God, when you created us, you gave us the blood of life which course through our system.  Yet, whenever it escapes from our temporal bodies, that blood is a very messy thing. often, when your creation wrongly does violence to another, we can get caught with blood on our hands, caught red-handed.

Yet, in faith, we seek to be red-handed with the outpouring of your love upon us.  We desire to be splattered by the blood of the covenant. We call upon Your Holy Name, Lord, to cleanse our consciences from the works of death.

We seek to be consumed within the blood of the covenant shed for many. We desire to drink again the fruit of the vine new in the kingdom of God.

These vows to the Lord we make in the presence of all His peoples. We will do everything that the Lord has told us. We take up this cup of salvation and worship and call upon the name of the living God.

Our prayer this day, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

We have been sent, O God, make disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father. We cry, "Abba, Father!" to the One Who spoke, and it was made. We seek the aid from the One Who commanded, and from one end of the sky to the other all that is good stood forth.

We have been sent, O God, make disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Son. The eyes of the Lord are upon those who hope for His kindness to deliver us from death. We seek to share in the inheritance of Grace as joint heirs with Christ knowing all that has already been done for our very eyes.

We have been sent, O God, make disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Holy Spirit. We are children of God having received a Spirit of adoption, a spirit which calls us not to be in fear of suffering but that we might also share in the glory of the Lord. We have placed our hope in You, O God, send your Spirit to bear witness with our spirit.

O God, our God, we are called to teach others to observe all that had be commanded of us. Share your power with us and be with us always, until the end of the age.

Our prayers this day, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

For what are we looking towards the sky, Lord?

We stand here clapping our hands, shouting to God with cries of gladness. We sing praises to God, sing praises to our King, sing praise. God reigns over all the nations. The Lord has taken his holy throne. And, yet, we sit.

Trumpet blasts and there are many shouts for our God who is an awesome God who reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God. And, yet, we sit.

We really don’t know the times or seasons. We have received power from the Holy Spirit. We are called to be the Lord’s witnesses to all the nations. Some are meant to be apostles, others prophets, still others evangelists, and maybe even pastors and teachers. We are to build up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of faith. We are compelled to go forth and preach everywhere, proclaiming the gospel to everyone in the whole world, equipping the holy ones for the work of ministry. And, yet, we sit.

For what are we looking towards the sky, Lord? Work through us, Lord. Let’s go! <image source>

Our prayer this day, the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Open our hearts, Lord, and help us to know love.

Your love is freely given, Lord, might we Love as generously as You in our love for one another. May we treat one another as friends and not subjects for we ourselves are not deserving of any more homage or partiality than the respect of just being we ourselves also human beings. We shall not withhold our expressions of God’s grace from one another.

Lord, all the ends of the earth have seen Your saving power. How is it that we selfishly imagine that we might contain it as a prized secret. We are compelled to sing joyfully, breaking into song… no, new songs which offer praise for all Your wondrous deeds

Love is as simple as loving one’s neighbor and as complicated as giving our lives away. Let us love one another, because love is of God. Open our hearts, Lord, and help us to know love. If we are without love, we do not know You. God is love! <image source>

  Our prayer this day, the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Lord, we seek to remain in You.  Remain in us for we can not bear any fruit with You.

We praise you, Lord, in our hearts as well as in the assembly of Your people. Out of our awe and respect for You, we fulfill my vows. In our own experiences, we have seen the goodness of Lord as well as heard His words spoken to our hearts and our lives. As your disciples, we seek to emulate Paul whose love was not only expressed in word or speech but in deed and truth as well. Might we, like Paul, no matter what our conditions, speak out boldly in the name of the Lord.

May we keep Your commandments, Lord, and do what pleases You. May our lives bear witness that we believe in the power of the name of Jesus Christ. For this, our souls come to life. May our lives invite our descendants into service of the Lord, may coming generations through all the ends of the earth be told of Your love and grace and remember and turn to You. <image source>