Thoughts on Prayer - Heart Speaks to Heart

The psalmist prays, “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”  Let us not harden our hearts.  Love and freedom are central to our relationship with God, and they are foundational to our prayer life.  Living the “present moment” gives each of us the “privileged” opportunity to know God and to do God’s will.

St. Francis de Sales said, “Go to Prayer in Faith.  Remain there in Hope.  Go out only by Love.”  Essential to prayer is the disposition of our heart, we are called to have the heart of God.  At Mass we pray (like the Roman Centurion), “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.  But say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

St. Francis de Sales outlined “… the conditions necessary to pray ….  The first … we must be little and humble; second … we must have a goodly supply of hope; and third keep our minds fixed on Jesus Christ crucified.”  Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, says, “To love another is to see the face of God.”

Valjean points to a basic teaching of the Catholic Church that, we are made in the image and likeness of God.  You and I are made in the image and likeness of God, today allow that image to guide your actions.

May God Be Praised!
 

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us.  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give each of us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]