A PRAYER FOR AUTUMN DAYS

(the colors of Fall overlooking Charlie's Hollow between Abbey and Friary)

 

A PRAYER FOR AUTUMN DAYS

                    -- adapted from Joyce Rupp

 

God of the seasons, there is a time for everything;  there is a time for dying and a time for rising.  We need your grace and courage to enter into the conversion process.

 

God of Autumn, the trees are saying their goodbyes to green, letting go of what has been.  We, too, have our moments of surrender, with all their insecurity and risk-taking.  Help us to let go.

 

God of fallen leaves that lay in colored patterns upon the ground, our lives have their own particular patterns of growth.  We need to see the connections.

 

God of misty days and harvest-moon nights, there is always the dimension of mystery and wonder in our lives, always the need to recognize your power-filled mystery.

 

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain, there are many gifts of growth within this season of surrender.  Harvest must be waited for in faith and hope.  Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

 

God of geese going South for another season, it is wisdom which enables us to know what needs to be left behind and what needs to be carried into the future.  We yearn for insight and vision.

 

God of graciousness, you believe in us, you enrich us, you entrust us with the freedom to choose life.  For all of this, we are grateful.

 

As we experience the season of Autumn, may we allow it to speak to us of necessary change and growth and of preparation for seasons that lie beyond the Winter.  Grant us an openness to the continuous process of letting go and moving on, which is part of our human condition.  We know that you are our faithful companion on this journey.  Your presence is blessing enough.   AMEN.

October Reflection on Peace Prayer

(statue of St. Francis in common area)

 

Before we leave this month of October and the Feast Day of St. Francis which was on October 4th, we share with you this Reflection on the Peace Prayer of St. Francis:

 

LORD, MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE

 

Let my song be joyful, let it sing of your incarnation in all of creation;

let me see all as holy, let me be a source of peace to others.

 

WHERE THERE IS HATRED, LET ME SOW LOVE

 

Let me love those who hurt me, those who dominate others,

whether through systems they build or as individuals.

 

WHERE THERE IS INJURY, PARDON

 

Let me show forgiveness to others.  Let my heart and mind be free,

to let go of hurts or perceived hurts.

 

WHERE THERE IS DOUBT, FAITH

 

Help me in my faith, may I learn to rely fully on you, my God.

Let me share my faith with others and be a witness of faithfulness to God.

 

WHERE THERE IS DESPAIR, HOPE

 

Help me bring justice and hope to those in need or despair.

Let me be hope for others when they are in crisis and all seems lost.

 

WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS, LIGHT

 

For those sick in mind, spirit, or body, help me bring God's light.

Let me be light for those who walk in darkness.

 

WHERE THERE IS SADNESS, JOY

 

There is great sadness in the world today, help me to bring joy to others.

Let me bring God's joy to others by the way I choose to live my life.

 

DIVINE MASTER, GRANT THAT I MAY NOT SO MUCH SEEK TO BE CONSOLED AS TO CONSOLE

 

Teach me to help others in need, to see the pain that others carry.

 

TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS TO UNDERSTAND

 

Teach me to hear another person's story, to listen with "God's heart."

 

TO BE LOVED AS TO LOVE

 

Teach me to love and respect all of Creation, especially my sisters and brothers.

 

FOR IT IS IN GIVING THAT WE RECEIVE.  IT IS IN PARDONING THAT WE ARE PARDONED.  IT IS IN DYING THAT WE ARE BORN TO ETERNAL LIFE.

 

- AUTHOR UNKNOWN -

 

 

PRAYER REFLECTION

(Sunday mass here at the Prayer Fraternity)

 

Prayer is the place where burdens change shoulders!

 

(Words seen on a Church information board.) 

 

 

Prayer Fraternity Soap Sales

 

PRESENTS for Christmas and other Special Occasions

 

As the upcoming holiday season approaches, this is a good time to be reminded that Br. Joe's FRANCISCAN SOAP might be a unique and wonderful present for family or friends or co-workers.  You can check out the soap video on this blogsite, watching some of the steps in the making of the soap.  

 

The bar soap is made with pasteurized goat's milK, then cured and hand cut;  the varieties available are: 

 

     Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey

     Lemon

     Honeysuckle Hollow

     Woodland

     Lavender

     Lavender and Cedar

     Rain

     Fragrance Free

     Sage, Sweetgrass and Cedar

 

There are two special Christmas soaps this year:

 

     Country Christmas (pink in color with cinnamon, plum and berry scents)

     Christmas Forest  (green in color with spruce, pine, and fir scents)

 

You can order by calling Br. Joe (or any of the friars here) at 417 - 683 - 4303  or emailing Br. Joe at brojofm@aol.com

DISTRACTIONS AND PRAYER

(a fallen tree down on one of the many walking paths)

 

PRAYER REFLECTION FROM YOUR PRAYER FRATERNITY

 

It is difficult to love and to be loved as one would like.  It is painful to realize that there are whole areas in the life of  the human mind that will never be revealed.  Every person, one day or another, becomes aware of one's poverty as a creature.  And since this experience is a crushing one, the natural temptation is therefore distractions, or, diversions.  There is an "impatience with one's limitations," a natural temptation that urges us to flee before such limitations.  We experience a fear in coming face to face with them, and this fear arises again and again inside us.  Distractions, therefore, appear as the opposite of prayer, a refusal of our real condition, an evasion of it in favor of illusion, dream, mirage (recall one's pursuit of different kinds of drunkenness:  evasion by the flesh, art, sports, etc.)

 

However, the first moment of true prayer occurs in the experience and awareness of one's limitations.  We do not know what our real needs are, and we must learn them all over again each day.  In this sense, prayer has the value of pedagogy, it is the great pedagogy of God.  While evasion and distractions draw us away from the road to real happiness, prayer brings us back to what is most authentic in one's quest for happiness.  "The truth will set you free."  Prayer makes us free;  it preserves what is most fragile and most precious in us:  the integrity of our desire, that desire which, in final analysis, is nothing but the need for God.  This is what prayer preserves in us, and must teach us every day, this need for God, which is the distinctive, most profound trait that separates one from the animals.  The human person is the only being who turns to God to obtain what is lacking for one's own fulfillment.

 

(by  Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P.)

 

 

FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS - 2011

TRANSITUS & FEASTDAY GREETINGS

 

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS!

 

The friar community here at Our Lady of the Angels held its annual TRANSITUS service on the evening of October 3rd, prayerfully and gratefully remembering the life and the death of St. Francis.   Across the world, on the evening before the feast of St. Francis which is October 4th, Franciscans -- friars and sisters and lay Franciscans -- along with friends, gather to retell the last years and hours of St. Francis' life.  In every language and custom imaginable, the story is retold.  It's a wonderful annual service which prepares us to celebrate the feast the next day.

 

Here at the Prayer Fraternity, the Trappist monks from Assumption Abbey, the hermits from Nazareth Hermitage and other local friends are invited to join in this special memorial service.  Twenty plus friends joined our community in the celebration both in the chapel and in the social that followed.    

 

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS TO ALL OF YOU!

 

 

CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT is well received

 

September 26-30 saw 6 friars from the provinces of St. John the Baptist and Sacred Heart join the core community at the Interprovincial Prayer Fraternity in Ava, Mo for a contemplative retreat.

 

Fr. Ray Gunzel, sP was the presenter and developed for the 10 friars the theme of contemplative prayer as a 'journey from the center of the self to the Center of the Divine'.

 

He spoke of prayer as a lifting of the mind and heart to God and that the end of all prayer is a surrender to be taken into God as we are, as God knows us and accepts us (loves us) in the present moment.

 

Two of the pillars for contemplative prayer, and for the retreat, are 'solitude', the sanctuary that protects and nourishes our prayer and 'silence', the wellspring of living water from which our prayer flows.

 

Fr. Ray developed the biblical foundations of prayer, discovering in the creation events of Genesis the seed of our inner life of prayer as well as the foundation for an understanding of sin. He reflected on the writings of St. Paul, the life of Mary, and the Gospels, esp. the Gospel of John, as source materials to understand contemplation. He spoke of the radical Jesus who is the new Adam, a new creation, modeling for us a way of living in the world and relating to other persons.

 

      "Jesus must be taken seriously in all his actions, his way of living and acting. Jesus stands radically against         conventional values and perceptions of right and wrong. He calls us to follow him and take a stand against the false perceptions, the unredeemed values that seduce and imprison the hearts and minds of man and woman."

 

He spoke of a new Pentecost and how the community of believers is the Body of Christ through time. To genuinely commit ourselves to the Eucharist, we are called to relinquish our culturally given identity and take on a new persona that represents a transformed heart that rejects and indicts the unredeemed values and beliefs embedded in our culture.

 

Afternoon sessions were structured to be "Contemplative Sits' introducing us to centering prayer and contemplative walks. Evening sessions provided an opportunity for those interested to engage Fr. Ray with questions that flowed from the day or our own life experiences.

OUR SOAP MAKER ATTENDS LOCAL CRAFT SHOW

On Saturday, September 24th, Br. Joe was invited to be part of a new venture for the city of Ava, MO -- their first annual Fall Festival.  Pictured above is Br. Joe and his display and several interested persons.  Br. Joe indicated that his soap was quite an interest, both in the 'how it's made' as well as the finished product.