WELCOME TO NEW MONKS AT ASSUMPTION ABBEY

 

(Br. Roberto,  Fr. Thaddeus,  Fr. Basil)

 

With great joy,  the Franciscans here at Our Lady of the Angels Friary join our Trappist brothers in welcoming three new members to our Assumption Abbey.   With a lack of vocations from here in the States,  Assumption Abbey was facing a future that might mean it would have to close.

 

The monks became aware of a Cistercian monastery in Vietnam,  Our Lady of Grace Monastery, that has been blessed with nearly 100 members.   For some time that community has been interested in starting a foundation elsewhere in the world.   Connections were made, conversations were held,  plans were put in place, and in the past year, four new monks have arrived here.   Fr. Peter Vu had come in advance last March.     Fr. Thaddeus and Fr. Basil arrived in early February and Br. Roberto arrived a week ago.    

 

The picture above was taken in the bakery where the  new members have already joined in helping with the making of the well-known Abbey Fruitcakes.

 

Please join us in prayer for this new endeavor;  it bring much hope to the future of the Abbey and for the Franciscans and the hermits at Nazareth Hermitage that share this piece of property here in the Ozarks.

 

 

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

 

INTERCESSORY PRAYER:  

    not my will, but THINE BE DONE!

 

Letter of James  4:3:   "You ask, but do not receive, because you ask wrongly."

 

The first reading from the Letter of James for February 25, 2014 led to two different daily reflections on prayers of intercession in this respective missalette and devotional.   We share them with you for your own reflection:

 

This first one is by Heather Wilson and appeared in the February  LIVING WITH CHRIST  missalette.

 

I can remember many times in my life when I prayed for sunny skies, good health, someone special.  If this didn't happen,  I thought my prayers had not been heard.

 

What great humility it takes to say,  'THY WILL, NOT MINE."    Most of us have spiritual cataracts when it comes to seeing what we need to live as God desires, as opposed to what we want for our earthly lives.   I recently heard a song that went,  "How can I further the work of your kingdom when I'm so wrapped up in my own?"   Sadly, we may miss the fact that we are always given exactly what we need.

 

Spend some quiet moments today thinking about a time when you wanted something so badly that you begged God to hear your pleas, but you didn't receive what you wanted.   Think about the way your life unfolded instead.     "Gracious God, help us to ask rightly and humbly and not to miss your untold gifts to us by focusing on what we did not receive." 

 

This second reflection is by Fr. James McKarns and comes from the daily Catholic devotional,  LIVING FAITH, for February 25th:

 

Asking is one type of prayer but others are prayers of adoration, thanksgiving, and contrition.  Our asking prayers,  petitions, are the only ones from which we expect some answer.   We assume God is pleased when we offer adoration and praise, give thanks for blessings and say we are sorry for having sinned.  But prayers of petition can disappoint us when we don't receive our proposed answers.  Humorously,  I heard a speaker say if we would ask God in the morning for some crosses to carry that day, our prayers would be answered before breakfast.

 

When we offer our prayers of petition as Jesus did, we are praying well.  He prayed he would not have to drink the cup,  i.e., suffer crucifixion, but quickly added:  "THY WILL BE DONE."    That should be our attitude in all our prayers of petition.  We then could feel our prayers were being answered: perhaps not as we wanted, but always according to God's will.

 

 

 

Gesture as prayer

 

GESTURE AS PRAYER

 

Throughout the ages, spiritual writers have maintained that posture and gesture are important components of prayer.   Kneeling, for example, is a traditional posture of submission and can call to mind God's sovereignty.  Genuflecting and bowing are gestures of reverence and can make us more aware of God's majesty.  Closing our eyes can help us to focus better during prayer, while sitting quietly with opened hands on our lap can actually encourage our receptivity to God's word.

 

Bodily gestures do more, however, than merely aid us in prayer.  Sometimes they themselves can actually become our prayer.  Rabbi Abraham Heschel once said,   "When I marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma,  I felt my legs were praying."  How insightful!  Ordinary physical movement becoming prayer!   In a way, then, our body prays every time it is engaged in loving acts.   What kinds of acts?  Here are but a few:

 

Washing the dishes ...  shoveling snow .... pouring coffee at a soup kitchen ...  addressing Christmas cards ...  filling a bird feeder ... rocking a cranky baby ... watering plants .... making love with one's spouse ... offering an arm to an elderly friend .... giving someone a back rub.

 

GOD,  MAY I BECOME MORE AWARE OF MY BODY PRAYING TODAY!

 

(This reflection is by Sr. Mellanie Svoboda, Snd, and appears in her book.   EVERYDAY EPIPHANIES:  Seeing the Sacred in Every Thing.   Twenty-third Publications  copyright 1997)

 

 

PRAYER FOR COLOR

 

This timely prayer comes from the pen of John McGinty who blogs at BothSidesNow .

Prayer for Color

Dear Lord
When you brought all into being
You painted bright with wild abandon:
Canyon walls
Insect wings
Human faces
Early morning sky
And later evening too.
All suffused and alive with color
Reflecting the bursting moving abiding life you are.

Dear God
Now we are left with only white
Pure and simple
Beautiful in its own way, like all the others
But only.
Only whiteness, with evergreen insisting to stay
As a reminder of what was and yet may be
Color.

Color us deeply inside today
Let us burn with the gold of hope
The red of faith
And the deep unnameable hue of love.
In the midst of the white
And our gratitude for its silent settling down
Keep alive within us both the memory
And the vision of the colors that will be spring.
Amen.

 

A SNOWY WINTER'S PRAYER

 

 

A PRAYER THAT CAPTURES

        THE HEARTS OF MANY, MANY PEOPLE

 

Good morning, good God!

I've had it with the snow, Lord.
I've had it with the cold.
I've had it with this winter.

Cold and chill, bless the Lord,

frost and chill, bless the Lord,

hoarfrost and snow, bless the Lord.

praise and exalt him above all forever...

(And I guess I've had it with Daniel 3:67, too!)

All this snow gets in my way
and narrows my road;
it slows me down, disrupts my life
and freezes my plans...

So where's the blessing, Lord?

Where's the blessing in this long,
slippery, sloppy season?

Help me find the blessing, Lord,
in storms I can't control
that chill my nights and days,
that make the going rough
whichever way I turn...

Help me find the blessing in the cold
when warmth is what I need...

Help me find your blessing when I'm buried
in the frost and snow
and longing for a season's change
within and all around me...

Your blessings come, I know,
as often in the winter as in spring,
as surely in the snow as in the sunshine,
in February just as well as April, May and June...

I cannot wait for spring to find your grace
so help me find your winter blessings, Lord,
the ones I trust you have in store for me
to warm my shivering soul...

Help me learn to bless you in the cold,
to praise you in the chill, the frost and snow:
help me learn to bless you, Lord,
in all the seasons of my heart...

Cold and chill, bless the Lord,
frost and chill, bless the Lord,
hoarfrost and snow, bless the Lord.
praise and exalt him above all forever...

Amen.

(Thanks to Fr. Austin Fleming for this prayer.)

SAY A PRAYER

 

Say a Prayer!

 

When you feel all the world has turned you down

and it's hard to smile, but easy to frown,

    SAY A PRAYER!

 

When you feel fate has dealt you a bitter hand

and there's nobody left who cares to understand,

    SAY A PRAYER!

 

When most of your days are filled with sorrow

and you feel there's little hope for a new tomorrow,

    SAY A PRAYER!

 

When you see your dreams crumble and think all is lost

and you feel that your efforts aren't worth all the cost,

   SAY A PRAYER!

 

When you feel all the breaks seem to work in reverse

and you're sure that everything just couldn't be worse,

    SAY A PRAYER!

 

When you can't understand why things happen as they do

and when things seem never to work out for you,

   SAY A PRAYER!

 

When your courage is spent and you feel your faith falter

then it's time to change all this, kneel at your altar, and,

   SAY A PRAYER!

 

(author unknown)

St. Francis de Sales and prayer

 

 

SIX STEPS TO PRAYER by St. Francis de Sales

 

St. Francis de Sales, one of the great spiritual directors among the saints, offers six steps to prayer that can allow you to enter more deeply into meditation and conversation with the Lord:

 

1.    Place yourself in the presence of God.    Remember that God is near you.  Take a moment to invite him into your time of prayer.  Meet him as if you were meeting a friend.

 

2.   Ask God for his assistance.   Ask that he would help in your meditation.   Pray that God uses this time to draw you closer to him.

 

3.   Read over a passage of Scripture or some other spiritual work.    In this case (a book of Pope Francis quotes),  your spiritual reading will be the words of Pope Francis,  but also consider supplementing this with Scripture,  the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or other spiritual readings.

 

4.   Take some time to reflect and think over what you have read.    Your goal is not necessarily to learn something but to enter more deeply into a relationship with Jesus and to understand yourself and God more intimately.  Listen to what God is trying to tell you.

 

5.   Have a conversation with God about your reflections and thoughts.    In this step,  you want to ask yourself:   What stood out to you in your spiritual reading?   What is God trying to tell you through what you just read?   What feelings arise in your heart?   Talk to God about these things.

 

6.   Conclude your time in prayer.   In your conclusion,  St. Francis recommends thanking God for your time in prayer, making petitions for yourself and others, and developing a practical resolution.   Take what insights you have gained and apply them to your life in a practical way.   For example,  do you need to be more faithful to prayer?   Do you need to forgive someone?

 

As St. Francis de Sales and many other spiritual writers make clear,  there is no perfect method or process for prayer, which is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit. 

 

(These words are from the introduction to a book,  THROUGH THE YEAR WITH POPE FRANCIS,    daily reflections taken from homilies and other addresses and articles written about our new Holy Father,   Pope Francis.   The book is published by Our Sunday Visitor and edited by Kevin Cotter.)

 

 

 

MANY DIFFERENT WAYS TO PRAY

 

DIFFERENT WAYS TO PRAY:

 

(read:  Mark 7: 24-30, the story of Jesus' encounter with the Syro-phoenician woman)

 

Jesus' give-and-take comments with the mother seeking help for her daughter indicate that God seeks a dialogue with us.   Perhaps this explains why there are so many different ways to pray.   We can use 1)  formal prayer   or 2)  our own words.   We can 3)  recite a list of troubles and petitions  or  4)   clear our minds to meditate and listen.   We can 5)  shed tears    or  6)  laugh.   We can even 7)  engage in banter with God -- as this mother did with Jesus.   We must take care to nurture our conversation with God.   Remember,  there is nothing so refreshing as a good talk with a friend.

 

(Charlotte A. Rancillo shares this reflection on that Gospel passage in the missalette, LIVING WITH CHRIST , for February 13, 2014  -- the numbering is ours   --  www.livingwithChrist.us. )