The Weekly Word

Bread of Life

Prayer...

Prayer is, in the strictest sense, a humble religious petition of man to God to seek divine benevolence and benefits he needs for life, both temporal and eternal. It is a conversation with God, either by accepted prayer forms, or from the heart. Consider these words as if God were speaking them to His children...

"It is not necessary my child, to know much in order to please me much; it is enough that you love me fervently. Speak here to me then, as you would speak to your most intimate friend, to your mother, to your brother."

~God your Father~

He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

Quotes to Live By

There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.

The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.

In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.

The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.

I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?

I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

Spreading the Word spiritually, creatively, inspirationally, and historically on a weekly basis, by St. Joe's own parishoners

Prayer

by Patti LaRue

Ever feel like you're missing something in your life? Do you feel like there's a void that you just don't know how to fill? If that's how you're feeling, then answer this question. Do you pray?

I don't mean just when you go to church, but DO YOU PRAY? Do you have a daily conversation with God? Because that's what prayer is, having an intimate conversation with God. You don't have to do anything special to pray. Why be afraid to do it? He doesn't require that you memorize line after line of some prayer written by someone else. By all means do that if that's what you want to do, but pure prayer is when you sit down and just talk to Him. Talk to Him from your heart, whatever might be on your mind at the time, tell Him.

...prayer is having

an intimate conversation with God...

God didn't put us on this earth just to go about our merry way and ignore him while we go through our busy lives thinking we can carry the whole load on our own shoulders. He's there waiting to hear from us, wanting to hear us offer Him our love and devotion, our joys and sorrows. He wants to be part of everything that's going on in our lives. But if we don't pray, or talk to Him, it's just the same as shutting Him out.

Think about this, would you go day in and day out without talking to your spouse or your children? Of course you wouldn't! Then why would you go day in and day out without talking to your Father in heaven? What could possibly be so much more important than spending some one on one time with God?

Your excuse? Too busy? Don't know how to pray? He doesn't answer my prayers anyway?

None of which are good enough excuses to ignore the one who gave you life and sent His son to give his life for you so that you might find eternal love and life through his suffering and death.

All of us need to take a breather, all of us need to set aside time for us to recoup from the daily stress that all of us are under, "me time", and I'm sure that we all find time to do that. So during that "me time" set a few moments aside for "God time". That should take care of the "too busy" excuse.

...during that "me time" ...

set a few moments aside for "God time".

There's no special criteria for prayer....you have your ready made prayers to recite, music....is a form of prayer, so sing to God, sit in a chair and have an empty chair next to you and envision Him sitting next to you and talk to Him like you would talk to your spouse, your child or a friend. Ask Him to guide you during your days journey, thank Him, tell Him you love Him, just tell Him hi and that you're thinking of Him! Whatever moves you at the moment. Don't limit yourself to traditional thinking when it comes to talking to God. And even if you can't think of a thing to say....silence is also a form of prayer....being silent in His presence allows Him to move in and touch your heart. Remember, prayer isn't always about your needs and desires.....that's the type of prayer most people find the easiest. Going to God and praying when they are in dire need of His help. That's great, but why forget to talk to Him when you feel you don't need anything? You see, even when we think we don't need anything, we do. We need Him, we need to know He's there right with us on a daily basis, as our friend, our father, our teacher, for without that daily communion with God, how can we ever fill that void?

G.A.P.....He answers ALL prayers ALL the time. Sometimes right away, other times they develop into the answer over time, patience is the key. Sometimes along the way He is trying to teach you something, a lesson or wisdom that will help you understand and cope with what may lie ahead in the future, other times His answer is simply "No." And we need to learn to accept whatever answer it is that we receive from Him and try to find the lesson that lies within that answer. And if we don't like the answer, don't stop praying, because we can't always get what we want, but God knows what we need.

Pray and pray often. You can tell God anything because He wants to hear from you, no matter what it is, He wants to take time out just for you. He's waiting to give you the type of intimacy that only He can give you. How can you not take time out for that?

URLVD

If you would like to comment on any article written or would like to contact one of our writers, please feel free to do so my filling out the simple form below. If you would also like to submit some sort of spiritual writing of your own, please feel free to let us know, we'd love to place your writing right here along with our regular writers. Thank you!