Posts tagged ‘prayer’
Here I Am, Your Servant Is Listening
Our Scripture readings continue with the theme of call. Yesterday’s was the calling of Jesus’ disciples, and today, in the First Book of Samuel, we read about the calling of the prophet Samuel.
Then Eli [the prophet] understood that God was calling the youth. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the Lord came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
And in today’s response from Psalm 40 we read:
Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
We will only be able to answer God when we have learned to recognize God's voice. So we need to take time for solitued, prayer, and reflection.
A Beautiful Advent Morning!
In today’s Responsorial Psalm, we proclaimend:
Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
And today I’ll let this morning’s sunrise in Bolinas do the preaching!
The morning sun give praise to our God!
If You Could Ask for Just One Thing . . .
The following is from today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 27:
One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate God’s temple.
This is the one thing the psalmist asks of God. What would you ask?
Amidst the redwoods it can feel like you are in a cathedral. The trees draw us closer to God. It's a wonderful place to contemplate what is really important.
Appreciating Beauty as Prayer
May our appreciation of creation become prayer and praise.
Last week Gratefulness.org published this quote.
What is real prayer? Praise to God. And the meaning of praise? Appreciating; thus opening the heart more and more to the divine beauty one sees in manifestation.
- Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
Bowl of Saki
Let God’s Glory Be over all the Earth
From today’s Morning Prayer:
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Psalm 108
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
In Awe of the Simple Gifts of LIfe
The following is the closing prayer from Vespers for this evening.
May we experience awe in the presence of the Simple Gifts of Life.
O gracious God, open our hearts and our eyes to the wonders of your presence among us. May we see the signs of your beauty within and about us and ever be in awe of the simple gifts of life. Help us to reach beyond ourselves and to give thanks for all of your creation that shares this universe with us: peoples of every nation, animals of every species, all forms of vegetation, the planets, stars, and all the elements. We pray this in union with the incarnate Word of God in whose image all was created. May you be blessed throughout the ages and for all eternity. Amen.
All the Earth Cries Out
One of today’s psalms at morning prayer was Psalm 100. It begins: “All the earth cries out to you with shouts of joy, O God.”
All the earth cries out to you with shouts of joy, O God!
All the earth cries out to you with shouts of joy, O God,
Servign you with gladness, coming before you, singing for joy.
You, Creator of all, are God. You made us, we belong to you,
We are your people, the sheep of your pasture.
We enter your gates with thanksgiving, and your courts with songs of praise.
We give you thanks and bless your name.
Indeed, how good you are, enduring your steadfast love.
You are faithful to all generations.
All Souls Day
Is there not a beautiful thought connected with prayer for the dead? Were it not sad to feel that when our loved ones pass away, they are wholly separated from us? Through prayer we may still hold communion with them; by the spirit of prayer we may gather the inspiration and clothe ourselves with the mantle they were clothed with. In blessing them we receive their blessing….
- Andrew Barrett, The Shakers
Mother Justin Barry visits the grave of Sister Dominica Arguello, remembered in California history as Dominica Arguello, who is often mentioned in the early history of California. Photo taken, circa 1955.
Mother Justin was the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Sister of San Rafael from 1953 to 1965. Sister Dominica was the first woman to enter a convent in California.
Contemplation of Creation
- . . . their answer was their beauty.
From today’s reading in the Psalter
I asked the earth, the sea and the deeps, heaven, the sun, the moon and the stars….My questioning of them was my contemplation , and their answer was their beauty.
From The Confessions of St. Augustine
For the Beauty of the Earth
Our hymn at morning prayer today was “For the Beauty of the Earth.”
Half Dome at Sunset
For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies;
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight;
For the mystic harmony,
Linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.
by Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1864
