For Throwback Thursday….
We went to a mission talk last week. It was on prayer and, even though I struggled to stay awake, I actually remembered the four points of prayer that Father talked about! 🙂
It was a short mission talk ….shorter than any mission talk I have ever attended…(and I still fought to stay awake…yipes!) …yet it touched me and so I thought I would share the four points with you, mixed with a little of my own thoughts.
The first point is confidence. We must pray with confidence!
God is our Father….why do we pray with hesitancy, expecting NOT to have our prayers answered? Confidence pleases Our Lord very much! This was a blessing for me to hear. Most of the time, when I pray, I don’t have the confidence that would be pleasing to Him. So I have revved it up and am working on really EXPECTING God to answer my prayers!
I told Vincent about the talk (he was working late, so he couldn’t attend) and we especially talked about the confidence part.
The next evening he told me he went to Mass that morning and prayed WITH MUCH CONFIDENCE for some financial stress to be relieved. By the end of the day he was quite astounded at the way God answered him so quickly!
So….let’s pray knowing that God will answer our prayers! We’re not always sure how, or what His timing will be, but He WILL answer them. Something so basic and yet we seem to forget it, don’t we?
The second point is Urgency.
This really spoke to me. When we think of something to pray for, let us not put it off and think, well I will include that in our rosary this evening (which is a good thing, too) or I will remember it in my night prayers.
NO! Pray for it that second. Send those little prayers up to God like little shooting darts of loving petitions!
I thought this was awesome as there are SO many things and people to pray for, isn’t there? We can do it the instant we think of it and God listens to each and every one of those prayers! Wonderful!
The third point is Simplicity.
We don’t have to have elaborate prayers. God wants our prayers to be from the heart.
Those little heartfelt prayers of our own are dear to Our Lord. And those potent and short ejaculations, like…… Jesus I trust in Thee…. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine….Sweet Heart of Mary, be my Love….. Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my Salvation…are very powerful!
The fourth point is perseverance.
Oh my! There are certain things in my life…..loved ones, especially…. that I have been praying about for years. A couple of the situations have not turned out well. Do we get discouraged? Well….yes. Is that right and good? No!
God, in His mercy, answers every prayer. Even though, with human eyes, things don’t look like they have turned out well, or our prayers seem like they have not been answered, we must keep praying.
This was good for me to hear. I know it in my head. I had to hear it again to get it back in my heart.
Confidence, Urgency, Simplicity and Perseverance! So simple, so profound!
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By the design of nature, a father leans toward justice and severity; the mother toward mercy and leniency. Both these shadings of authority are needed for the rounded development of the child. Children need to see the father and mother working together, complementing each other, in bringing them up. Above all, it is important that they never be given grounds for “playing” their father and mother against each other. – Fr. Donald Miller, C.SS.R., 1950’s
Within these works, St. Alphonsus stresses the importance of the inner life; the ease with which we can converse with God; on how the eternal truths are revealed to us; the absolute necessity of prayer, and how all is eventually lost without prayer. He directs us as to how to talk with God; explains how God answers us; how God listens to the prayers of everyone, and shows us how to continually have God’s Presence with us throughout our day…
Originally published in 1926 A Carmelite Manual of Prayers is an introduction to the time-honored Carmelite prayers and devotions that St. Therese herself practiced during her lifetime.
Features Include: Morning and Evening Prayers, Acts of Faith, Daily Prayers Devotions for Confession and Benediction Extraordinary Form of the Mass Devout Exercises for Every Day of the Week Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Scapular Devotions Spiritual Writings of St. Therese And so much more . . .
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Thank you so much…. Needed to read this today, thank you!
Finally getting around to reading this. I love it!! Very nice reminder and I love the simplicity of it.