Pray Before Every New Task

THINK

At her canonization on July 7, 1946, Pope Pius XII said about St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, "Although her constitution was very frail, her spirit was endowed with such singular strength that, knowing the will of God in her regard, she permitted nothing to impede her from accomplishing what seemed beyond the strength of a woman."

One wonders how she did it. She accomplished so much, worked so hard and so well for God. How did she find the strength? From where did she mine the energy to do all that she did?  St. Frances Cabrini quotes are few. Apparently, she didn’t waste a lot of time talking. She did say this, however, and maybe that’s the answer to question of “How?”:

"We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone."

PRAY

From the Collect:

God our Father, who called Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini from Italy to serve the immigrants of America, by her example, teach us to have concern for the stranger, the sick, and all those in need, and by her prayers help us to see Christ in all the men and women we meet. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

ACT

Today, try to remember to pray before every new task. You’ll forget. It’s not a habit. But it could become one, if only we do it again and again, as the Holy Spirit reminds us.

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I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun.

the cathedral that is a canopy of trees

Think

 "Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer."

--L.M. Montgomery in Anne of Green Gables

Pray

Holy Spirit, guide my feet. Take me to the places you've created to nourish my soul. Let me go there, breathe deep there, and inhale You. Let me never take for granted the cathedral that is a canopy of trees beneath a glorious autumn sky.

Act

Go outside. Find a place where you can appreciate the simple beauty of the natural world. Inhale deeply, exhale prayer.

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I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun.

Undo the Knots & Calm the Chaos

THINK

“As soon as we are alone,...inner chaos opens up in us. This chaos can be so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again. Entering a private room and shutting the door, therefore, does not mean that we immediately shut out all our inner doubts, anxieties, fears, bad memories, unresolved conflicts, angry feelings and impulsive desires. On the contrary, when we have removed our outer distraction, we often find that our inner distraction manifest themselves to us in full force. We often use the outer distractions to shield ourselves from the interior noises. This makes the discipline of solitude all the more important.” 

-- Henri Nouwen

Solitude: 

We crave it and then, when we have it, we fill it with iPods, and smart phones, and radios, and all the worlds they open for us. We invite the noise into our silence, because we are uneasy in the quiet of our own thoughts. And yet, solitude holds the very tools we need to repair the chaos in our souls.

PRAY

Come, Holy Spirit! Help me to be comfortable in the silence of my own heart. Keep me company there. Undo the knots and calm the chaos. Teach me to be at ease in the silence of our companionship.

ACT

Make time to be silent for as long as possible today. Turn it all off. Be truly grateful for the time, even if it’s just a few moments. Tomorrow, try to go a little longer. 

~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun.

Embrace the Now

THINK

"Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better."

—    — Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)

OH! I’ve wished for nothing so much as to change. And here I am; change upon me and I’m asking God why it’s all moving so fast and why I can’t just settle into the known and the familiar again. It’s time to stop fighting the change and to see it instead as the way to wholeness.

PRAY

Jesus, grant me the grace to see You at work in the midst of trials. Help me to have the perspective necessary to embrace the now, to uncover its joys, and to allow it to have its way with my soul, for Your glory. 

ACT

Take a walk, preferably with someone you love. Notice the beauty in the change of seasons. 

~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.

Strengthen Me, O Lord

THINK

"If only we could be what we hope to be, by the great kindness of our generous God! He asks so little and gives so much, in this life and in the next, to those who love him sincerely. In a spirit of hope and out of love for him, let us then bear and endure all things and give thanks for everything that befalls us, since even reason can often recognise these things as weapons to win salvation. And meanwhile let us commend to God our own souls and the souls of those who, being more ready for it, have reached the place of rest before us although they walked the same road as we do."  Gregory the Nazianzen in today's Office of Readings

PRAY

God, I promise to bear and to endure. Would you please help me to bear and to endure cheerfully? I need strength training, Lord. I want to carry the heavy crosses with a lightness and an ease that comes with knowing that You carry it with me. Strengthen me. Let me run with glad endurance.

ACT

Tackle a tough task today, something you’ve put it off. Do it cheerfully.

~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.