Lord, Hear Our Prayer

The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-filled people pray for one another.

Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.

How about this idea? What if I pop in here every weekend, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?

{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.} Gospel 

Mark 12:28b-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

~  * ~ * ~ 

Think

Love God. Serve God; everything is in that.

~St. Clare of Assisi

Pray

Dear Lord,

Show me. Show me how to love you with my whole heart, with all my understanding and with all my strength.  And then, show me the neighbor you've given to me to love.

Act

Who is the neighbor who is hard to love? Where is the struggle in loving another as you love God? Bring it to God; lay it at the foot of the cross and ask the God who is love to show you how to love.

~ * ~ * ~

and this intention:

For the repose of the soul of Barbara Curtis.

~ * ~ * ~

And this, too:

O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments. We thank you for the privilege Of being able to organize ourselves politically And of knowing that political loyalty Does not have to mean disloyalty to you. We thank you for your law, Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged  And recognized as higher than any human law. We thank you for the opportunity that this election  year puts before us, To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote, But to influence countless others to vote, And to vote correctly. Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened. Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation, Their response to you requires that they be politically active. Awaken your people to know that they are  not called to be a sect fleeing the world But rather a community of faith renewing the world. Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer  Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth; That the same eyes that read your Word Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot, And that they do not cease to be Christians When they enter the voting booth. Awaken your people to a commitment to justice To the sanctity of marriage and the family, To the dignity of each individual human life, And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin, And not one moment later. Lord, we rejoice today That we are citizens of your kingdom. May that make us all the more committed To being faithful citizens on earth. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Archbishop Chaput on the election.

Cardinal Dolan on Religious Freedom