A Prayer at Midday

The day has been breathless, Lord. Now I stop for a few moments and I wonder: Is the signature of the holy over the rush of the day? Or have I bolted ahead, anxiously trying to solve problems that do not belong to me?
Holy Spirit of God, please show me:
How to work relaxed,
How to make each task an offering of faith,
How to view interruptions as doors to service,
How to see each person as my teacher in things eternal.
In the name of him who always worked unhurried. Amen

Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart

A Daily Prayer

Teach us, good Lord,
To serve you as you deserve:
To give, and not to count the cost;
To fight, and not to heed the wounds;
To toil, and not to see for rest;
To labour, and not ask for any reward,
Except that of knowing that we do your holy will;

Ignatius Loyola

Cairns for a journey

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart…
Try to love the questions themselves…
Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given because you would not be able to live them…
Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers

Jim Cotter, Prayer at Night

Safety Advice

Do NOT ride in automobiles: they cause 20% of all fatal accidents.
Do NOT stay home: 17% of all accidents do occur in the home.
Do NOT walk on the streets or sidewalks: 14% of all accidents happen to pedestrians.
Do NOT travel by air, rail, or water: 16% of all accidents happen on these.
Only .001% of all deaths occur in worship services in church, and these are related to previous physical disorders. Hence, the safest place for you to be at any time is church. [Bible study is safe, too. The percentage there is even less.]
Go to church! IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Speech

Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both.
- John Andrew Holmes -

A Formation Prayer

O Lord, my God.
Form me more fully into your likeness. Use the circumstances and interactions of this day to form your will in me.
From the frustrations of this day form peace.
From the joys of this day form strength.
From the struggles of this day form courage.
From the beauties of this day form love.
In the name of Jesus Christ, who is all peace and strength and courage and love.
Amen.

Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart

Be the Gardener of My Soul

Spirit of the Living God, be the Gardener of my soul. For so long I have been waiting, silent and still – experiencing a winter of the soul. But now, in the strong name of Jesus Christ I dare to ask:
Clear away the dead growth of the past,
Break up the hard clods of custom and routine,
Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge,
Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word,
Cultivate and water and tend my heart,
Until new life buds and opens and flowers. Amen.

From Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart

Consultant's Report

Memorandum
To: Jesus, Son of Joseph, Carpenter's Shop, Nazareth
From: Jordan Management Consultants, Jerusalem
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organisation. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; we have not only run the results through the computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.
It is our opinion that most of your nominees are lacking the background, educational and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel it our duty to tell you that Matthew has been black listed by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus have radical leanings, and both registered high on the manic-depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, has a keen business mind and possesses contacts in high places. He is highly motivated and ambitious. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.
We wish you every success in your new venture.

To be truthful

In order to be truthful
We must do more than speak the truth.
We must also hear the truth.
We must also receive truth.
We must also act upon truth.
We must also search for truth.
The difficult truth.
Within us and around us.
We must devote ourselves to truth.
Otherwise we are dishonest
And our lives are mistaken.
God grant us the strength and the courage
To be truthful.
Amen.

from The Prayer Tree by Michael Leunig

Becoming Spiritual

In First Things First, A. Roger Merrill tells of a business consultant who decided to landscape his grounds. He hired a woman with a doctorate in horticulture who was extremely knowledgeable.
Because the business consultant was very busy and traveled a lot, he kept emphasising to her the need to create his a garden in a way that would require little or no maintenance on his part. He insisted on automatic sprinklers and other labour-saving devices.
Finally she stopped and said, “There’s one thing you need to deal with before we go any further. If there’s no gardener, there’s no garden!”
There are no labour saving devices for growing a garden of spiritual value. Becoming a person of spiritual fruitfulness requires time, attention and care.

The Truth Shop

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the name of the shop: THE TRUTH SHOP.
The salesgirl was very polite: What type of truth did I wish to purchase, partial or whole? The whole truth, of course. No deceptions for me, no defences, no rationalisations. I wanted my truth plain and unadulterated. She waved me on to another side of the store.
The salesman there pointed to the price tag. "The price is very high, sir," he said. "What is it?" I asked, determined to get the whole truth, no matter what it cost. "Your security, sir," he answered.
I came away with a heavy heart. I still need the safety of my unquestioned beliefs.

from Anthony de Mello, The Song of the Bird

Another Leunig Prayer

Dear God, we pray for another way of being: another way of knowing.
Across the difficult terrain of our existence we have attempted to build a highway and in so doing have lost our footpath. God lead us to our footpath: Lead us there where in simplicity we may move at the speed of natural creatures and feel the earth's love beneath our feet. Lead us there where step-by-step we may feel the movement of creation in our hearts. And lead us there where side-by-side we may feel the embrace of the common soul. Nothing can be loved at speed. God lead us to the slow path; to the joyous insights of the pilgrim; another way of knowing: another way of being. Amen.

from Leunig, The Prayer Tree

The Power of Disability

It has been said that if you can't get what you want, you should want what you get. The wisdom of this idea is aptly illustrated by a story told to me by a friend during our recent holiday.
Many years ago it was the custom to hold annual "Hiring Fairs". At these fairs, farm workers offered themselves and their abilities to farmers for a mutually agreed price.
One such fair was held in Totnes in Devonshire. A certain farmer unavoidably arrived late at the fair and found that those who had arrived before him had selected the workers of their choice. There were only three workers remaining who had not been offered employment. Each of them had a particular disability. One had a wooden leg, one had a hump-back, and the other a "drag-foot". The farmer was delighted, promptly agreed a price with them and took them into his employment.
He had recently ploughed a large field in which to plant potatoes. His hired men were a god-send, for he had been quick to see the advantages of their relative disabilities. The man with the wooden leg was to walk up and down the rows in the field. Everywhere he went he would leave a hole in the soil. He was followed by the man with the hump-back, who would plant each potato in the holes made by the man with the wooden leg. Finally the man with the drag-foot was to follow them and cover the potatoes which had been planted. In this way, the entire field was planted to the farmer's satisfaction. He learned that a person's disability is his own special talent.
Blessed is the community that discovers how to use each member's disabilities as talents!

Finding Happiness

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.

- Agnes Repplier (1855-1950)

True Freedom

When I want to be free at all costs, I am already beginning to bind myself.
When I pursue my own wishes, I throw myself in chains.
I do what I don’t want to do; I am at my own mercy.
And when I finally consider myself free, Freedom becomes a burden
Because I must make decisions Which I am unable to make
And my freedom turns into a new prison. I can only find freedom
In the ropes that bind me to You.

- Ulrich Schaffer

Car Repair

An auto mechanic received a repair order that read: "Check for clunking sound when going around corners." Taking the car out for a test drive, he made a right turn, and a moment later he heard a 'clunk.' He then made a left turn and again heard a 'clunk.' Back at the shop he opened the car's trunk, and soon discovered the problem. Promptly he returned the repair order to the service manager with the notation, "Removed bowling ball from trunk".

Solitude

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone; all leave it alone

- Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)

Ageing Well

The Study of Adult Development has tracked more than 800 American men and women for 60-80 years. The study concludes that:
* interaction with good people facilitates an enjoyable old age
* alcohol abuse consistently predicts unsuccessful old age
* learning to play and create after retirement and learning to gain younger friends are important
* a sense of humour, learning from your children and letting people are common elements in a happy old age.

(published in the Melbourne Age Mar 18 2002)

Blessed Absence?

The banquet was about to begin when the master of ceremonies was informed that the clergyman invited to give the blessing was unable to attend. He asked the main speaker if he would oblige, and the man agreed. He began, "There being no clergyman present, let us thank God."

Out of the mouths...

A woman was trying hard to get the sauce to come out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her four-year old daughter to answer the phone. "It's the minister, Mommy," the child said to her mother. Then she added., "Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle."

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela

Prayer of Confession (from Northern Ireland)

Lord, Jesus Christ, you are the way of peace. Come into the brokenness of our lives and our world with your healing love. Help us to be willing to bow before you in true repentance, and to bow to one another in real forgiveness. By the fire of your Holy Spirit, melt our hard heart, consume the pride and prejudice the separate us. Fill us, O Lord, with your love which casts out our fear, and draw us together in the unity that you call us to share as God’s people. Amen.

A True Story from Africa:

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labour ward; but in spite of all we could do she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator. (We had no electricity to run an incubator.) We also had no special feeding facilities.
Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed.
As in the West it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. "All right," I said, "put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. "Your job is to keep the baby warm."
The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.
During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God," she prayed, "send us a water bottle. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon."
While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of a corollary, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?"
As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen?" I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything. The Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home.
Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. l felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting.
Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly coloured, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas-that would make a batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the.....could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out-yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could. Ruth was in the front row of, the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted. Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?"
That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child-five months before-in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it "that afternoon."
"Before they call, I will answer!" Isaiah 65:24"

Helen Roseveare – Give me this Mountain

A Pope's Prayer

To you, Creator of nature and humanity, of truth and beauty, I pray:
Hear my voice, for it is the voice of the victims of all wars and violence among individuals and nations.
Hear my voice, for it is the voice of all children who suffer and will suffer when people put their faith in weapons and war.
Hear my voice when I beg you to instill into the hearts of all human beings the wisdom of peace, the strength of justice, and the joy of fellowship.
Hear my voice, for I speak for the multitudes in every country and in every period of history who do not want war and are ready to walk the road of peace.
Hear my voice and grant insight and strength so that we may always respond to hatred with love, to injustice with total dedication to justice, to need with the sharing of self, and to war with peace.
O God, hear my voice, and grant unto the world your everlasting peace.

(Prayer by Pope John Paul II)

I May Never See Tomorrow

I may never see tomorrow; there's no written guarantee
And things that happened yesterday belong to history.
I cannot predict the future, I cannot change the past.
I have just the present moments. I must treat it as my last.

I must use this moment wisely for it soon will pass away,
and be lost forever, as part of yesterday.
I must exercise compassion, help the fallen to their feet
Be a friend unto the friendless, make an empty life complete.

The unkind things I do today may never be undone.
And friendships that I fail to win may nevermore be won.
I may not have another chance on bended knees to pray,
and I thank God with a humble heart for giving me this Day.
Author Unknown

A Prayer

Dear God, we pray for another way of being: another way of knowing.
Across the difficult terrain of our existence we have attempted to build a highway and in so doing have lost our footpath. God lead us to our footpath: Lead us there where in simplicity we may move at the speed of natural creatures and feel the earth's love beneath our feet. Lead us there where step-by-step we may feel the movement of creation in our hearts. And lead us there where side-by-side we may feel the embrace of the common soul. Nothing can be loved at speed. God lead us to the slow path; to the joyous insights of the pilgrim; another way of knowing: another way of being. Amen.

from Leunig, The Prayer Tree

Who Are YOU?

There is a tale from tsarist Russia about a priest who was walking along minding his own business when a royal guard stopped him at gun point. The guard demanded to know: 'What is your name? Why are you here, and where are you going?' The priest gazed quizzically at the soldier and then asked, 'How much do they pay you to do this work?' The soldier, somewhat taken aback, replied, 'Why, three kopeks a month.' 'I’ll pay you 30 kopeks a month if you will stop me every week and ask me these same questions,’ the priest said.

Real Spirituality

Spirituality is not meant to be a panacea for human pain. Nor is it a substitute for critical conscience. Spirituality energises the soul to provide what the world lacks. Spirituality plunges us into life with an eye to meaning and purpose. When it is authentic, it is never an invitation to withdraw from life. Real spirituality, like Jacob wrestling with an angel, takes life in both hands and grapples with it.

- Joan D Chichester, 'Heart of Flesh'

God Never Leaves Us

One tribe of native Americans had a unique practice for training young braves. On the night of a boy's thirteenth birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But on this night he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of thick woods. By himself. All night long.
Every time a twig snapped, he probably visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he wondered what more sinister sound it masked. No doubt it was a terrifying night for many.
After what seemed like an eternity, the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was the boy's father. He had been there all night long.
Can you think of any better way for a child to learn how God allows us to face the tests of life? God is always present with us. God's presence is unseen, but it is more real than life itself.

Brain vs Brawn

The strong young man at the construction site was bragging that he could out do anyone in a feat of strength. He made a special case of making fun of one of the older workmen. After several minutes, the older worker had had enough. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" he said. "I will bet a week's wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that building that you won't be able to wheel back."
"You're on, old man," the young guy replied.
The old man reached out and grabbed the wheelbarrow by the handles. Then he turned to the young man and said, "All right. Get in."

Happy New Year

It was a wonderful evening seeing in the New Year, watching the fireworks erupt over Melbourne's Docklands, as we welcomed in the "Bond Year" - 007.

A happy new year to you all!