A Poem When All the World Seems Dark

You wake up with a hopeful heart, thankful for a new day that dawned. 

You may or may not feel the aches on your joints or the pain in your bones.

You may bounce out of bed or shuffle slowly out of it.

The weight of your matter puts a dot of gray on your otherwise sunrise-full morning.

You may or may not be a social media denizen.

But there are relatives to touch base with, friends' lives to check on.

Then the virtual world intrudes on your solitude.

And a clump of ugly and angry smear your lanscape.

You may attend to the matters of living no matter your circumstances.

For you are still living, for you are still breathing, right?

Yet you hold it in and try to stop the question

Is this really the way the only way to live?

You may retain your peace, although it may seem rare these days.

And after lunch and by the afternoon that peace may well have been destroyed.

By news, goings-on and the world's inevitable turning.

But sorrowfully turning, turning it seems to darkness.

But here is a secret -- the day is not lost.

Here is another -- the world is not dark.

It is only your mind and your matter that are lost and dark.

For there is One who never fails to win the day and light up the world.

Do you know Him?  He is the king of all creation, your God.

Does it make sense now?  Your mind and your matter is safe in His hands. 

Do you see it?  The day may seem lost, but it is still His day that He created.

Do you realize now?  The world may seem dark as it turns, but it is still turning by His will.

So tomorrow, wake up with a hopeful heart, thankful for a new day that dawns. 

Your God reigns over everything.

-o-

A Birthday Prayer

Dear God,

Turning another year older is a precious blessing.  I am most thankful to you for adding one more year to my life.  When I look back to the years in my life, I could clearly see your hand behind all of my life's writing.  You are indeed the author of it. 

There were many good days in it, and there were also many that were sad.  People came and went.  Many people stayed.  Hopes were fulfilled and dashed.  Achievements were unlocked, be they big or small.  Buckets of tears were shed but there were also tons of laughter.  In all those threads of my life, you were behind them all, my beloved God.

Then there were those serendipitous moments when things happened by chance.  Random events that accrued to my advantage.  They clearly were not because I did it by myself or because of who I am or because of what I did.  It was all you, my God.

If I sum up all those years, there were more color and adventure and excitement in that total than there were pain or sadness or despair.  Mostly there was joy.  And the feeling that I was always loved.  In my baddest, saddest, meanest, ugliest, I was always loved.  By You.

I pray that you grant me more years of this joyous adventure, my God.  Please always be by my side, hold my hand, and protect me as I venture forth.

Love,

Your child

 

Meditation Prayer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Merciful Jesus Christ, I see in Your Most Sacred Heart the sweetest light of Your living fire.

I beg of You to bless me with a portion of that sweet light and of that divine fire, to undeceive and inflame my heart. 

I still recall those days and hours of my life when my heart was most inflamed with love of God.

With sweet and yet bitter recollection, I now compare the tranquility of my heart then 

with that which I enjoy at present.  

I ask pardon for having allowed that holy love for Your Heart, the sweetness and peace of which You have formerly made me taste, to be extinguished by my dissipation. 

Grant me Your Grace to disengage myself from things that impede me to increase Your divine love in me, and consequently the impediment also to the acquisition and increase of the happiness of my heart even in this life.

Amen.

Adapted from:

Rest in the Heart of Jesus with this beautiful meditation

The Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, did promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that He may perfect in my soul the work of Your grace and Your love.

Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal.

The Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth.

The Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining Heaven.

The Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You, and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation.

The Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints.

The Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable.

The Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him.

Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit 

Amen.