Copyright (c) 2010 Society of the Little Flower All rights reserved. http://www.littleflower.org Father's Prayers en-us 7/31/2010 12:00:02 AM 60 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/31/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 26: 11-16, 24 Gospel Reading: Matthew 14: 1-12 Prayer: God who speaks, thunders and whispers in our human experience, Your prophets always get in trouble. Jeremiah is threatened because he speaks the truth the people do not want to hear. John the Baptist is beheaded for speaking embarrassing truth. Sometimes, Your truth is dangerous for us, as we listen to You and experience it in our hearts. Make us prayerful prophets who listen to You in all the subtle and loud ways You speak - and who echo your truth about life, dignity, justice and forgiveness to all we meet. May our words, actions, attitudes and silences this day speak of Your presence in the people and experiences of our journey. As Mary, your Mother, helped save Rome from invasion, may She protect us from small- mindedness and mean-spiritedness which invades our righteous hearts, and excludes or destroys any of God's children. We ask You this in the Name of Jesus Who is Your Word spoken in our midst. Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/30/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 26: 1-9 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 54-58 Prayer: Like Jeremiah, Lord, I am reluctant to speak Your message. People misunderstand and I thrive on human respect. Why is Your message always so challenging? Why is it always about conversion of our lives? Is it because You made us in Your image and You really do want us to reflect You in our world? Sometimes we are so jaded. The familiar becomes mundane and loses its mystery and precious specialness. Help us not to be like the people of Nazareth who were not open to Jesus because they thought they knew him. Purify us again so that we do not miss Your presence in the people we are most familiar with. InSpirit us today, so that we are not blinded by familiarity nor paralyzed by misunderstanding. Therese, it must have been frightening when you received the “last rites” this day in 1897. Was it the signal that medical and Church people had given up and were preparing you for the final journey to God? The grace of the sacrament must have helped you in those last dark weeks to know that God was still present even though you experienced His absence. Give us your faith, Therese, to believe even when all seems dark and empty. Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/29/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 18:1-6 Gospel Reading: John 11: 19-27 Prayer: Lord Jesus, you loved Martha. She offered you hospitality so many times. So many wonderful meals you shared in her home. As your close friend she also chided you when you spent too much time talking with her sister Mary - and when you showed up late for Lazarus' death. She had great faith and love. Martha reflects Your Divine Hospitality - how You, O God, always want to spend time with us, to feed us, and to be there in times of trial and difficulty to manifest Your life-giving Love. Help each of us Lord, to trust Your unconditional hospitality - Your welcoming arms - Your wonderful meals! Like Martha, enable us to welcome you into the inner sanctums of our heart and spirit, and be hospitable dwelling places for your Spirit and presence.  Lord, this day you called St. Therese's father, Louis Martin to heaven. He had shown her great and compassionate love, and manifested Your Fatherly love. Instill in us grateful hearts for our Dads - for the men You brought into our lives to show us who You are as "Abba" - our heavenly Dad! Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/28/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 15: 10, 16-21 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 44-46 Prayer: Why is your friendship always a struggle, Holy God? We try so hard to be faithful, and yet pain and struggle continue. Sometimes I want it all to be easy following you, instead of digging into fields of my reality and letting go of things to gain your sparkling presence. You are so elusive sometimes, Beloved One! Is this the way you tease and allure us, to test and strengthen our love? I want to be free of all sin, pain, suffering, struggle and misunderstanding, and yet I also feel impelled to speak your Word. Purge the inconsistencies in me, Lord. Empower me to surrender what I must to gain you as the treasure of my heart. You are a pearl of great price! Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/27/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 14: 17-22 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 36-43 Prayer: You are the eternal God of all creation! To You alone can we look for life. We ruin ourselves and our world. You have brought us low and revealed our emptiness that we might acknowledge You as the source of life and goodness. It is in You that we live and move and have our being. As the farmer and the seed in the soil of our lives, continue to grow, develop and expand within and among us. Gather us as part of Your fruitful harvest. May Your Word so transform us that we shine like the sun forever, reflecting Your glory. Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/26/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 13: 1-11 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 31-35 Prayer: Lord God, You gifted Mary with wonderful parents who taught her to be sensitive to the faithful dreams of God and to sacrifice to God's invitation. As grandparents of Jesus, they handed onto him the wisdom and wealth of life's experience. Our parents taught us to believe and trust and love. We reverence them as gifts from You - as people who loved us the best they knew how. Our grandparents handed on to us wisdom and the wealth of heritage. From these people you graced us with, we learned how to see and believe and hear the voice, presence and power of Your love. Give us grateful hearts and warm memories of our parents and grandparents, who reflect Your ancient and faithful love for each and all of us. Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/25/2010 First Scripture Reading: Genesis 18: 20-32 Second Scripture Reading: Colossians 2: 12-14 Gospel Reading: Luke 11: 1-13 Prayer: You love our interactive dependence on You, Life- giving God! As Abraham boldly bargained with You, teach us to interact with You with bold confidence and childlike expectations. We are grateful that Your soft heart is responsive to our pleas and faith. You are not some distant, hard-hearted, unchanging force. You are a Parent who loves us. Like our parents, You sacrifice so much to give us the best and create fullness. Teach us to treat each others the way You treat us. Give us the listening heart of a parent, so that we listen and respond to each other the way You listen and respond to us. Give us the daily bread of prayerful interaction with You. Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/24/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 7: 1-11 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 24-30 Prayer: God of Integrity, You must be troubled as You dig into the soil of our souls. Our duplicity must frustrate You, even as the duplicity of our ancestors did in Jeremiah's time. We want to be pious, church people, and yet we do not live lives of justice, forgiveness and compassion. We rely on our own resources, instead of You, even as we proclaim our dependence on you, as God. Why have we split religious ritual from the way we live? Breathe Your Spirit into us again - help us to reform our lives. Bring integrity to our worship and lives. Plant the seed of Your Word deep within us. Weed out attitudes and behaviors which cripple us and Your reign. We need Your discerning and reforming Spirit, Lord Jesus. Plant deep in us - break open dry clods - soften our hearts - breathe deep in us today! Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/23/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 3: 14-17 Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 18-23 Prayer: Till the soil of our hearts again, Eternal Gardener. We are such a mixture of hardened paths, cynical expectations, superficial enthusiasm, and soft, fertile soil. Yet You faithfully plant Your seed, for You forever call us back to life, that Your reign might blossom. We get so easily distracted by our needs, emptiness, disappointments and old behaviors. Till us again, Faithful Farmer, and plant Your seed to mysteriously and faithfully grow in us until we blossom as the garden of Your delight, fruitful in justice, weeded of iniquity, and flowering as the Jerusalem of Your dwelling. Let our growth be a tribute to Your life-giving power! Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.littleflower.org/prayers/index.asp?SCRIPTURE_DATE=7/22/2010 First Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 2: 1-3, 7-8, 12-13 Gospel Reading: John 20:1-2, 11-18 Prayer: God of love, Your passion for us is mirrored in St. Mary Magdalene's great love of Your Son. With a listening and searching heart she followed Jesus. Because she was always watching and searching for him, Jesus first appeared to her after His Resurrection in the garden as she wept. Pour forth Your Spirit of faith and love within me that I may have the passion of Mary Magdalene to always follow Jesus and to seek him amid all the joys and tragedies of my life. As St. Therese, the Little Flower, prayed, so I pray: "Since I have been given to understand the Love of the Heart of Jesus, I confess that all fear has been driven from my heart." Lord, like these great Saints, help me to be an instrument of Your Good News by my actions, words, and attitudes toward all the people I meet this day.