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…is a beautiful thing. Sometimes it is just
in the moment. You write a prayer, or maybe, if you’re
not a writer, you compose a prayer and jot it down, and
it is moving. It expresses your feelings completely; in
a few well put together words it speaks your inner most
needs to the One in whom you place Hope; the saying of
it puts a chill down your spine and in offering up this
plea or praise you feel that God has received it – and
more importantly, accepts it.
A year later you come across a scrap of
paper in a draw. You decide to read it before throwing
it in the garbage. As your mind takes in the first few
words you remember that this is that wonderful prayer,
it is that petition you sent to the Lord that He
answered – how could you have even thought to throw it
away - so you eagerly read on.
Something is wrong.
This is not the masterful work you produced
that the Almighty accepted with such immediacy. This
must have been a first draft, or, more likely, something
preceding a first attempt because his collection of
words is pathetic; it is utterly meaningless dribble.
But, no.
You are holding the prayer which God Graced you for its
offering. A primordial scream, scribbled and
incomprehensible is all that is left of the solemn
supplication which the Most High received and responded
to instantly. What language were you really speaking
when you prayed this prayer? A language that translated
into English not at all, obviously.
There is a language between God and man that
transcends man’s concept of language, one must
conclude. A language that is not uttered nor heard with
tongue or ear, nor is it articulated in our minds; it
defied human senses, therefore it transcends the flesh
and must be something of the spirit. For it was with
the Spirit that God answered it with His Grace.
This may be what we should expect when we
pray for guidance, when we seek the presence of God. We
pray so hard for answers or guidance and then lay in the
darkness of our rooms, reclined with ears alert for and
utterance from God. We kneel before the Eucharist
screaming out with our heart for Him to tell
us…something; our brain whirring: “Did I hear something,
a footfall, a sigh; did I feel a breeze, do I feel a
presence?” All the while, it may be, that what we are
waiting for with our humanity, should be expected
through our spirit. Isn’t our spirit our imaging of the
Creator?
Then there is the prayer that is written in
human language and understood in a manner so
conventional to us that it goes without saying.
Certainly, when a brilliant thought is
composed and inscribed with talent – human or God
inspire – it can be re-read many times, and not only
keep its elegance over multiple readings, but open new
doorways of understanding with each new reading.
Such a prayer can, like the Gospel itself,
give new understanding or enlightenment with each
subsequent reading; it can talk to the reader’s present
condition or situation with insight that was not seen
there before.
The Magnificat Meditation of the Day
for January 4, 2008 entitled Beholding the Lamb of God,
which was written by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, is a
case in point. Each time I read it I realize that I am
fervently praying it, and I want God to know that it is
me praying, not just reading the writing of St.
Elizabeth. “Yes, Lord,” my heart calls out, “these are
her words, but it is my prayer to you.”
So perfectly does she look at moments of His
Crucifixion, so beautifully does she turn them into high
prayer. She states firstly Christ’s renunciation of his
own life to The Father’s will. Then, acknowledges his
sacrifice for each of us individually, saying it thus,
Lord Jesus, who was born for us in a stable, lived
for us a life of pain and sorrow and died for us upon a
cross…
Here, she takes familiar quotes of Jesus on the Cross
and brilliantly turns them into beautiful petitions, she
prays: [Lord Jesus] say for us in the hour of
death, “Father, forgive,” and to your Mother, “Behold
your child.” Say to us, “This day you shall be
with me in paradise.
If I have a moment before my death, what few words could
be more powerful, more relevant to pray? Implicitly
they affirm belief and faith, and openly acknowledge my
need for forgiveness. These are Hope-filled words.
In closing, Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton petitions
our Savior, then makes a poignant observation and speaks
beautifully about a reality, our days pass quickly
along, soon all will be consummated for us. Yes,
Mother Seton, at that moment of my death all will be
consummated for me. Knowing that, I ask myself, what
will I do in the very next moments to affect my
eternity?
Finally, she paraphrases Jesus’ own final words with,
to your hands we commend our spirits.
Below is this beautiful prayer without my comments.
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