Category: Prayer

The Prompt Me to Pray Prayer

Posted: by Monica McConkey
 

Practicing the Presence of God

 
I have written about Br Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God  before. I think it’s a simple yet profound way to deepen our relationship with  Jesus, do small things with great love like St Therese and to grow in virtue
while we live out our Faith more consciously. I know I’d like to carry out my  vocation as Mom…graciously, with more patience and love, but I inevitably  become unravelled, and caught up in my often self-inflicted pressures of family  life.
The tasks set out for me in my vocation as a Mom, if carried out with love, are supposed to catapult me to holiness! This is the Mom’s School of Holiness.
 
I get flustered by the needs and demands of my family and the general chaos can be overwhelming. I’d like to carry out all my tasks prayerfully…with grace and patience and gentleness, but I know…and I know my kids would agree….I just can’t pull that off. Cooking, cleaning, training, managing, driving, shopping and never-ending laundry can be tedious, thankless and frustrating. Even if I could get it all done….grace and patience and gentleness slip away pretty fast!
 
…but I have an idea!

Continue reading “The Prompt Me to Pray Prayer” →

Prayer from the Heart

Posted: by Monica McConkey
Jesus, I want to know Your Truth AND live it. Jesus, I’m so easily distracted, so easily jostled, startled, untethered. Jesus, I worry about so many things.
Jesus, I want to pray. I want my words to be deliberate and heart-felt. I want to say what my heart feels and listen  intently and hear Your Words to me in my heart, with no doubt, no second guessing. I want to be focused and consumed by You and undistracted, unswayed.
I want to know You, bathe in Your Love, directed by Your Priorities and I want to receive Your Love and Your intentions for me, correctly, fully, purely.
I want to brim over with the fire of your Love, uncontained, unfettered, unlimited, unconstrained so that I can only reflect Your Love, enthusiastically and untarnished by human limitations.
I want to see…

Continue reading “Prayer from the Heart” →

A Peek in my Prayer Journal

Posted: by Monica McConkey

Because I long for a

flat on my face,

I surrender,

you are Mine,

ugly cry

come to Jesus

prayer

that heals me in an instant, evaporates my insecurity and fears, quiets the voices with way too much clout and explodes in my heart a huge amount of confidence in God’s Love for me..so much that it barely fits and changes me forever.

Noticeably. Continue reading “A Peek in my Prayer Journal” →

God Doesn’t Speak in Riddles

Posted: by Monica McConkey

bubble

 

I don’t like riddles…maybe because I’m dismal at them. Even if I’ve actually heard the riddle before, I probably won’t be able to spout the right answer, just like that. It just doesn’t excite me that much to be that kind of clever.

That said, I’ve just kind of realized that all this time, I’ve been assuming that God likes them. That God likes to talk to us in riddles and that He chooses to reveal His Plans for us in little broken pieces and clues and He waits with trepidation to see if we can actually figure out the big puzzle before us.

I don’t think that God speaks in riddles…unless maybe you like that sort of thing. Continue reading “God Doesn’t Speak in Riddles” →

The Case for Sacred Subtitles at Mass

Posted: by Monica McConkey

Sacred Subtitles for Mass

I’ve been going to Mass at least once a week for over 44 years. Even with the New Translation of 2011, the text of the Mass is pretty familiar…or is it?

old missal

The truth is, I don’t always hear the beautiful words of the Mass. It’s true I’m a little hearing impaired, but I think it’s quite possible for most of us to glaze over and not listen intently to the words of the priest. Heck, it seems like sometimes even the priest can glaze over a little bit and speed-read the prayers of the Mass, taking for granted the wisdom and the diligence of our Church to carefully choose these beautiful and meaningful words invoking the Holy Spirit, rounding up the Faithful and transubstantiating the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ out of mere bread and wine. Continue reading “The Case for Sacred Subtitles at Mass” →