Daily Prayer

 

Day 20, Lord, purify my heart and body to serve you whole heartedly

   There are so many ways to pray to God. But God looks into our heart, He test us how much love we put in our heart for Him while praying. While praying if we kneel and pray, we will be blessed with humility. “We are brought low in all the earth, this day for our sins” St Boneventure wrote in his Book: Holiness of Life. We should surrender ourselves, bend low, down to earth. The earth is the foot stool of God, and we are not ashamed to bend the knee in front of our Lord. Psalmist says: Psalm 95:6–7 (NJB): Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us! 7 For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. Daniel also prayed  three times by kneeling towards east(Jerusalem)Daniel 6:11 (NJB): When Daniel heard that the document had been signed, he retired to his house. The windows of his upstairs room faced towards Jerusalem. Three times each day, he went down on his knees, praying and giving praise to God as he had always done. Daniel never afraid of anyone, but he trust in God. He has the faith that, God will always hear his prayer. 

Daily Prayer

 

Day 19, Lord, let us stay awake to pray, let Your spirit guide us

   The night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus again encountered with his Father. Jesus has to obey his Father’s will and to establish the everlasting covenant by giving his life as a sacrifice. The disciples have heavy eyes while Jesus was praying in the late night; they could not stay awake to pray with him. Jesus was so distressed in the Spirit; he began to feel terror and anguish. Jesus asked the disciples. so you had not the strength to stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake, and pray not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing enough but the human nature is weak.’ Matt. 26: 41.  While we are praying we become one body and soul with God. It will be an inseparable communion with Father, Son and Spirit. Many saints will accompany us and we can experience this communion of saints and God will reveal them to us. ‘That’s why the one hour prayer in the midnight is very important. He prayed earnestly with full of grievances to submit all the souls to the Father from the beginning to the end because he is Alpha and Omega. ‘In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.’ Lk. 22: 44. His sweat drops became drops of blood. He accepted all the darkness, which is encountering our mind and body.

Daily Prayer

Day 18, Lord, teach us the secrets of Your Kingdom. 

   When we are in union with Christ, God will open His Divine door of Mysteries in front or us to get the inheritance in His eternity. We will be His children and He will be our Father. According to measure of His grace we will be able to do all the goodness to build up His Kingdom in our midst. Then what we need from this world, nothing! He is having the tremendous wealth in His most rich Kingdom. God will reveal the mysteries of the wealth in His Kingdom and the world of Satan; ‘I shall give you the secret treasures and hidden hoards of wealth, so that will know that I am Yahweh, who call you by your name, the God of Israel’. Is. 45: 3. No body can count or measure His wealth. God gave us His most precious possession that is His only Son Jesus our Lord. That’s why God is asking us to call Him or pray to Him till He answers our petitions. ‘Call to me I will answer you; I will tell you great secrets of which you know nothing.’ Jer. 33: 3. We know nothing about His eternal secrets because we are in flesh and his kingdom is not of this world. This Jesus told Pilate: John 18:36 (NJB): ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.’ 

   ‘Prayer is the desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man but brought about by God’s grace. As St Paul says: For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be put into words. If God gives to someone the gift of such prayer, it is a gift of imperishable riches, a heavenly food that satisfies the spirit. Whoever tastes that food catches fire and his soul burns for ever with desire for the Lord’. The excerpts from an homily of St John Chrysostum

Daily Prayer

 

Day 17, Lord, wash away my hidden faults, from pride persevere Your servant

  Two things are very important to lead a prayer life that is, zeal and constancy. Always be joyful whatever comes in our life and persevere in hardship. ‘In the service of the Lord, work not half-heartedly but with consciousness and an eager spirit. Be joyful in hope, persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly.’ Rom. 12: 11-12. If we can cry bitterly with tears for our sins through humility and we are blessed by God with that gift of prayer which He will entrust to us as He gave to all His saints. We should pray like this: Lord, ‘Wash away my hidden faults. And from pride persevere your servant, never let it be my master. So shall I be above reproach, free from grave sin. May the words of my mouth always find favour, And the whispering of my heart, In your presence, Yahweh, My rock, my redeemer’ Ps. 19: 12-14. The pride should not be our master when we lead a spiritual life. A clear conscience should be there to understand our weakness and failures. ‘I have conversed this present day with all good conscience before God until this present day.’ Acts. 23:1 This will make us to be humble in front of God and men.  A pure soul never use so many words in front our Lord instead she will cry or lament for her sins.

Daily Prayer

Midnight Prayer

 Day 16, Lord, let me awake in the watch of the night to praise You!

 We should have the zeal to do the prayer in the midnight. Br. Victor gave advice to Bros., to do the holy hour in the midnight. Praying in the midnight is a great virtue, by constant prayer we will be blessed with this grace to pray. But not to be dishearten from this. Jesus understands this and we have to keep our thirst to do such kind of sacrificial prayer. First of all we should try to wake up in the middle of the night between 1 and 2’o clock. Psalmist says about this mystery: ‘My eyes are awake before each watch of the night, to ponder your promise.’ Ps. 119: 148. While getting up praise God with one or two Psalms with a great devotion with love towards our Lord. Continue it for few days, then our Lord will increase our faith and zeal towards Him. According to our Constancy in prayer, God will increase the timing of our prayer by His tremendous grace. This is the best time to meditate the Word of God and ponder into our heart. We have to train ourselves to that kind of heart and will; to serve the Lord with a great zeal. Psalmist again says: Psalm 102:1–2 (NJB): 1” Yahweh, hear my prayer, let my cry for help reach you. 2 Do not turn away your face from me  when I am in trouble; bend down and listen to me, when I call, be quick to answer me!” Our Lord will listen our prayer and He is very quick to answer our prayers

 

Daily Prayer

 

Day 15, Lord, make me humble, let me find favour in Your presence

  So humble ourselves in the presence of our Lord. Br Victor in a talk told that, meditate Sirach. 3: 18 thousand times before you pray or open the Bible to meditate the Word of God. ‘The greater you are, the more humbly you should behave, and then you will find favour with the Lord.’ Sir.3: 18. The humility is the most difficult virtue. The humble will accept all the persecutions gladly without retaliating. The humble never expect any reward after doing good to others. The humble always try to serve others wholeheartedly. The humility always comes from our heart and act by the will of God. The humble will be satisfied in the content with what they have. ‘Religion, of course, does bring large profits, but only to those who are content with what they have. The humble never will be greedy for anything and never proud in their heart.’1Timo. 6:6. Then God will carry our all our burdens, sins and all other ailments in our daily life. Be like a beggar in front of Him. Jesus asks us to learn from him the gentleness and humbleness. ‘Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for hour souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’Mattl.11:28-30. If we trust in Him, he will guide us to get the strength to carry all the worries and tribulations in a smiling way. When we pray to God in strong faith he will provide us whatever we ask.

Daily Prayer

 

Day 14,  Lord, day and night, let me hear Your Holy Word

  Let us be silent in nature while praying and wait for the Lord. He will give the  words through His Spirit to pray because the Spirit is inspiring us and interceding for us in front of God. Romans 8:26–27 (NJB): 26 And as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words; 27 and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God’s holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God. Then again be silent and meditate the mercies of our Lord towards us sinners. Stop our thoughts and worries of this contemporary world; all this will decay. Our worries and doubts will be hindrance to approach our Lord.

  How our Lord will help us no one knows. He will be there in all our troubles and tribulations Wisdom of Solomon 18:21 (NJB): ’for a blameless man hurried to their defence. Wielding the weapons of his sacred office, prayer and expiating incense, he confronted Retribution and put an end to the plague, thus showing that he was your servant.’ Jesus is coming, the spotless and blameless to redeem us by his sacred office, the prayer and incense. How wonderful it is if our Lord hear our prayers as well as when we hear His voice, His Word.