Catechist Prayer

August

Our Heavenly Source of Love,
who created sunsets and sunrises
of equal pleasure,
teach us to understand
that your light is always there.
Even when clouds obscure it
and eyes squint refusal,
you are with us.
Teach our souls to turn toward the light
like flowers that turn to the rays
that nourish color and smell.
We confess we cannot earn
the light we need
for our personal blossoming.
Bring us into the warmth of your light
and we will dance like sunbeams
and rejoice in you, our God. Amen.

October

God of graciousness and love,
I pause to become aware that you are present
within and around me.
Your loving grace fills me now
and strengthens my soul to see what is good
and true
and beautiful
and loving.
Help me, I pray,
to allow your powerful presence to fill me
and increase my ability to see and hear you.
Guide my every action today
so that I might be earnest in my search for truth
and fair in how I treat those around me.
Let your grace fill me now. Amen.

November

God of life and love,
We left our hearts to you
in praise and thanksgiving.
We bless you for the goodness and beauty of creation,
for the rhythm of sunrises and sunsets,
for the patterns of color
and texture of growing things
that sustain our hope in the abundance
of what is to come.
We bless you for the landscape of our lives,
for our successes and failures,
for the friends and enemies
who weave a mosaic through our horizon.
We praise you for all your works.
We ask for grateful hearts and a spirit of generosity.
Free us from being stingy
with our words of praise and affirmation
and our acts of forgiveness.
Open us to the abundance of life and love you set
before us. Amen.

December

Promised One of God,
stir within me
the joy which caused your cousin, John,
to leap in his mother’s womb.
Ignite within me the
fervor of faith that prompted
Mary to say yes to your plan of salvation.
Enlighten me with the wisdom
of Elizabeth who recognized the
blessedness of young Mary.
Come, Joy of Jesse’s root,
fill my spirit with
the contagious joy of deep faith,
holy wisdom,
and hope in your promised return. Amen.

January

God of all Wisdom,
you have not made our world dull or chaotic,
but arranged time in days and seasons,
and have given all creatures patterns by which
to live.
You have instilled goodness and truth
within humankind
so that societies can attain justice
and live in harmony.
Allow me to read the signs of your truth
in the world around me.
Give me your guidance in the
movement of my own soul.
Show me the way to life,
not through written maps and books,
but through your law inscribed in my heart.
Amen.

February

Jesus, Lord and Giver of Life,
we stand before you in humble awe
of your divine power.
But we also stand with you as sister and brother,
knowing you have borne our suffering
and lived through our human frailty.
We come to you now asking for insight and wisdom
to see the grand scheme of creation
as it unfolds each day,
formed by earthquake and volcano,
emerging from beyond the sea,
and engaging us from beyond the stars.
Grant us the grace to move through our lives,
in good times and in bad,
with trust in your unfolding love. Amen.

March

God, whose mercy is infinite,
please forgive our fear of the cross.
We see the needs of so many
and the cries of the poor
but are afraid for ourselves
and the price of love.
Give us the courage to love
without careful accounting,
with our eyes only on your children
and our ears turned only to your words,
So that we may follow the example of Jesus
regardless of what it costs,
trusting that you who created us for love
will complete our love with your grace.
We ask this through Christ, who loved us first.
Amen.

April

O Risen Lord, let us join
with all of creation, singing our alleluias,
for you have conquered evil, suffering, and death by
your own death and resurrection.
Enter our hearts and enlighten our minds
that we might find your
transforming fire of love burning brightly
in our lives—changing our sorrow to joy,
our despair to hope,
our fears to faith.
Let us rejoice by proclaiming the Good News of your
dying and rising
embedded with the human heart,
through the power of your Spirit.
Amen.

May

Loving God,
you fill my life with joy.
Like Mary who sang her Magnificat to you,
my soul, too, rejoices in your love.
I praise you and I thank you
for the countless ways you have blessed me.
May I always show my joy
in action,
by loving and caring for
my sisters and brothers in need.
Help me to think of others
before seeking my own happiness.
Show me how to fill my days with gladness,
as I walk with Jesus,
your Son and my Savior. Amen.

June 3, 2009

Loving God, my life is filled with so many good things,
with challenge at work,
with opportunities at home,
with possibilities to learn and grow.
I thank you for the gifts I have received
and ask you for the wisdom to manage them.
Help me resist the temptation to pile on
more and more good things
until what I truly love is lost from sight.
Give me the courage to throw out the things I do not need,
so that I may in time uncover
my own true self
and my deepest happiness
which is you. Amen.