Prayer and Meditation: Mercy

Various | 6/6/06 | Knitting a Conundrum

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Mercy

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

Psalm 103 1-4

God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God -- not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:4-10

Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:10


"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'   Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

 "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?  And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.'  Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

 And he said, "There was a man who had two sons;  and the younger of them said to his father, `Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. : Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living.  And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want.

" So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine.  And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything.  But when he came to himself he said, `How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants."'

"And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  And the son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'  But the father said to his servants, `Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry;  for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry."

Luke 15:4-24




Your love, O Lord, is an ocean,
An ocean of mercy waiting to quench our burning thirst,
Living water,
Water ready to purify the darkness of sin,
Water to quench the fires of hate,
Water to fill the parched aching within,
Water to wash us clean,
Living water streaming from the heart of a loving God,
Endless fount of mercy,
Gift beyond our imagining.

Open our hearts, O Lord,
and remind us how we need that living water,
how we will perish without the touch of that healing flow,
how life becomes a meaningless desert
when we wander separated from the living water of your presence.
Help us to realize
that when the burning thirst touches us,
it is only you who can quench that fire within,
and when touched by your living waters,
may we remember the giver,
and pass the gift on to those whose lives we touch,
this day, and always,
Amen.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Approach, my soul, the mercy seat,
Where Jesus answers prayer;
There humbly fall before His feet,
For none can perish there.

Thy promise is my only plea,
With this I venture nigh;
Thou callest burdened souls to Thee,
And such, O Lord, am I.

Bowed down beneath a load of sin,
By Satan sorely pressed,
By war without and fears within,
I come to Thee for rest.

Be Thou my Shield and hiding Place,
That, sheltered by Thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
And tell him Thou hast died!

O wondrous love! to bleed and die,
To bear the cross and shame,
That guilty sinners, such as I,
Might plead Thy gracious Name. “Poor tempest-tossèd soul, be still;
My promised grace receive”;
’Tis Jesus speaks—I must, I will,
I can, I do believe

John Newton

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Prayer and Meditation Ping!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel which he has granted them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

Isaiah 63:7

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for this beautiful meditation!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

O Lord
show your mercy to me
and gladden my heart.

I am like the man
on the way to Jericho
who was overtaken by robbers,
wounded,
and left for dead:
O Good Samaritan,
come to my aid.

I am like the sheep
that went astray:
O Good Shepherd,
seek me out and bring me home
in accord with your will.
Let me dwell in your house
all the days of my life
and praise you forever and ever.

--Saint Jerome, 342 - 420

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Great is the LORD,
and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall laud thy works to another,
and shall declare thy mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of thy majesty,
and on thy wondrous works, I will meditate.
Men shall proclaim the might of thy terrible acts,
and I will declare thy greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of thy abundant goodness,
and shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.
All thy works shall give thanks to thee, O LORD,
and all thy saints shall bless thee!
They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,
and tell of thy power,
to make known to the sons of men thy mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of thy kingdom.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and thy dominion endures throughout all generations.
The LORD is faithful in all his words,
and gracious in all his deeds.

Psalm 145:3-13

[Kitty Mittens]

Living water streaming from the heart of a loving God, Endless fount of mercy, Gift beyond our imagining.

Thank you for this Manna Today, and for Honoring the Lord with your Wonderful Ministry.

[anonymoussierra]

Thank you dear(((***Knitting A Conundrum***)))
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

Psalm 103 1-4"

"Pope John Paul II indicates that people sometimes say they don't know how to pray. "How to pray? This is a simple matter. I would say: Pray any way you like, so long as you do pray." You can pray the way your mother taught you; you can use a prayer book. Sometimes it takes courage to pray; but it is possible to pray, and necessary to pray. Whether from memory or a book or just in thought, it is all the same. See, John Paul II, The Way of Prayer, Crossroad Publishing Co. (1995). See also The Necessity of Prayer, by St. Alphonsus."

http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/prayer.html

"By Russell Shaw
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 10/13/05)

Meditation is the gateway to prayer. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross—Edith Stein, that is, Jewish convert, philosopher, and Carmelite nun, who died at Auschwitz in 1942—explained how that is so:

"The occupation in which the spirit interiorly assimilates the content of faith is meditation. Here the imagination presents itself with images of events in salvation history, seeks to plumb their depths with all the senses, weighs with the intellect their general meaning and the demands they place on one. In this way the will is inspired to love and to resolve to form a lifestyle in the spirit of faith."

The aptness of that account was borne home upon me recently as I read Mysteries and Stations, a new book of verse by Pavel Chichikov (Kaufmann Publishing). These are poems of high literary merit, to be sure, but they are also meditations that can lead the reader to prayer.

The rules of disclosure require me at this point to note that Pavel Chichikov is a friend of mine. No matter. Friend or not, Chichikov is a talented writer. As an instance, consider the evocative opening lines of "The Annunciation" in which the angel's coming is gracefully suggested:

There is the sound of breezes or a voice,

A gust of roses or of perfumed wings,

A web of light and shadow or a choice,

Birdsong or a messenger who sings….

The poems in this handsome little book are meditations on the mysteries of the rosary (one for each) and the Stations of the Cross. An explanatory subtitle, In the Manner of Ignatius, suggests the roots of the approach. The reference is to the meditation technique often called "composition of place," which St. Ignatius of Loyola describes in his classic Spiritual Exercises:

"When the contemplation or meditation is on something visible, for example, when we contemplate Christ our Lord, the representation will consist in seeing in imagination the material place where the object is that we wish to contemplate…the temple, or the mountain where Jesus or his Mother is, according to the subject of the contemplation.

"In a case where the subject matter is not visible, as here in a meditation on sin, the representation will be to see in imagination my soul as a prisoner in this corruptible body, and to consider my whole composite being as an exile here on earth…."

Composition, Ignatius sternly insists, "must always be made before all contemplations and meditations."

Seeking literary antecedents of Chichikov's work, one thinks of George Herbert, the 17th century Anglican poet whose limpid religious verse is deceptively simple and at the same time profound. In a statement which I happily supplied to its publisher, I spoke of Mysteries and Stations as "a luminous iconography of redemption"—and if it's doubtful what that somewhat precious language signifies, the meaning becomes clear in a poem like "Jesus Falls the First Time":


I hope I never see the like again

For as the lashes fell I felt the wounds

As now I do as if they'd never mend

Though they were His. And now I hear the sound

Of strokes descending on my Lord and friend.

But more than that, the Master in me lives—

The wounds are mine, and mine through Him are His.

The theological intensity of St. Paul is not often transformed into compelling poetry like this.

Shaw is a freelance writer from Washington, D.C."

http://www.catholicherald.com/shaw/shaw05/shaw1013.htm

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today is this...Thank you all. Pray!!!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Some of us even write when when we pray...

[anonymoussierra]

thank you

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Pavel, the poet in the piece you quoted is a friend of mine. He's very, very good. And he's also an excellent photographer. I've known him online since the mid 90s, and hope some day to actually get to meet him in the flesh.

[Faith]

Thank you, KAC, and may God bless you.

[Ciexyz]

Faith-sharing bump.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Rescued

Jesus said to his disciples:
“What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” Matthew 18:12-14

There are moments that I am amazed
at the strong hands unsought
that lift me up out of the morass
I find myself,
out of the dark crevass
where I am wedged,
lost and confused.
Can I speak
of the gratitude within my heart
for the touch of my shepherd
when the valley seems so dark,
the shadow of death
seems so near,
and dawn seems forever away?
Yours are the waters
that purify me,
that sooth my soul,
Yours is the bread of life,
the green pastures
that restore me,
that transform me,
that shape me
after your will.
Yours is the staff that defends me,
and in your shadow,
under your watchful eye,
I am safe,
even as the enemy would devour me.
Yours the goodness and mercy
that rescues me,
that calls me,
that saves me.
Let me dwell in your house,
walk in your ways,
rest myself safe in your loving arms,
This day, and always.
Amen.