Week 1
Responding to a Father’s Love
Has anybody written such a beautiful message to you?
Charles Dickens wrote the following letter to his youngest son who went out to Australia in 1868:
“I need not tell you that I love you dearly and am very sorry in my heart to part with you, I have put a New Testament among your books because it is the best book that ever was or will be known in the world. As your brothers have gone away one by one, I have written to each such words as I am now writing to you, entreating them all to guide themselves by this book. Only one thing more, never abandon the practice of private prayer. I know the comfort of it.”
We can pray in various ways:
The prayer of approach – being aware of the presence of God.
The prayer of confession – asking forgiveness.
The prayer of thanksgiving – grateful to God for all gifts.
The prayer of petition – raising our needs.
The prayer of intercession – prayer for other people.
The prayer of adoration – acknowledging the awesomeness of God.
The prayer of communion – mystical union with God.
God shares his free gift to us every moment. During this lent, why not make yourself available to God’s presence?
What do you think? Hope you have begun the lent in style with ashes.
If you are a member of cybersouls you can view this weekly reflection on your cybersouls account. Unlike last lent (2010) this will be updated only once in a week in this Lent. Source: William Barclay, More Prayers for Young People. Talk soon.
It is my deepest desire for this Lenten season to finally learn how to pray, and I mean truly pray. Most of the time I just pray with those I have memorized from my childhood, but it is so different when the words comes out freely like connecting my soul to God.
Thank you Fr Sony. I will be following your posts throughout this year’s Lent.
Hi Kymburrly, thank you for the comment, I can see the spark of the desire of your soul in your words. Hope this weekly reflections will be of some help. May your soul’s deepest desire to talk to God be accomplished in this lent and may those chats in the secret caves of your soul flow like a spring to all those who are around. God be with you.
Thank you for your blessing Fr Sony. I will also keep you in my prayers so God may, through your writing, communicate to many including myself especially during this season of reflection and repentance.
Hello and peace be with you! I feel as though I’m in conversation with God regularly but that it’s somehow still not enough….maybe that I’m not enough. All I have ever wanted to do is God’s Will; trying to figure out what that is, is another challenge. lol I’m convinced that everything we do and say needs to be based on love. I do love God so very much and have lately found myself apologizing and asking forgiveness of God for my own failures and for those of humanity. The world seems to be in so much trouble and I am feeling very helpless. I try to remember the story of the man who walked along the beach throwing starfish back into the sea…the ones that had washed up on shore….and when another man asked why he would “waste his time” on so many, the first man responded that it was better to try and save one at a time, be it a slow process, than not to try and save any at all. But I still feel helpless. Do you have any suggestions on how I might focus my prayers for this season of Lent? Thank you and God Bless!
Hi Lynn, good to know that you are also on the same journey of finding our way to God. The question of finding our way back to God was addressed once before in this blog and you can view it in the link following:
I assure my prayers during my Mass, Rosary and other prayers.
Some other previous links also may help you in this regard, God bless you!