Pepetual Reaching Always Yearning Eternal Realm

A call for prayer awakes us to action this morning - now the waiting and ever constant praying!  I came up with an acronym this morning using the letters from the word PRAYER... Perpetual Reaching Always Yearning - Eternal Realm... This seems to express the feeling of need and desire we have as we lift up those worries to our Lord.  The storm is around us, and we need to know that Jesus is in control!  Pat and I had just finished our morning prayer at the end there is a place after the petitions that we each speak our prayer requests - it takes each of us about 5 minutes or more to remember all the people that have been placed upon our hearts.  One of my brothers asked for our continued prayers for our Godson - his son - and it was wonderful to him and to us to assure him that we take praying for our Godchildren every day- Pat prays for them by name, and I pray for our 5 Godchildren on the 1st luminous mystery - the Baptism of the Lord - as that is where I promised to be there spiritually for my Godchildren! 

We are aware also of a young boy, who is on hospice due to the spread throughout his brain of a deadly brain cancer!  Little Gage was sent home to die in the arms of his family, and we are receiving updates often on Caringbridge and facebook.  Know what?  I just feel like praying my way through this entry today!  I feel like I need to be perpetually reaching always yearning for the etenal realm - where all the angels and saints are worshiping and adoring the one they turned to constantly in their lives here on earth... at least later on in their lives!  Pat pointed out to our faith formation kids the other night that many of the saints were big sinners and St Augustine, for instance, was living majorly in sin until Jesus turned his life around - and the prayers of his mother, St Monica, were really instrumental in that transformation from living in sin to the Doctor of Grace!  Look at St Peter on the day of Christ's trial and crucifixion compared to the powerful Holy Spirit filled Peter we are reading about in Acts and the Gospel today... that is a true transformation and it is all because of LOVE and Perpetual Reaching Always Yearning - Eternal Realm... Prayer!  There is not much doubt that after the cock crowed the second time and Peter realized what he had done in denying Christ 3 times - that he fell on his knees to ask forgiveness and went forward into the Upper Room and beyond!  We too are changed for the better by our faults and sins - laying them at the feet of Jesus, we then can go forward filled with understanding and empathy for our brothers and sisters and the problems they face.  WE have been there and done that, and are a living walking example of His unconditional LOVE and forgiveness!  Look at me - I was in your shoes, and now I walk the Path of Christ carrying my Most Cherished Cross! 

Jesus, we lift up Gage and his family this day, and ask that your peace and love my settle over them.  Keep Gage comfortable and may he continue to witness to his family the beauty of heaven,which awaits him.  May they find comfort in knowing that his suffering will soon come to an end, and may they find each moment with him a most cherished gift.  May PRAYER be as each breath that they take and every beat of their heart as they are united with the spiritual army in heaven... lifted up and surrounded by all those that love and worship you without end.  Amen

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gagedriver Gage's site...

The Gospel today was a beautiful scene of how Jesus enters into our every day lives and feeds us so lovingly and directs us to tremendous plenty - the story from John21: 1-14 where the disciples go out fishing and catch nothing - the risen Lord is standing on the beach in the morning and tells them to put the nets on the right side of the boat... they have too many fish to pull into the boat!  Peter realizing that "It is the Lord."  jumps into the sea and swims to Him!  Sometimes doesn't our prayer seem like that?  WE are immersed with the hugeness of the needs around us - much like jumping into the sea!  But we see our Christ standing on the shore ahead of us, and we see the miracle we have been blessed with by doing as he tells us - "Cast the nets over the right side of the boat and you will find something."  He does give us clear directions in our lives and we look for the open door ahead or the path laid out for us... we trust and walk down it or cast the net!  We swim through the sea and crawl out on shore to see HIM there with a fire and breakfast for us!  Such beauty in that sight!  Our souls are lifted in gratitude and love!  How wonderful is it when family is gathered together, and they walk into the kitchen full of light with the smells of a wonderful breakfast, and the loving smile and hug of your mother?  "Come, have breakfast."  Wow!  After a hard night of emptiness and no luck with the fishing... they drag nets filled with 153 large fish and then the Lord feeds them a warm and loving breakfast - their prayers of the night have been answered beyond their wildest dreams!  We cling to you Lord, and trust that the worries of our lives are in your control and that you will answer our pleas beyond our wildest dreams and hopes and wishes! 

Jesus, I long to spend the day in prayer and thanksgiving for all of your wonderful love and desire to care for our every need!  We are one of so many in this world - the numbers reach the sky - and each one of us are created in your image and loved by you.  You are standing at the shore with a warm fire to feed us and warm us after we jump in and swim in the huge ocean of need and concern that surrounds us!  We are yours and all we desire is to feel your embrace and your warm welcome to come close and to taste the wonder of Your Food for LIFE!  We are nourished at your table and are able to carry forth your Truth inside of us!  May we never allow ourselves to turn a deaf ear to your directions and miss out on the ways that you have for us to follow after you.  Use us to your honor and glory as we cast the net for the catch of our lives!  Jesus, we doubt and feel unworthy, but take heart in remembering that Peter and many of the great saints were weak and sinful as we are!  May we take heart in Perpetual Reaching Always Yearning - Eternal Realm - Prayer!  In doing this with every beat of our heart and with every breath that we take - we are with and in you and always on our knees in your glorious presence!  Jesus, how we are blessed by PRAYER- our communication of LOVE with and in YOU!  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

"But there are artistic expressions that are true roads to God, the Supreme Beauty - indeed, they are a help to us in growing in our relationship with him in prayer.  We are referring to works of art that are born of faith, and that express the faith.  We see an example of this whenever we visit a Gothic cathedral:  We are ravished by the verticle lines that reach heavenward and draw our gaze and our spirit upward, while at the same time we feel small and yet yearn to be filled.... How many times can artistic expression be for us an occassion that reminds us of God, that assists us in our prayer or even in the conversion of our heart!...Dear friends, I invite you to rediscover the importance of this way of prayer, for our living relationship with God... Let us hope that the Lord will help us contemplate his beauty, both in nature as well as in works of art, so that we might be touched by the light of his face, and so also be light for our neighbor."

Pope Benedict XVI

The title of this meditation of the day - "The Beauty of that Breakfast"

Wow! I love this!  How many times have Pat and I said that it is funny the way TV and movies use a Catholic Church for the setting for their shows, because they are so beautiful with the art in the windows, statues, paintings on the ceilings and the lofty grandure of the architecture as well as the candles lit in prayer ascending to God!  My soul is lifted to heaven by all the beauty that surrounds me in our amazing glorious Catholic Church!  Pope Benedict is reminding us of that beautiful heart warming scene of LOVE expressed in his breakfast for those that he loves on the beach after a rough night!  Amazing!