Tag: prayer

Prayer

Some nights, when I’m getting ready for bed, after I’ve already prayed the rosary with Mark Wahlberg, I listen to a chanting-sung version by a German-born, Ecuadorian-raised sibling-group called “Harpa Dei”. Their prayer-song-chant is called “Rosary of the Nations”. It is sung with what I call a Latin base, and accents in Hebrew, English, Spanish, German, and French, with each decade having a different focus language. It is lovely and it is calming. Every night I play it before bed, I go to bed calm and feeling easy and somewhat light. Perhaps it releases the yoke, somehow…

Whatever the case, it is lovely. I actually donated to have the real version of it – high quality audio for the win – instead of the YouTube one, but here is the YouTube one, in case you’d like to give it a listen. I love it and I love how it improves my life each night.

Thank you, God, for sharing these prayers and this version with me. Please, bless Harpa Dei for these gifts they share so wonderfully with the world. Thank you for the love. Please, heal my grandma and my brothers’ dad. Thank you for this life and all of its love and opportunity. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. If you would like to learn more about the group and consider purchasing any of their albums, via donation, click here to see their website.

Post-a-day 2023

Stress

Today was tough for me, filled with emotions, both of my own and of others. I did things in ways that weren’t the best, but that were the best I could do with the information and experience I had at the time. Now, only hours later, I certainly would do them differently, if presented with the opportunity again. Sometimes, that is hard to accept, knowing so soon how I could have done something so much better than I did. But, as I said already, I did the best I could with the available information. Now that I have more, I can act differently going forward. I did well at first, and I will do well in the future. Every event is a lesson available to me, allowing me to improve for the future. Today was no exception.

Dear God, please, help heal those in need of your healing. Help release the strain held so heavily and highly by the student today. Help him to accept fully your love and to trust in you. Help him to accept the help he needs and wants. And help him to let go of the restraints that prevent him from getting that help. Heal him, please. Thank you for this blessing of such trust. Thank you for this life. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

What to do

Sometimes, it feels like I must pick between several things that are all happening on the same day, overlapping just slightly, such that I technically could do them all, but for shorter amounts of time than I would want to spend at each event, and knowing that I would be absolutely wiped at the end of it all. So, I must pick. And I have nothing to do on any other days – only on these days where everything is happening on the same day.

But then, oftentimes, when I start to see how I could make it all work, things pop up and declare themselves incompatible with something else suddenly, and so the decision is made for me. The priority items win out in the incompatibility contest, and the less important events are set aside and dismissed. What’s funny about it, too, is that I often end up not doing the one thing I was kind of really excited to go do. But, hey, the important stuff is ranked so for a reason. And they usually end up being wonderful, anyway.

Such is the case with this weekend. I had to decline several exciting things in order to do work and to give love somewhere that it is very much needed.

On that note…

Dear God, please, keep me safe this weekend. Help me to share your love with B—, such that she truly experiences your love for her. Help her to feel and acknowledge your presence. Help her to be freed of that which she carries so heavily right now. Help her to let go of all that does not serve her in your will and your love. Help me to say and do just what she needs to hear and experience, in order to find your love newly. Thank you for this opportunity. Bless me with your perfect words and actions this weekend, please. Thank you for this life. Help me help B— be grateful for it all, too. And, if there be demons in and/or around her, help me to wash them away permanently. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Travel prayers

Dear God, please, keep my man safe throughout his travels, especially tonight and tomorrow, and on his return to the US at the end of his month-long stay. Help us always to pursue your will and to be the people you created us to be. Help us to choose you. Help us to love and to live fully the lives you have offered to us. Keep him safe, happy, healthy, holy, please. Thank you for him and for our relationship and for the wonderful, love-filled hopes for our future together, through you and with you. Help us to live it, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

So much stress

I had several errands to run today, and several strategic purchase to make during the tax-free weekend for clothing and backpacks. And the first of my errands kind of very much pissed me off – I was extremely frustrated. It was a simple matter of $14.06. I had been told by the store workers that they did returns without one week, and then exchanges or store credit only after that. However, they at this store seem utterly unaware of the fact that “return” includes returning the money to the purchaser, not merely giving store credit. I had even confirmed when purchasing the thing that it would be, “for a full refund.” But “refund” must mean to them “store credit”.

So, that was extremely annoying for me. And it was worsened by the fact that I’m at a financial place where $14 really does matter. But, when I looked at the receipt after the frustrating discovery that I was given store credit, and I saw that the sales tax I had paid was not refunded to me, the tables turned gently in my favor. The computer system was programmed to function fully without tax for the weekend, and they had no way to override it. So, they refunded another item on my original receipt to compensate. It was more than double the tax I had paid, but the store manager had approved it, as there was no way to reverse the initial return transaction, anyway, plus no way to add the sales tax. So, instead of just the dollar seven of tax I had paid, they refunded me another $2.25… refund being as store credit, of course; gotta use their lingo here…

Anyway, that was really hard for me on multiple levels, but I am grateful it turned out a little more positively than it had seemed like it would end. And the day turned out to be a hassle but worth the errands, so I am glad I went and handled it all today.

And then, I missed Mass, so ended up attending a 7pm Spanish Mass, and it was actually quite good. It was a church that usually is sparsely filled with folks for any English Mass I’ve ever attended, but was full tonight for the Spanish Mass. I stood out, to be sure, but I was able easily to participate and understand everything. And the homily was actually nice and got me thinking in a good way. Plus, the music was very Mexican yet also fun. I even went after Mass to ask for the names of two of the songs from the head music guy. He asked what everyone else was clearly thinking, and learned that Spanish was not my native language and, no, I didn’t learn it in school. But he commended some for it and didn’t hide his surprise at my speaking so easily with him in Spanish. It was silly, but fun, and it was great to have God bring together such different people so easily. I was very grateful tonight that my religion allows for participation in worship across cultures and languages so well.

Thank you, God, for the help today and for the blessings of your love today. Stay noticeably with me, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Sleepy

I need to sleep hard tonight, as I have a sort of long day tomorrow that starts early. But there is a chance it might be a very interesting time, as well as educational. So, that gives it a chance of being great, despite my likely being tired and kind of generally wiped from this week’s work stuff.

I didn’t get any lesson stuff done today, though I’d hoped to have at least my framework for making lessons set up today. But it didn’t happen either. Technology changed, so I couldn’t connect my external hard drive to the new laptop that only had USB-C ports on it. But IT said I can easily come pick up an adapter on Monday, so I’ll do that then, and get down to some business. Some very important business called, “What on Earth I am doing in classes for the start of school.”

Dear God, help me to be a great teacher this year especially. I look forward to fulfilling your will and to being your servant in this fulfilling role. Guide me always, please, and help me always to have the right words. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Day one (post)

Well, it happened. And it went well. It was odd, to be sure. But it was still good. I truly believe and see that God has put me here on purpose, to fulfill His will in service. It is still, however, very easy for me to forget that I am trusting in God wholly, and not to freak out about the sense of instability and financial crisis in my life right now. Someone commented today that I seemed very stressed. I told her clearly that she was right and that I am very stressed. I am finally starting to have periods throughout the day in which I do trust God wholly. But I still have much time during which I only trust Him partly – unintentionally so – and end up worrying about what to do to take care of myself and my family. So, I most definitely cried on my first day. And that’s okay and perfect. It built bonds I hadn’t known I had longer to have built. So, that also was really cool, in addition to odd. 😛

God, take us into Your hands, please, and care for us as You love us. Help us to love one another with more and more of Your love each day and night. Help us to be strong. Help us do and fulfill Your will in all that we do and in all that we are. Help us to find through that fulfillment of our own dreams that You have granted to us. Thank you for this life. Free me to let go and give it all up to you, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

P.S. It is very weird to me when I am taking to you, God, and I use the capitalized letters to reference you. Talking about you? Works perfectly. Talking to you? Feels super odd, and I have to keep reminding myself to do it. Thank you for understanding me, and especially all of my silliness. I love you. Amen again. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023