The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
PRAY FOR ME.
I say it to everyone I meet at Good Shepherd, “Pray for me.” I don’t mean to be asking people to do something for me that is clearly irrelevant to some. My Lectio Divina on Phil 2:5 took this turn.
FOR THOSE IN MY LOCAL FAITH COMMUNITY AND LARGER SOCIETY
I am thinking of those who are in my faith community and ask them to pray for me as a Lay Cistercian. Is this just trying to seek attention from people or to show people how holy I am? I hope not. What I mean when I say pray for me is this;
- Give praise and glory to the Father through the Son in unity of the Holy Spirit and ask them to be merciful to me.
- Ask God, the Father and Lord of us all, to give me the gift of faith and His energy to be strong in my resolution to love God with all my heart, my mind, and my strength and thus to love my neighbor as myself.
- Remember me to the Father in prayer that I may not be led into temptation but delivered from evil.
- If it is God’s will, help me in my mission to spread the word about contemplation to other parishes and share with them Cistercian practices and charisms.
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE DIED AND STAND BEFORE THE THRONE OF THE LAMB
I ask my mom and dad and fellow priests who have died to pray for me and interced for me before the Father through Christ.
I pray to Christ that hose who have died that they be loosed from their sins. I include those whom I know by name but also those gone before me marked with the sign of Faith. The sign of Faith is the indelible mark of the cross on their souls, one that cannot be erased by sin.
I pray to the saints and to St. Michael, Archangel and my personal patron, to also pray for me before the Throne of the Lamb and ask the Father to merciful to me, a sinner, through Christ. These are called intercessory prayers because we ask those who have had a human nature on earth to pray for us in Heaven.
Contrary to what some believe, even though we use the Saints and our relatives and others who have died in the peace of Christ as helpers, we can only pray to Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can take all these prayers and offer them to the Father in reparation for our sins and for His honor and glory. Prayer is the lifting up of our hearts and minds to God. That lifting up means that we raise our minds and heart to try to be close to the heart of Christ. Christ alone goes to the Father. Christ alone can approach the Father in Heaven. No one else can stand in the presence of Pure Energy and survive, not the Blessed Mother, not the Apostles, not the Saints, not any of us.
There are three levels of nature, or reality. Divine nature, human nature and animal nature.
Who has a divine nature. Only God, and now Jesus Christ, who is both divine nature and human nature. We call that person God. God has three distinct persons yet one nature: Father (Creator), Son (Redeemer), and Advocate (Spirit of Truth). These three are one.
Who has a human nature? Jesus Christ, who is both divine and human, the Blessed Mother, Mary, and everyone else who was, who is, and who will be born.
YOUR REFLECTION
Read the Catholic Catechisms, a compendium of beliefs of people from all ages who have been martyred, suffered for the faith, and been faithful to the teachings of The Master. This is an explanation of the Creed that we recite each Sunday to renew our Baptismal committment to love others as Christ loved us and to receive the strength through the Eucharist to do so.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
People who have died have not really died. Their bodies have turned to dust, but their spirit live on in Christ. Do you talk to those who have died, your mom and dad perhaps, a family member, a priest or nun you have known in the past? How does prayer to Christ using the intercession of the dead help you?
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Make up a prayer that you would use to ask St. Michael to interced for you with Christ and Christ with the Father.
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That in all things, may God be glorified. –St. Benedict
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