Tag Archives: prayer

Never ending prayer

As you read this, I can guarantee that thousands of people across the world are praying for you, for the Church and for the world. They are following what we call “The Prayer of the Church”, also known as the “Divine Office”, or as the “Breviary”, from the book that contains it. So what is the Prayer of the Church?

God’s people must be a people of prayer, and there has always been a tradition of continuous prayer, going back to the Temple of Jerusalem. Our ancient welsh Celtic monasteries always had someone praying in their churches. The Prayer of the Church finds its roots more particularly in the prayer life of the monks and nuns in their monasteries, joining together at regular intervals during the day to pray as a community. This has always been in addition to the individual’s prayer time. Over the centuries this custom spread to all clergy and religions. When I was ordained it was one of our promises – to pray with and for the whole church according to the Divine Office. Since Vatican II the whole Church has been encouraged to join in this very special form of prayer. It is part of the official worship of the Church, and so, along with the Mass and the Sacraments, we call it part of our Catholic “liturgy”, and not just a devotion like the Way of the Cross or even the Rosary. In fact, yet another official name for it is the “Liturgy of the Hours”

The Prayer of the Church, in a four week cycle, is centred around the sequence of the psalms, plus hymns, readings and intercessions, and is uniform right across the whole Church. It is broken into five or seven parts throughout the day – the “hours” – with Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer being the main “hinges” as it were.

Morning and Evening Prayer has been prayed in Christ the King before the appropriate Masses for many years. From time to time I am asked if some of it could be prayed in St Brigid’s also. Therefore, on Monday 15th September I will give a short talk on the Prayer of the Church after morning Mass at St Brigid’s, i.e. at approximately 10.00am. It will be about 30-40 minutes and enable us to decide a way forward. Whichever of our 3 Churches you attend, you will be very welcome to join us.

Fr Matthew

Prayers of St Ignatius

Founder of the Jesuits, Feast Day Thursday

Abandonment

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours;  do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

In the darkness

O Christ Jesus
When all is darkness
And we feel our weakness and helplessness,
Give us the sense of Your Presence,
Your Love and Your Strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
In Your protecting love
And strengthening power,
So that nothing may frighten or worry us,
For, living close to You,
We shall see Your Hand,
Your Purpose, Your Will through all things.

Fr Matthew