Living with Christ Morning Prayer

Living with Christ Morning Prayer 
Friday, February 7, 2014
He was very much perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him. 

Jesus, 
I love being Catholic.
I love the sensory delights-- the sights and sounds, the fragrances and movements of your people. How beautiful is the light filtered softly through stained glass, the smell of incense rising up, the statues, the Stations, the rituals and music and sounds of your people immersed in prayer.

Jesus, it is right that our worship be as beautiful as we can make it, but let me never forget that beauty, like love, has a dark side. I don’t like to think I have
anything in common with Herod, but sensory delights can lead me astray too.

Herod didn’t understand what John was talking about and yet he enjoyed listening to him. Do I understand what you are saying to me, or do I just look to enjoy the celebration? I so often judge liturgy and the homily by whether or not I liked them, not by whether or not they helped me open myself to the life you invite me to share.

Jesus, help me to savor the beauty of liturgy, but never to see it as an end in itself. Help me to see deeply into the beautiful life you offer me.
Amen.

Prayer for Today

Virgin full of goodness, mother of mercy. I entrust to you my body and soul, my thoughts, my actions, my life, and my death. O my queen, help me, and deliver me from all the snares of the devil. Obtain for me the grace of loving my Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, with a true and perfect love, and after him, O Mary, to love you with all my heart and above all things. Amen.

-Saint Bonaventure