Prayer for My Work

March 30, 2014

Lord God, Creator of this world and all that is within it, I offer you my work. Whatever task is before me, help me to complete it in your name. Help me to be not only hardworking and competent, but also wise and kind. Help me to treat my co-workers as I wish to be treated. Help me not to measure my success by the standards of this world, but simply to do my work to the best of my ability and in a spirit of love and tranquility.

Prayer for My Family

March 26, 2014

Lord Jesus, you were born into a human family. You know our joys and struggles. Bless our family with your love. Refresh and strengthen us in the happiness of our good times. Comfort and assist us in our painful times. Fill our home with the burning charity you showed us on the Cross, that our family life may reflect the joy and peace of your Resurrection.

The Holy Family with the Little Bird by Bartolome Esteban Murillo ca. 1650

Lessons of the Trees #1: Bearing Fruit

March 23, 2014

There are almost 400 references to trees in Scripture, many of them producing great bunches of food for thought – from the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden (Gen. 2:9) to the fertile Tree of the Cross (Gal. 3:13).

One notable tree reference made by Jesus himself is found in the Parable of the Fig Tree. It is a short and striking story that – in the tradition of the parables – is both arresting and comforting:

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down” (Lk. 13:6-9).

The urgent message of Jesus found throughout the Gospels should kick us into gear – to realize that bearing fruit isn’t something to put off to another day, or another month, or another year. He has expectations of us – really, really high ones – and the time to begin fulfilling them is right now. Love my enemy? Now. Stop murdering in my heart? Now. Take care of someone forgotten by the world? Now. Willingly carry my cross? Right now.

But dare we hope that if we fall short, if our buds, flowers and fruits fail another year, that the Gardener may once more advocate on our behalf – and fertilize again – and that the Owner of the Orchard will again wait patiently? From the heart of God, we learn the lesson of the fig tree. The patience he requires us to have for one another, he requires of himself; the growth he demands is cultivated in the vineyard of his merciful love.

Praying Unadorned

March 18, 2014

One of my biblical school students, Patti Cacciabaudo, recently caught my attention with one of her homework answers. She was reflecting on a powerful moment in the Book of Esther – a moment when Esther offers a heartfelt prayer for courage before going before the pagan king to plead for the lives of her people. Esther is a faithful Jew – who also happens to be the queen!

Before offering this prayer – which she knows may well be the last prayer of her life – Esther is feeling an anxiety that the text describes as “deadly.” She flees to the Lord – but before opening her mouth, she very deliberately prepares herself for prayer. Queen Esther exchanges her “splendid apparel” for the clothing of a mourner. She foregoes perfume for ashes. “She utterly humbled her body; every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair” (14:2).

Patti’s insight was this: Isn’t this the attitude we should all take into prayer? Esther was a queen, with every right to her finery and adornments. But in God’s eyes, she knew what she was – she was simply his child, his faithful one, his little one in need of salvation. Before the Lord, there are no kings and queens. There are just little ones. As Patti explained, “Without the ‘finery’ of fashion, of worldly goods, I simply present myself before him, unadorned, a child of the Father.”