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How do we pray today? What do we pray about?
We pray in and through the desires of our hearts and the work of our hands.
We pray in the words of our lips and the gestures of our bodies.
We pray by contemplating God's revelation in Scripture and in the experiences of each day.
We pray alone, in small groups, in large gatherings of worship.
We pray where we live and where we work, at congregational gatherings and with God's people whom we serve.
Listen to the wisdom of Sisters of Charity and Associates as they share their prayer and reflect on their reasons for hope as a new year of grace begins.
[In Lent] we gather. … as a family of promise, coming in touch once again with. … the truth of the infinite horizon of God’s love and our need to be forgiven for our lack of forgiveness. It is the time when all whose rights have been disregarded, along with all who have trampled on the rights of others, be drawn together under the cross, the banner of justice that reconciles and unites. In the shadow of the cross we can finally begin to understand that justice is not solely an issue of protecting rights, but of nurturing communion.
Sr. Sheila Brosnan, SC
Photo Credit: Barbara Kennedy, SCNY Associate
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In my daily Lectio, I've been praying for a "word" that would increase my awareness that each day of my life is a day that the Lord has made for me to be glad and rejoice in. I hope that I will be empowered to go with unrestricted readiness to “meet my grace," letting go of any and all reluctance to surrender to his will in the ups and downs of each day.
Barbara Kennedy, SCNY Associate
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The Spirit of Charity
Vincent:
Beggar, can I show love to you?
Have your forgiveness in MY giving?
My store is little – one loaf,
And spirit worn from labors.
Your look, intense –
The given piece returned!
I’m humbled and ashamed,
Is it YOU, O Christ?
Your warm hand touches mine.
At first, like Peter, I cry out,
“You shall not … serve me, my Lord.”
Love speaks, “Take and eat!
Seek first to be MY beggarman.”
Sr. Lorraine Cooper, SC,
reflecting on an icon of the beggar Christ
and Vincent de Paul, by Meltem Aktas
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