Relying on God

True hymns are poetic and are musically beautiful; they also teach us something about God and ourselves.

Here are the lyrics of a hymn, taken from Morning Prayer in the Divine Office, which sings of trust in and reliance in God:

Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way.
What need I fear, when thou art near,
O King of night and day?
More safe am I within thy hand,
Than if a host did round me stand.

My destined time is fixed by thee,
And death doth know his hour.
Did warriors strong around me throng,
They could not stay his power;
No walls of stone can man defend
When thou thy messenger dost send.

My life I yield to thy decree,
And bow to thy control
In peaceful calm, for from thine arm
No power can wrest my soul.
Could earthly omens e’er appal
A man that heeds the heavenly call!

The child of God can fear no ill,
His chosen dread no foe;
We leave our fate with thee, and wait
Thy bidding when to go.
‘Tis not from chance our comfort springs,
Thou art our trust, O King of kings.

Penance

Pope Pius XI observed:

"Prayer and penance are the two potent inspirations sent to us at this time by God, that we may bring back to Him our wayward human race that wanders aimlessly without a guide. They are inspirations that will disperse and remedy the first and foremost cause of all rebellion and unrest, man's revolt against God." 

Encyclical letter Caritate Christi compulsi, AAS 24 (1932) 191.

"Our first need is for internal repentance; the detestation, that is, of sin, and the determination to make amends for it. This is the repentance shown by those who make a good Confession, take part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and receive Holy Communion."

Pope St John XXIII, Encyclical letter Pænitentiam Agere, 28

"But the faithful must also be encouraged to do outward acts of penance, both to keep their bodies under the strict control of reason and faith, and to make amends for their own and other people's sins. St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven--he reached the summit of holiness--and yet he had no hesitation in saying of himself "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection." On another occasion he said: "They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires." St. Augustine issued the same insistent warning: "It is not enough for a man to change his ways for the better and to give up the practice of evil, unless by painful penance, sorrowing humility, the sacrifice of a contrite heart and the giving of alms he makes amends to God for all that he has done wrong."

 External penance includes particularly the acceptance from God in a spirit of resignation and trust of all life's sorrows and hardships and of everything that involves inconvenience and annoyance in the conscientious performance of the obligations of our daily life and work and the practice of Christian virtue. Penance of this kind is in fact inescapable. Yet it serves not only to win God's mercy and forgiveness for our sins, and His heavenly aid for the Ecumenical Council, but also sweetens, one might almost say, the bitterness of this mortal life of ours with the promise of its heavenly reward. For "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us."" Ibid, 29&30

Our Father... Hallowed be Thy Name

St Cyprian's treatise on the Lord's Prayer

How great is the Lord’s indulgence! How kindly he bends down to us, how he overflows with goodness towards us! For he wishes us to pray in the sight of God in such a way as to call God Father and to call ourselves sons of God, just as Christ is the Son of God. No-one would have dared to claim such a name in prayer, unless he himself had given us permission to pray this. And so, beloved brethren, we should know and remember that when we call God our Father, we must behave as children of God, so that whatever pleasure we take in having God for our Father, he may take the same pleasure in us.
    Let us behave like temples of God, so that it may be clear that God dwells in us. Let our doings not fall away from the Spirit, but let us, who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual, consider and do nothing but heavenly and spiritual things. As the Lord God himself has said: Those who honour me, I will honour them; but those who despise me will be despised. And the blessed apostle has also said in his letters: You are not your own property: you have been bought at a great price. Glorify God and carry him in your bodies.
    After this we say Hallowed be Thy name. This is not because we want God to be made holy by our prayers: what we are asking God is that his name should be hallowed within us. After all, how can anything be needed to sanctify God, who himself is the source of sanctity? But because he says be holy, as I am holy, we ask and beg of him that we, who have been sanctified in baptism, may continue in that which we have begun to be. And this we pray daily, for our need is for daily sanctification so that we who daily fall away may wash away our crimes by continual sanctification.
    As for the nature of the sanctification that comes to us from God, the Apostle tells us when he says: They will not inherit the kingdom of God, who fornicate, or worship idols, or commit adultery; catamites or sodomites, thieves, cheats, drunkards, slanderers or extortioners. You were like this once, but you were washed, you were justified, you were made holy in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. He says that we are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. We pray that this sanctification may remain with us; and because our Lord and Judge warns the man who was healed and given life by him not to sin again, lest something worse happen to him, we make this prayer without ceasing, we beg for it day and night, that the sanctification and life that comes from God may be preserved by his protection.

A Hymn of Praise by St Ambrose

Hymn by St Ambrose of Milan

O God, creation’s secret force,
yourself unmoved, all motion’s source,
who from the morn till evening ray
through all its changes guide the day: 

Grant us, when this short life is past,
the glorious evening that shall last;
that, by a holy death attained,
eternal glory may be gained. 

To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
may every tongue and nation raise
an endless song of thankful praise!

This is taken from the Liturgy of Hours and is a hymn for the Office of Readings.

Five Tips for Parents with Todlers, trying to Pray the Mass

For the most part babies are easy to soothe and you will be able to pray during Mass. Then one day your sweet, easy to soothe baby at church turns into a toddler.The toddler prefers to be moving continually throughout all of Mass, and she does not quite grasp the concept of a whisper. Sometimes she throws herself across the pew and announces loudly, “I AM A FISH!” Other times she repeats, “Donuts? Donuts?” for the entire hour. All the time you are either pacing in back, struggling in the pew, or resigned to sitting in the cry room. And you ask yourself, what happened to praying at church?Well, have no fear! Here are a few ideas to help you learn how to pray while tending to toddlers at Mass

Please see this post from ChurchPOP for more.

Contemplate the Face of Christ

The official prayers of the Church are both efficacious and educational.
Here are the Petitions from Morning Prayer on the first Thursday after Pentecost:

It is the Father’s will that men should see him in the face of his beloved Son. Let us honour him as we say:
– Hallowed be your name.

Christ greeted us with good news:
    may the world hear it through us, and find hope.
– Hallowed be your name.

We praise and thank you, Lord of heaven and earth;
    you are the hope and joy of men in every age.
– Hallowed be your name.

May Christ’s coming transform the Church;
    and renew its youth and vigour in the service of men.
– Hallowed be your name.

We pray for Christians who suffer for their belief: sustain them in their hope.
– Hallowed be your name.

The Sending of The Holy Spirit

From the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus, bishop
From the Office of Readings for Pentecost Sunday

When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.
He had promised through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.
Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.
This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven.