Daily Prayers

[Odysseusa]

http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers ... prayer.htm



Teaching your children how to pray can be a daunting task. The best place to start is with common prayers for children that can be easily memorized. Children who are making their First Communion should have memorized most of the following prayers, while the Grace Before and After Meals and the Guardian Angel Prayer are prayers that even very young children can learn by repeating them daily.




1. The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross is the most basic Catholic prayer, though we don't often think of it that way. We should teach our children to say it with reverence before and after their other prayers.

The most common problem that children have in learning the Sign of the Cross is using their left hand instead of their right; the second most common is touching their right shoulder before the left.
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2. The Our Father

We should pray the Our Father daily with our children. It's a good prayer to use as a short morning or evening prayer. Pay close attention to how your children pronounce the words; there are a lot of opportunities for misunderstandings and mispronunciations, such as "Howard be thy name."

3. The Hail Mary

Children naturally gravitate to the Virgin Mary, and learning the Hail Mary early makes it easier to foster devotion to St. Mary and to introduce longer Marian prayers, such as the Rosary. One useful technique for teaching the Hail Mary is for you to recite the first part of the prayer (through "the fruit of thy womb, Jesus") and then have your children respond with the second part ("Holy Mary").

4. The Glory Be

The Glory Be is a very simple prayer that any child who can make the Sign of the Cross can easily memorize. If your child has trouble remembering which hand to use when making the Sign of the Cross (or which shoulder to touch first), you can get some extra practice in by making the Sign of the Cross while reciting the Glory Be, as Eastern Rite Catholics and Eastern Orthodox do.

5. An Act of Faith

Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity are common morning prayers. If you help your children memorize them, they will always have a short form of morning prayer at their disposal for those days when they don't have time to pray a longer form of morning prayer.

6. An Act of Hope

An Act of Hope is a very good prayer for school-aged children. Encourage your children to memorize it so that they can pray the Act of Hope before taking a test. While there is no substitute for study, it is good for students to realize that they don't have to rely on their own strength alone.

7. An Act of Charity

Childhood is a time filled with deep emotions, and children often suffer real and perceived slights and injuries at the hands of friends and classmates. While the primary purpose of an Act of Charity is to express our love for God, this prayer is also a daily reminder to our children to try to develop forgiveness and love toward others.

8. The Act of Contrition

The Act of Contrition is an essential prayer for the Sacrament of Confession, but we should also encourage our children to say it every evening before they go to sleep. Children who have made their First Confession should also make a quick examination of conscience before saying the Act of Contrition.


9. Grace Before Meals

Instilling a sense of gratitude in our children can be especially hard in a world where many of us have an overabundance of goods. Grace Before Meals is a good way to remind them (and ourselves!) that everything we have comes ultimately from God. (Consider adding the Grace After Meals to your routine as well, to cultivate a sense of thanksgiving as well as to keep those who have died in our prayers.)

10. The Guardian Angel Prayer

As with devotion to the Virgin Mary, children seem predisposed toward belief in their guardian angel. Cultivating that belief when they are young will help to protect them from skepticism later on. As children grow older, encourage them to supplement the Guardian Angel Prayer with more personal prayers to their guardian angel.

[Odysseusa]

1. The Sign of the Cross



Since we make the Sign of the Cross before and after our prayers, many Catholics don't realize that the Sign of the Cross is a prayer itself. It should be said with reverence; we shouldn't rush through it on the way to the next prayer.

Using your right hand, you should touch your forehead at the mention of the Father; the lower middle of your chest at the mention of the Son; and the left shoulder on the word "Holy" and the right shoulder on the word "Spirit."

    The Sign of the Cross

    "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

[Odysseusa]

2. The Our Father


The Our Father is the oldest of Christian prayers, going back to Jesus Christ himself, who, in Matthew 6:9-13, taught his disciples to pray in these words. Because the prayer came from Christ, it is used in every Mass, and we should pray it daily.

    The Our Father

    "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen."

[Odysseusa]

3. The Hail Mary


The first half of the Hail Mary is straight out of the Bible. The part before the semicolon is the angel Gabriel's greeting to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, when he told her that she had been chosen by God to bear His Son, Jesus Christ (Luke 1:28). And the words after the semicolon were uttered by Saint Elizabeth, the cousin of the Blessed Virgin, at the Visitation, when Saint Mary came to visit her and Saint Elizabeth felt Saint John the Baptist leap in her womb (Luke 1:42). The Blessed Virgin's response to Saint Elizabeth was the beautiful canticle (a biblical hymn) that we know as the Magnificat.

    The Hail Mary

    Hail Mary, full of grace! the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

    Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

[Gosso]

Thanks for sharing.  I always like to hear other peoples views on God and how to connect with him/her/it/nothing.

Here are a couple of tweets that popped up this morning:

From Paulo Coelho:  "Lord, bless our week. May our problems drive us into action and not into depression."

From the Dalai Lama:  "The whole emphasis of our spiritual practice should be aimed at creating positive and healthy thoughts and actions."

[Odysseusa]

thanks, Gosso

[Odysseusa]

Faith, Hope and Love

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

[MediumTex]

Here's one:

"Lord, help me see the purpose and beauty in the world, in myself and in others."

[lazyboy]

This is one form (of many) of a metta prayer or loving kindness meditation used in Buddhism. It's usually done at a slow enough pace to be coordinated with breathing. It could start with the self and move out from there. ie: May I be well, etc, then to include loved ones, May my friends and loved ones be well, etc., May others I see but don't know be well, etc., May my (perceived) enemies be well, etc., May all beings be well. etc.


May all beings be well
May all beings be happy
May all beings be free of suffering
May all being live in the great equanimity
Beyond all attachment and aversion

[Kel]

I often spend time forgiving any judgements or limited perceptions I hold on people and situations and general flavor of life I seem to be experiencing. If I find a situation where I can't find a place in my heart to forgive I forgive that person for being jerk - sort of works in a off kind of way. 

Something new I recently added is that I ask God's forgiveness for these situations as well and ask God's forgiveness for my mistakes that create any limiting experiences I have and forgiveness for the mistakes all human beings make that result in their limiting experiences. Quite interesting and powerful process. Some say there is a Law of Forgiveness, a natural law or God's Law that one can simply evoke. That works quite well in my experience.

Sort of a version of that kahuna healer that healed inmates in prison in Hiawaii just by sending them love, saying he was sorry, thanking them and one other thing which I can't remember. ha!

Thanks Odysseusa!

[Odysseusa]

thanks, Kel and Others


I appreciate your presence.

[lazyboy]

Thank you, Odysseusa, being with "presence" is what we are here for in this life.

[Ad Orientem]

1. The Sign of the Cross



Since we make the Sign of the Cross before and after our prayers, many Catholics don't realize that the Sign of the Cross is a prayer itself. It should be said with reverence; we shouldn't rush through it on the way to the next prayer.

Using your right hand, you should touch your forehead at the mention of the Father; the lower middle of your chest at the mention of the Son; and the left shoulder on the word "Holy" and the right shoulder on the word "Spirit."

    The Sign of the Cross

    "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

Why do Catholics make the sign of the cross backwards? 

[Odysseusa]

All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

Socrates




thanks, LZboy

[MediumTex]

All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

Socrates

How do we fit this insight into the structure of Judaism, which is the framework referred to in the OP?

Was Socrates correct, but nevertheless out of luck for eternity because he was not Jewish?  Could Socrates have legitimately claimed to have been righteous, even though he was not Jewish?  What if Socrates was righteous by the polytheistic standards of his time?  What would that do to his immortality or his divinity? 

I wonder what exactly Socrates meant by the terms "immortal", "righteous", and "divine"?

When it comes to the word "immortal", it seems like we are talking about something that is simply outside of our understanding, since we live in a world in which there are no observable examples of this concept (or at least I haven't seen any).  If it's just speculation, then I'm okay with that.

When it comes to "righteous" it seems like that is a purely subjective matter, and one person's righteosness might be another person's dogma, judgment, or sanctimony.  In any case, it's clear to me that throughout history many terrible things have been done in the name of righteousness.

When it comes to "divine", I looked it up in my dictionary and it says "Having the nature of or being a deity."  Since the world Socrates lived in had many deities, I assume Socrates was referring to the "divine" by reference to the qualities of some of the better gods of his time.  In our own times, I don't know how one would determine whether someone's actions were "divine", since no one can seem to agree on what the nature of God really is.  I can tell someone about my conception of God's nature, but then I see several stories in the news every day about people killing each other and blowing things up because they have a different interpretation of the nature of God, and they believe that their interpretation is correct, and thus that their acts of violence would be "divine" according to their own standards.

It is ironic that one of the charges against Socrates that led to his execution was that he had been teaching about gods that had not been approved by the government.  Thus, it is possible that what Socrates viewed to be both righteous and divine (i.e., his own beliefs about the nature of the gods) was actually considered a capital offense by the government of his time.

I suppose it would have been a less memorable line if Socrates had said:

"I would like to think that all humans' souls are immortal, but I really can't be sure since I have never died, and I would need to die to really test my theory.  When it comes to righteousness, I don't know what tell you, since what one person considers to be righteous, another person will consider to be evil.  I would say one good rule of thumb is that if you are about to kill someone because of your righteousness, you might pause and re-think your position; at a minimum, the guy you are about to kill probably doesn't think you are rigtheous, and he may be right.  The divine is something I better not get into right now, since the gods I have been teaching about are illegal deities in Athens, and if I'm not careful I might divine myself right into a death sentence, and there wouldn't be anything righteous or divine about that, though it would allow me to test my theory about immortaility."

[Kel]

Speaking of never having died or at least not remembering it (for those who believe in reincarnation). I ran into this rather beautiful "near death" experience.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/r ... ion04.html

You have to scroll down a little to the start of the story which has a title of "The Road to Death"

[Odysseusa]

thanks, MediumText, Kel, etc.




http://rosskendall.com/blog/faith/10-gr ... f-nazareth


10 Great Quotes from Jesus of Nazareth

Submitted by Ross Kendall on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 11:36pm.Faith and Philosophy


Here you will find 10 sayings of Jesus that I have collected together. Finding quotable passages from Jesus was not that easy, as most of what is recorded of what he said (in the gospel books: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are either metaphorical stories, or Jesus responding to particular questions that had been put to him. Neither work very well when taken out of context.

Of the more direct teachings of Jesus, most of them are contained in what is known as the sermon on the mount, which is a veritable goldmine of counter-cultural wisdom.

1. Love Your Enemies!
OK, you have to admit this is a pretty radical concept...

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? (Matthew 5:43-47 )

2. Don't Worry About The Future

Sometimes insightful sayings seem obvious once you hear them - I think that is the case here. Live in the moment you're in!

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:34)

3. How To Treat Others

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

4. The Most Important Commandment

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”?
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”? (Matthew 22:36-40)

5. Spiritual Greatness

In the topsy-turvy world of the Kingdom of God it seems the usual understanding of things is reversed. Here is yet another example:

“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”? (Mark 10:42-45)

6. Gaining The World, Losing Your Soul

Here Jesus highlights that the eternal and spiritual dimension is more important than the temporal physical one. Those who choose to follow His teaching will make physical sacrifices for spiritual rewards.

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”? (Mark 8:34-38)

7. The Kingdom Of God Is Not Physical

Christian faith should not be militant, things like the crusades were not in line with what Jesus taught, or even the concept of christendom. He also taught that the Kingdom of God was in the hearts of men.

The statement below was said in response to questioning in his trial before the roman govenor.

“My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”? (John 18:36)

8. God Loves Everyone
This very well known passage is actually a quote from Jesus.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

9. Ask, Seek, Knock

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

10. His Claim To Be God

While it seems Jesus didn't make a point of telling everyone that he was God, he did make it clear on a few recorded occasions. This quote is taken from Jesus' court trial, from which the resulting conviction of 'blasphemy' led to his crucifixion.

I include this quote, not because it's a great teaching, but because it affects how one perceives his teaching. It's hard to think of Jesus as [just] a good moral teacher when you know that he thought himself to be God. Either he is a weirdo, or he is God!

Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”?
Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”? (Matthew 26:63-64)

[BearBones]

Either he is a weirdo, or he is God!

Or some of his words were misquoted, mistranslated, or misinterpreted...

[doodle]

10. His Claim To Be God

While it seems Jesus didn't make a point of telling everyone that he was God, he did make it clear on a few recorded occasions. This quote is taken from Jesus' court trial, from which the resulting conviction of 'blasphemy' led to his crucifixion.

I include this quote, not because it's a great teaching, but because it affects how one perceives his teaching. It's hard to think of Jesus as [just] a good moral teacher when you know that he thought himself to be God. Either he is a weirdo, or he is God!

Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”?
Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”? (Matthew 26:63-64)

Of course Jesus is God. In fact, all of us are God...he is omnipresent after all. We are all part of the same (this is a scientific fact!) The notion of division between man and God, or between anything else in the universe is an illusion. We are all just droplets of water or waves in the same ocean. Using this analogy, God would be the ocean itself.

[doodle]

What I said above (although a certifiable fact) is a radical notion as it utterly destroys plutocratic societal structures. This is the message that the divisive institution of religion doesn't want people to understand as it removes their power over you.

[MediumTex]

10. His Claim To Be God

While it seems Jesus didn't make a point of telling everyone that he was God, he did make it clear on a few recorded occasions. This quote is taken from Jesus' court trial, from which the resulting conviction of 'blasphemy' led to his crucifixion.

I include this quote, not because it's a great teaching, but because it affects how one perceives his teaching. It's hard to think of Jesus as [just] a good moral teacher when you know that he thought himself to be God. Either he is a weirdo, or he is God!

Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”?
Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”? (Matthew 26:63-64)

Of course Jesus is God. In fact, all of us are God...he is omnipresent after all. We are all part of the same (this is a scientific fact!) The notion of division between man and God, or between anything else in the universe is an illusion. We are all just droplets of water or waves in the same ocean. Using this analogy, God would be the ocean itself.

in Genesis God supposedly told Moses the same thing when he told him that he made people in his own image.  Taken on its face, that means that God is a human being who decided to make more of himself.

[MediumTex]

Either he is a weirdo, or he is God!

Or some of his words were misquoted, mistranslated, or misinterpreted...

Or simply fashioned out of whole cloth by a scribe who was a devoted follower.

This sort of embellishment is very typical in all belief systems, both then and now.

[MediumTex]

What I said above (although a certifiable fact) is a radical notion as it utterly destroys plutocratic societal structures. This is the message that the divisive institution of religion doesn't want people to understand as it removes their power over you.

It's a tragic thing when you have a really inspiring message such as the one Jesus offered of kindness, love and humility and it is twisted into a means of social control and a way to make everyone feel guilty and endlessly insecure about their "salvation."

[doodle]

MT,

in Genesis God supposedly told Moses the same thing when he told him that he made people in his own image.  Taken on its face, that means that God is a human being who decided to make more of himself.

Jesus' sayings from the Gospel of Thomas are also pretty clear:

Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

The idea of a mono-theistic religion in my mind is not so we can replace all of the myriad deities of or ancestors with one deity (the bearded man in the sky). Rather, it is so that man can realize the "oneness" of all things.

The atoms that comprise my body are the same atoms that have been and will be in everything else. (From ashes to ashes, dust to dust). We are simply human manifestations in this universal sea called "God".

The problem arises when we start to think of our relationship with "God" in human terms. We create a duality between "God" and man when in reality this is just an illusion...a shadow on the wall. We are created in God's image because we are part of "God" itself, just as is everything that surrounds us.

[MediumTex]

MT,

in Genesis God supposedly told Moses the same thing when he told him that he made people in his own image.  Taken on its face, that means that God is a human being who decided to make more of himself.

Jesus' sayings from the Gospel of Thomas are also pretty clear:

Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

The idea of a mono-theistic religion in my mind is not so we can replace all of the myriad deities of or ancestors with one deity (the bearded man in the sky). Rather, it is so that man can realize the "oneness" of all things.

The atoms that comprise my body are the same atoms that have been and will be in everything else. (From ashes to ashes, dust to dust). We are simply human manifestations in this universal sea called "God".

The problem arises when we start to think of our relationship with "God" in human terms. We create a duality between "God" and man when in reality this is just an illusion...a shadow on the wall. We are created in God's image because we are part of "God" itself, just as is everything that surrounds us.

Preconceived notions and cultural traditions make this simple message very hard for many to comprehend.