Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Archdiocese of Milwaukee Synod Prayer

When I pray this prayer, I enhance it a little in my mind.  My additions are in red.

Prayer in Preparation for the Synod

O Lord, we accept your invitation to enter into the great mystery of your love the death of Jesus on the Cross and presence within your Church, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the renewal and propagation of the fruits of the Cross.
Through word and sacrament, you lead us into communion with you.
Relying on this spiritual intimacy, help open our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit as we fashion our response to the cries of the poor who struggle to know Jesus.
(Pause and silently mention your personal intentions)
We give you thanks O Lord for the men and women who have offered their lives as gifts to build His [Your]  Church.
Renew within us the “fire” [I take the quotation marks out.  I don't know why they are there.] that burns with the [Your] love, the "love of the Lord" for our brothers and sisters.
As we seek to fulfill our responsibilities through the Archdiocesan Synod, we stand at the foot of the Cross with St. John the Evangelist, patron of the archdiocese, who was charged to care for Mary, Mother of the Church.  Asking their intercession, we offer this prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

If you want to be a good poet,....

...read the psalms. For instance, you can't beat how the Psalmist in Ps. 55 expresses his agony and distress when he says in v. 3, "I rock with grief."

Also, this is heart-wrenching:

For it is not an enemy that reviled me –
that I could bear –
Not a foe who viewed me with contempt,
from that I could hide.'
But it was you, my other self,
my comrade and friend,
You, whose company I enjoyed,
at whose side I walked
in the house of God.
Even the line break between "at whose side I walked/in the house of God" lends weight to the sense of agony.