Tag Archives: Catholic Spirituality

Prayer for Forgiveness

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Before I bring my confessions and petitions, I present my gratitude and praise to you Eternal Father, Christ Jesus and Holy Spirit. Thank you for this glorious life, thank you for leading me, guiding me through this world of strife and temptations. Thank you for helping me in all things and in all ways.

You know all the things I have done and the things I have failed to do. I am praying now, you will forgive me of all my sins, known and unknown, actions and thoughts which were not pleasing to you. Forgive me for the things I hold in my heart which are unholy, forgive me for my fantasies, moments of anger and the dread of fear, anxieties and depression. I pray that everything I do from this moment increases the faith, love, and trust I have in you.

Forgive me Lord for the pain and confusion I have caused in other peoples’ lives. Console them with the same consolation I receive from you. Heal their hearts and cleanse their souls.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce all unholy spirits, all unrighteous thoughts, all thoughtless reactions and deeds. I want only to live in your presence Lord, following your will. Make my life a blessing for everyone. AMEN

Time and Space

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This world of ours, this temporal place where we live, is in a bucket which God is carrying in His hand. We are contained in the bucket, where there is time and space, or perhaps for your personal world view, call it time and place. We realize the handle which God is carrying is outside the bucket, yet the handle is clearly attached to the bucket. Outside the bucket, in His heavenly realm, there is no time or place, for paradoxically, God is in all places at all times, in and outside the bucket. Outside the bucket, He is in what we commonly call the eternal now. Since there’s no time in the eternal now, everything is happening for Him all at once. We are made in His image and likeness, and Christ Jesus is both man and God.  The point being, we also have a human and temporal condition as well as a connection to the divine nature. We are certainly not God, yet our bucket’s handle is surely in His hand and in His realm.

Saving Justice

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I found the entrance antiphon of Sunday, 3 July 2022 to be particularly inspiring. So much to be unpacked in each phrase. Consider the opening line; “Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple”. Of all the names we have for our Triune God, merciful love is one of the most beautiful. This opening line could have read, Your merciful love is, O God. For God Himself is love and love shone through the prism of light reflects all the names and all the virtues we know and love about our God.
This opening line is a clear, practical and grateful appeal to our God to shower His goodness on us, as we receive in the midst of His holy place. It is our disposition which governs this compensation, for His grace is given in full measure and in this sustaining grace we receive as much as we are capable. It is our open hearts and empty hands which allow us to be filled with His gifts. Again, we are told, “Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches the ends of the earth.” It is your righteousness and our right worship which has no bounds and no limits, for the ends of the earths encompasses all that is in our world and reflects all which is in Your heavenly realm.
Finally, we are told; “Your right hand is filled with saving justice.” The metaphor of the “right hand” shows the mighty power and prestige of what is working in our lives through His saving justice. We can see plainly that there must be justice and His judgment is justice. This is a spiritual physics anchored in the intelligibility, reason and logic of His genius. Unlike karma which we consider to be the cause and effect in our life in a world of contingences; His justice is His creation endowed with love and mercy on the path to salvation. Lord, thank you for Your purpose and the power to bring us into Your loving arms.



Psalm 139

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In Psalm 139, we read; “Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

For the next few months I would like to take a closer look at the form and content, as well as the syntax and language used in scripture. For me, the most important aspect of this examination is determining the original meaning and intention of the author. We know scripture is the Word of God, written in the inspiration of the moment by the hand of man. We know no work of man can be done perfectly, however, this is not a serious consideration when bringing the content out of the context, and I will not use this idea of perfection as an excuse when drawing conclusions. We are believers or we wouldn’t be spending our time in dialog on these pages loving and learning. I will return to these lead in thoughts from time to time. I am a “new age” kind of guy who believes the past is the path to the future. There is much to be learned from a traditional mind set, two thousand years of accumulated knowledge has produced a storehouse of wisdom. There is also much to be understood by complementing Holy Scripture with modern language and today’s academic disciplines. It is our intention as twenty-first century Christians to understand the original timeless message of Scripture written to first-century believers.

Jesus said in His genius that right worship is both vertical and horizontal; our praise to God coupled to our love for our neighbor. There is only one way to heaven and that is through our Lord and Savior. By defining right worship for us, He gave us permission to journey on our path learning how to open our hearts to receive His gifts. I believe this is the purpose of Scripture, and the mystery as well, to receive Him in ways we can understand and expanding our love for Him beyond our imagination.

So when reading Psalm 139, “Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” Here we see the beautiful combination of the psychological and spiritual nature of Scripture, as it is presented to us time and time again. We petition God to search us and know us, realizing full well that God knows us better than we know ourselves, having created us, knitted us in the womb, and knowing our true needs before we ask Him. Yet we petition Him nonetheless, because laying ourselves before God in our humanity is humbling ourselves in the majesty of His goodness which is the right vertical worship He described. God does not test us; the world tests us. My anxious thoughts are a reaction to the world. “Put me to the test,” is not a request made to God or a reaction to anything He has done, it is a statement of supplication and surrender to His will. We live in a cause-and-effect world, filled with the rules of physics, as well as random causal energy. Of course we have anxious thoughts given the uncertainty of the world. “Put me to the test,” is an acknowledgment that the Lord created the world and allows the world to be created. Just as He allows us to create through our free will. He has given us the power to make bad choices. So, “see if there is any hurtful way in me,” is an appeal to our egotistical human condition; letting ourselves off the hook so to speak. Sort of hoping against hope that we are not as bad as we think we are. Of course, we are broken. If we didn’t realize our brokenness we wouldn’t be making this appeal in the first place. The prayer is for cleansing, so our thoughts are not obstacles. What we want is to live as we were created, predestined to follow His eternal way, not our temporal confusion.