Catholic Meditations

O my Jesus,
when the darkness touches our lives with screaming reality,
shattering the moment of comfort that you let us wrap ourselves in,
the spun-sugar illusions of our own strength,
and we realize how fragile,
how delicate
how precious
that which you give us really is,
help us remember to run into your arms,
so you can carry us like the children we are.

O Lord,
After the wounding happens,
and our heart aches with the need to strike out at that which hurt us,
Man or tool,
Wind, or sea or fire or flood,
even when there is nothing left to hurt except our own wounded hearts,
teach us to accept what you have given us,
the way you accepted the Father's will so long ago,
forgiving even as they killed you,
saving us,
showing us the way.

O Lord,
wrap yourself around us then,
when the darkness is too deep
and the anger too red for us to see,
and the pain blinds us even to your rocking us in our grief,
and bring us at last back into your light.

Amen

Labels: Need for God, Passion of Christ, Suffering

O Mother of Consolation,
who understands the shape of our tears,
each round drop,
like a minature world holding our grief,
sorrow,
hurt,
anger.

O Mother of Consolation,
who has drank so deeply of the well of sorrow,
listen to the aching of our hearts,
the hearts torn by sin,
ours or others,
hot pain at the sudden death
that can rain out of the sky unearned and unseen,
the loneliest grief,
shut up in a room that even in bright sunlight
seems to have no windows,
the wracking pain of a hard death,
the knowledge of wrong done that haunts
and refuses to go away,
the helplessness of watching a child die
and all the other pains and griefs and sorrows
we pour into your lap.

O Mother of Consolation,
Pray for us
when we are lost in our darkness,
blinded by our pain,
tormented by what we have done
or what was done to us,
and turn to you,
whom we know has plunged
into the very depths of grief and loss,
you, who in your mercy,
has never left anyone unaided.

Remember those especially
who are so wrapped up in their pain
and the events which overwhelm them
that they do not know who to turn to,
that they do not know who will aid them,
but cry out with their wounded hearts,
"Help me!"

O Mother of Consolation,
Ask your dear Son to forgive us
for all those times when the greed of our hearts,
the desire of our minds,
the grasping of our hands
causes that pain,
and ask Him to give us hearts like his, like yours,
filled with love even when
the darkness seems overwhelming.

O Mother of our Lord,
thank you for loving,
for being our mother,
for always saying yes to God,
for being with us in our miseries.

O Mother of Consolation,
Mother of the word incarnate,
pray for us now,
and at the hour of our deaths, Amen..

Susan E. Stone, 2006

Labels: Help, Mary, Mother of Consolation, Suffering

Out of the depths I cry unto you,
O Lord,
My Light and my Hope.

The darkness is deep today,
O Lord,
and I feel the waters rising
that threaten to sweep me away,
and in my fear
and in my anxiety
and in my hope
and in my longing,
I cry out to you.

Lord,
From dust you made me,
to dust will my body return,
but it is you who put the life in me,
it was you who breathed his last
so that I might live,
it was you who shattered death
so that you might take me home.
In the darkness of my fears
show me Golgotha, Lord,
that I might kneel
in the shadow of your cross
and see how much you care.
In the depths of my anxieties, O Lord,
show me your empty tomb,
and the hope you left with us
so we know your word is true.
When I feel so overwhelmed,
show me the Garden,
and how you sanctified the struggle
to do the right thing,
the Father's will
with your own dark moment.

O Lord,
who lets my cry come unto you,
who sends back the word,
"I know.
I am there with you.
I will never leave you alone,"
I trust in you,
be thou my strength,
my life,
my hope,
this day and always,

Amen.

Susan E. Stone, 2006

Labels: Need for God, Suffering

How small I seem today, Lord,
tired and sick and sad,
no thing of value have I for you,
no gift to make you glad,
just tears and pain and a worried mind
Is the mite I offer you,
And in your hands I place my heart,
This is all that I can do.

O Lord, You are my healer,
O heal my aching heart.
O Lord, be Thou my strength tonight
My illusions fall apart
Not words or skill in my poor hands
can cure the pain inside,
Within your loving arms tonight
O Lord, O let me hide!

O Lord, You are my peace -
No other peace is true,
O Lord You are my only hope
No other hope will do.
O be my light this hurting night,
O keep me close to you,
And when the morning comes at last,
I'll rise with you anew.

Susan E. Stone, 2005

Labels: Need for God, Suffering

O my Jesus,
when the darkness touches our lives
with screaming reality,
shattering
the moment of comfort
that you let us wrap ourselves in,
and we realize
how fragile,
how delicate
how precious
that which you give us really is,
help us remember
to run into your arms,
carry us like the children we are.

O Lord,
when after the wounding happens,
and our heart aches
with the need
to strike out
at that which hurt us,
even when there is nothing left to hurt
except our own wounded hearts,
teach us to accept what you have given us,
the way you accepted the Father's will
so long ago,
forgiving even as they killed you,
and Lord,
wrap yourself around us then,
when the darkness is too deep
and the anger to red
for us to see,
and bring us at last back
into your light.

Amen

Susan E. Stone, 2004

Labels: Need for God, Passion of Christ, Suffering

O Lord,
who offered up
in pain and sorrow
your own life's blood
that we might live,
remember this day
all who grieve,
who suffer,
who will die,
and have mercy on them all.
May we who love you
be willing tools
in your hands,
tools of your mercy
wherever you might call us.

Transform us,
O Fountain of Mercy,
that we become
your hands to heal,
your voice to comfort,
your feet to seek out
those in need,
This day and always,
Amen.

Susan E. Stone, 2004

Labels: Need for God, Suffering

Prayer on a sick day

O Lord,
Today my sickbed calls me,
and as I lay and rest
in my warm bed,
let me remember
the others,
those suffering without shelter,
those hungry and cold,
those watching
with no way to stop it,
their loved ones
slip away into death,
mothers with sick children,
those with lost husbands,
wives,
friends,
those who witness
tragedy and death.

How the world suffers,
day after day.

And most of all,
let me remember
you
exposed on the cross,
stripped of all comforts
bleeding,
wounded
cold,
in pain,
not for anything you did,
but for us in our miseries,
and sin
and sorrows.

Lord, I offer you my small pain,
my fear,
the suffering,
and say,
thank you
for joining us in our pain,
sanctifying our suffering,
and allowing us to offer it back to you,
for reparation,
for conversion,
to renew the face of the world.

Amen.

Susan E. Stone, 2004

Labels: Suffering

Morning Prayer on a Sick Day

At this moment, Lord,
I come to you,
frail,
ill,
so aware of my mortality,
and full of knowledge of
how small a speck I am in the face
of an immense universe.

And yet,
rather than despair,
I instead
remember a time
you chose to become
frail,
vunerable,
grieved,
tortured,
and executed
by a miserable death
for all the poor
vunerable,
sinful
small specks that we are
for love.

Thank you Lord,
for holding our hands
when the days are dark.

Let me offer all my fears
and sorrows
on the altar of your love,
Hide me in your Sacred Heart,
for only there will I find my peace.

Susan E. Stone, 2004

Labels: Morning Prayer, Suffering

A Prayer for Frustrating Moments

Hurting,
frustrated,
and confused,
I turn to you,
my anchor, my hope, my light.

O Lord,
so much I long to accomplish
yet
so often what I turn my hand to
seems to crumble up
and blow away
like dust,
either my standing in the way of your action,
or struggling against the current of where you would have me go.

Lord,
help me to learn
patience,
and to persevere,
to have pure motives,
to understand the paths you set me on,
to choose your way over my own,
and above all, to always be willing to say yes.

Susan E. Stone, 2004

Labels: Help Me O Lord, Suffering

Jesus the Healer

Yours is the healing touch
that helps us rise from our bed,
sick with the fever
that sin always brings.

Yours is the soft word
that brings us back to our senses,
frees us from the bonds
that sin always brings.

Yours is the word of command
that calls us back from the tomb,
wrapped in the shroud of death
that sin always brings.

Lord, on this, and every day,
may I rise up
like she who was healed of her fever,
to do your bidding,
in your way,
now and forever.

Amen.

Susan E. Stone, 2004

Labels: Emmanuel, Jesus' Love, Suffering

Dear Lord,
I thank you this day
for having been willing to suffer for me,
I thank you this day
for having sanctified suffering,
the gift I can offer back to You,
in grateful love.

You who know the sorrow and suffering
of carrying the worlds sins,
thank you for my sorrows,
that let me know how real
the sacrifice you made was.
Thank you for the pain
that lets me know how hard it was
to carry that cross,
to take the beating,
the curses,
the mockery.

Lord, let me never forget the reality of
what you went through
for the likes of me.

Lord, thank you for letting me
link my sufferings to you,
to have something to sacrifice up,
to have this that lets me remember
never to take you for granted,
and may it bring me ever closer to you.

Labels: Emmanuel, Passion of Christ, Suffering

Some days

Some days it seems so confusing, Lord,
and I don't know where to turn,
or what to do,
or what to feel.

Those days, it's like I'm stepping out,
blindfolded, on a high wire
over an abbyss.

And yet I know,
it is you who hold my hand
and guide my feet.

Some days, it feels
that life is bitter dust,
drying out my mouth as the desert sun
beats down on my shoulders,
and even your name becomes
hard to pronounce from sunblistered lips,

But even then I know
you are quenching my thirst
with hidden springs
of unseen water.

When I walk through the valley of the shadow,
Lord,
Bring to mind the memory of how you too
suffered and thirsted and felt abandoned,
to remind me that yes, you know what it feels like;
in your suffering, may I always find the balm
that makes my darkness
bearable,
til I cross the desert
and find again the green pastures.

Susan E. Stone © 2003

Labels: In the Valley of the Shadow, Suffering