Prayers
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Tones of Heaven
Mrs. Orr and I stumbled on this piece of music recently. We both sat and listened while watching each others’ faces. It’s an aching piece of chest-music, with a melody that makes me want to close my eyes and write a loved one, repent of a sin, stroke a dog’s ears, gaze at an old photograph, hold my wife close. The composer is Michael Hoppe, and he seems to be a very interesting man. This evening while acquainting myself with his work, I found Mr. Hoppe’s gorgeous Ave Maria. I’ve included it here for you. If I may presume to offer a suggestion for your evening prayers, look up the…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Dreams, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections
Despair, Sleep, and Heavenly Mother
Bruce Charlton has posted a really good essay over at his blog, one of those posts that stopped me in my tracks. I commend it to you. I’ll include here the checklist Bruce wrote to assist in spiritual re-encouragement, and then a couple of thoughts. 1. Reality is ultimately created by God – and continually being-created by God; and I participate in this creation (as a sub-creator) insofar as the world is understandable to me. I look around and remind myself of this. 2. The world is Not dead, mechanical or random; the world is alive and conscious: this is a world of beings. Every ‘thing’ is actually a being, or part…
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Intact Routine
Yesterday was one of the most perfect days I can remember. When we awoke, a cool front had blown in and it was raining steadily. After feeding the dogs, my wife started breakfast (breakfast burritos from scratch…just one more element in a perfect day) and I took the spotted menace out for a soaking ramble through the hills. The mist was curling like Fafnir’s breath, silver and sinister, reaching into hidden places erupting from black chasms in the slick rock. We padded along, Jinx’s paws making a curious leatherlike sound on the wet leaves. We walked and looked and stopped and gazed and strolled and smiled — yes, Jinx smiles…
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Let It Stay
The sky was as blue as a cornflower marble, wisps of cirrus clouds high in the ceiling, and there were no vapor trails, no intruding airplanes. There were only hawks up there, and Jinx, sky-aware as always, sat with me and watched them in their fixed-wing thermal soarings. We were in the cemetery grass, and it was warm and soft there in the green, on the carpet that covers the sleeping remains of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons. The carved and lettered stones stood around us as if watching, and they were speaking, though not in voices a waking man can hear. I watched Jinx as he watched the…
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Columbus Day
Ho-hum, another dead white male who exploited and killed the gentle, prosperous peoples he encountered on his greedy voyages, right? Christopher Columbus explicitly and repeatedly averred his devotion to Christ and his desire to bring the gospel to the heathen lands to which he sailed, but since no “historian” alive today could believe in something as tiresome as the claims of Christ and His Church, Columbus must have been motivated by a lust for gold and plunder. That’s the way we hear it, right? As for me, I say God bless the memory of Christopher Columbus and his deeds. I feel a kinship with him because I am a member…
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All The Wistful Creatures
Today is the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Catholic monk best known for his intentional poverty and his association with animals. One of his most famous prayers, offered on behalf of animals, is this: Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends, the animals, especially for those who are suffering; for animals that are overworked, underfed and cruelly treated; for all the wistful creatures in captivity, that beat their wings against bars; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted, or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death. We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity, and for those who…
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Mine Own Compline
This is a spiritual exercise, and I want you to do it with me. Right now. Go and get a candle and place it on a desk or table before you, and light it. Stare at the flame for a moment, that blue and yellow tongue that feeds on the exact same oxygen as you. Then close your eyes. Bow your head as you did when you were a child, and bring your hands up, palms together, left thumb looped over the right. As you did when you were a child. Place the tips of your index fingers on your lips; your middle fingers will probably be on or just…
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Young October
And now September has flown away with the hummingbirds, leaving the young and quiet October as sentry to my observed life. We haven’t yet had our first frost, but the mornings are damp and chilly, and I’ve resumed wearing a hat on my morning rambles with the spotted menace. The spider webs are visible on many plants and structures, dew-decked and glistening like ice wheels. The wildflowers are dying back slowly; this morning Jinx and I passed between rows of late chicory, the vivid blue a contrast to the murky air around us. The leaves on the trees are slowly turning. I’m growing a tiny oak tree in a flowerpot…
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The Last Monday of Summer
The light was eerie this morning, filtered through a mist that seemed lighter yet more substantial than usual. As Jinx and I patrolled the high ridges and scanned for deer, it was as silent as a shepherd’s crook. The moon was hidden by clouds, but I could sense its power and presence behind the vapor veil, and was reminded that the full moon will be upon us tonight. A corridor of high tulip poplars lines our driveway, and a hoot owl was perched somewhere in them this morning in the darkness. He called his mournful Morse code into the new morning — whoo, whoo, whoo-whooooooo — and I thought of…
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Prayer Request
Please pray for my friend H, whose family is undergoing a severe trial right now. Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for H’s child and entire family during this difficult trial. Pray that Christ will grant grace, faith, and especially immediate healing. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum, Amen. Thank you for praying, friends. ~ S.K. Orr