Mary Sullivan

Not everyone who cries: “Lord, Lord”

will Heaven’s Kingdom enter,

Like Judas, we can kiss the Lord,

And still be Christ’s dissenter.

To make our way to heaven,

We must listen and be still.

So, we can hear the Father’s voice

And do the Father’s will.

To do the Father’s will,

We must stop, and must take stock,

Of the words Christ spoke to us,

Build homes on solid rock.

The rains may fall, floods may come,

This may be true, perhaps.

But if our homes, are built on rock,

Then they will not collapse.

But if we fail, to act upon,

The words of Christ firsthand,

Then we will be, like the fool,

Who built his house upon the sand.

The rains will fall, the floods will come

And over time elapsed,

The house built, upon the sand,

Will come to ruin, and collapse.

Lord, we so need Your grace,

To hike Your holy path uphill.

To listen to Your voice,

To do the Father’s will.

Grant this grace to loved ones.

May they too listen to Your voice,

May the Father’s loving will,

Be their first, and only choice.

When life’s rains and life’s floods,

Leave our minds in shock.

May we all be like the man,

Who built his home on solid rock.  (Based on Matt. 7:21; 24-27)

Dear Father, up in heaven, You hear our prayers below,

May You with love and mercy, upon us all bestow,

Repentant tears of sorrow, tears to wash our guilt away.

Tears to free our burdened hearts, set captives free this day.

May each of our lost loved ones pray a true repentant prayer.

May this prayer be the path by which they escape Satan’s snare.

The lying thief lures us to sin, then says, as if he’s won,

Now aren’t you despicable? Look at what you’ve done!

Repentant hearts can heal the soul, on this conversion’s built.

“Repentant tears,” said Augustine, can wash away our guilt.

And freed from guilt we’re truly free, to love Him who gave His life.

We’re free at last to seek out Truth.  We’re free to follow Christ.

We’re free to be with the Lord, with Him be quiet and be still.

We’re free to follow the Lord’s path; we’re free to do His will.

Let us take repentant tears to Christ, that we be freed from all oppression,

Let’s find freedom through the sacraments.  Let’s all go to confession.

“We must pray without tiring,

For the salvation of mankind does not depend

on material success…

But on Jesus alone.”

Saint Francis Xavier (Feast day December 3)

To pray is to enter a battle, a fight.

We must be ready to fight for the light.

It doesn’t come easy; it’s toil and sweat.

It’s letting go of things over which,

we would rather fret.

No sooner do we sit down to pray,

But a thousand distractions soon come our way.

There are errands to run,

work not yet done.

And for heaven’s sake,

There is money to make.

There are things to do, and people to see,

Lord, why can’t we be

like the Cure of Ars, who said: “I look at Him, and He looks at me.”

Prayer takes effort, and there is no doubt,

It is work to keep going in prayer,

More delightful to pout,

About all our worries and our distress,

And all of the problems,

with which we’re beset.

We can start thinking God isn’t there,

Or He doesn’t care,

Because right away,

He didn’t answer our prayer.

At least not in a way,

we think we can bear.

And then there are days when our prayers feel like gloom.

Like we are praying at Christ’s empty tomb.

With words that seem lifeless, hope burns and crashes.

Our prayers can seem like dry dust and ashes.

Or a desolate December when all growth has ceased.

Through frigid prayers, we pray for warmth and peace.

Our prayers can seem so empty and bare.

Yet about all of this, so much our Lord cares.

Perhaps our Lord takes frigid prayers, and with Godly art

Warms them with His Sacred Heart.

Perhaps He takes our prayers,

So dusty, empty and bare,

Fills them with love, as God can do,

Shines them up to look like new.

What if He is simply content,

With fortitude and good intent?

What if there is a lost soul out there,

Somewhere, in need of prayer,

And God uses our prayer to show that lost soul how much He cares,

Just how much he is loved,

from above.

And it helps to remember and to see,

that soul could be

Not just one of our own loved ones,

But someone else’s daughter or someone else’s son.

Touched by God in a holy way,

Because we simply stopped our busy day

To pray.

And maybe, just maybe our Lord in His mercy,

Will have someone pray for our loved one today.

And that prayer will reach them, in a pure way.

Get their attention.  Shake them awake.

Help loved ones walk through faith’s narrow gate.

We are one body, with Christ as the head.

Through our prayers, Christ can raise to life souls which were dead.

And we won’t know details, or the end of the story,

Until we reach our final glory.

May we pray, and never tire,

May our prayers ignite, inspire

Pure, loving hearts, as God desires.

When the battle for prayer becomes December,

barren and cold.  It helps to remember

in the end our dry December prayers can save a soul.

Our winter prayers can bring

To a soul new life in Him,

a new flower, a new spring.

May we persevere in prayer today.

Dear Lord, grant us the grace to pray.

(Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2725, 2656, 2725)

Heavenly Father, we lift up to You our heartfelt prayers,

We know that You are listening, that You are waiting there,

To hear our strong and fervent cries, to answer impassioned pleas,

For our loved ones who seem lost and tossed by stormy seas.

It does seem, by stormy seas, away they have been swept.

We feel like Rachel who, for her children, wailed and sadly wept.

With hands holding sunken heads, we ponder how we’ll cope.

But by folding those same hands in prayer, in You we can find hope.

With that hope, we can begin to see beyond our wails ‘oft loud,

Hope lies hidden for our loved ones, as the sun hides behind the clouds.

We walk not by sight, nor by what, our weary eyes can see.

We walk by faith, ever-believe, the best is yet to be.

Although our souls can seem steeped in the dark of night.

By faith, we carry on, by faith we struggle towards the light.

This evil cast upon our loved ones, and thus upon our families too.

We fight against, by Your grace, we fight for them, for truth, for You.

In Jesus’s name we beg for mercy, on loved ones lost and gone astray.

We pray for, and offer mercy, to those who wounded us on this, or some bygone day.

May each soul keep in clear sight, its last and final end,

May the Spirit be with us, and on us His holy gifts descend.

May mercy transform each hardened heart; hearts seek Your holy call.

Have mercy on each one of us.  Dear Lord, have mercy on us all.