“Let us never forget to pray. God lives. He is near. He is real. He is not only aware of us but cares for us. He is our Father. He is accessible to all who will seek Him.”
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I d do. I d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I d just feel a prayer.”
“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.”
“Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess: Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity. Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou knowest, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends. Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing. I will not ask thee for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn t agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong. Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint -- it is so hard to live with some of them -- but a harsh old person is one of the devil s masterpieces. Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so. Amen”
“The more you pray, the less you ll panic. The more you worship, the less you worry. You ll feel more patient and less pressured.”
“A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages.”
“there is a God, there always has been. I see him here, in the eyes of the people in this [hospital] corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find Him... there is a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He will forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to Him now in my hour of need. I pray that He is as merciful, benevolent, and gracious as His book says He is.”
“God, grant me strength to accept those things I cannot change.”
“May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.”
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”
“Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.”
“I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.”
“Sometimes I go to God and say, God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already. God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn’t pay Him for what He’s done for me.”
“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don t want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of good time is seldom in sync with ours.”
“Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer. [Mark Twain, a Biography]”
“Beauty is not who you are on the outside, it is the wisdom and time you gave away to save another struggling soul like you.”