Catholic Meditations

Response to Terror: A Prayer

Once again we humans offer up
a heaping pile of smoking rubble,
the open wreckage of buildings stripped of walls,
blood and crushed bodies,
the agony of the injured,
the wailing of the survivors,
a lingering cloud of dust that hovers for a time
like the bitter laughter of demons.

O Lord,
we commend our brothers and sisters to you,
crushed by the rubble,
torn by the explosion,
trapped, shattered and broken.

We commend to you, O Lord,
those whose anger burns like white hot steel,
victims of shattered dreams,
victims of the shattered dreams of others,
victims of exploitation,
victims of others' hatred,
victims of others' indifference,
victims used,
furnishing the bitter laughter
of demons dancing in the dust.

O Lord, open our hearts,
that we may be the instruments of your peace
in a world of hatred and anger,
use us to shed the balm to heal the wounded,
use us to heal the broken dreams,
use us to ease the hurt, the aching, the loss.

Lord, open our eyes,
remove the scales of our indifference,
that we may see the truth with your eyes,
and in seeing, respond in your way.

Teach us, O Lord,
how to break the bitter laughter of the darkness
with the light of your truth.

Amen.


Susan E. Stone, 2003

Labels: current evils, Mercy on Mankind

Praise

Dear God,
O the glory in your goodness,
You who touch my heart with that indescrible joy
that comes unbidden,
even when times seem tough
and joy seems unreasonable.

Dear God,
O the glory in your loving kindness,
how out of ash and flood and pain,
you bring together
love and healing and hope and peace of mind,
not because we deserve it,
but because of your tender care.

Dear God,
O the glory in your steadfast care,
how much you were willing to sacrifice
to bring us under your wings.

Let me lift up my hands in praise and thanksgiving,
for who is like you, O my Lord?

Susan E. Stone, 2003

Labels: Praise and Thanksgiving

Prayer to Our Lady:

Oh Mary, Queen of Heaven, who still reaches out to her
children one by one across this wide and sin-torn world
as a mother to each of us, thank you for being there.
Thank you for the precious gift of the rosary, which is
like a life-line you throw to us in the tempetuous sea
of our sin and sorrow. Help us learn to pray we ought,
to ponder in our hearts the truth and glory of your Son
Jesus, the joy of being united to his Sorrowful and
your Immaculate hearts, and come to us who love you at
the hour of our deaths.

Susan Stone, 2003

Labels: Mary

To Our Lady of Sorrows

Blessed Mother,
when you saw your son walking down that crowed holiday
road
flanked by the Romans and marked by blood and blows and
the hatred of men,
And you saw with your own eyes
the lengths to which he would go down the road to reach
out to sinful man,
the pain he was willing to suffer,
the weight he was willing to bear
to make all things anew,
how hard was it to let him go,
to let him do the task he came to do,
to drink the bitter, bitter chalice
that was yours alone to taste.

Thank you for agreeing with your son
O Lady of Sorrows,
that the father's will be done.
O Queen of martyrs,
in that living martyrdom of witnessing
the pain and torture and death
of your perfect son,
you who plumbed the depths of sorrow
deeper than I can fathom,
thank you,
O Consoler of Afflictions
for loving enough to ease all our hurts.

Susan E. Stone, 2003

Labels: Mary, Passion of Christ