PRAYER TO THE GOD OF THE SEEKING

SHRINE OF THE SACRED HEART AT FARHNWALD JESUIT RETREAT CENTER
OSHKOSH, WI

Teach me to seek you,

and when I see you , show yourself to me;

for I cannot seek you unless you teach me,

or find you unless you show yourself to me.

Let me seek you by desiring you.

Let me find you by loving you

and love you when I find you.

I do not seek to understand so that I can believe

but believe so that I may understand

For this too, I believe:

Unless I believe, I shall not understand.

St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

PRAYER IN TIMES OF TROUBLES

God is our REFUGE and our STRENGTH,

Who from of OLD has HELPED us in our DISTRESS.

Therefore we FEAR NOTHING -

Even if the EARTH should OPEN UP in front of us

and MOUNTAINS PLUNGE into the DEPTHS OF THE SEA;

even if the EARTH'S WATERS RAGE and FOAM

and the MOUNTAINS TUMBLE with its HEAVING...

(Ps 46:1-3)

GOD'S SEEMING ABSENCE AS GOD'S PROFOUND PRESENCE

"Dark Night of the Soul" is a profound feeling of God's seeming silence
and distance to everything that craves for deeper union with God

I have experienced the "Absence of God" so  profoundly

and that this "negation" has gradually became 
God's New Presence in my Life! 
May God be Praised!

EVER PRESENT GOD, 
THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME 
THAT YOU ARE THE GOD OF DARKNESS AS WELL.
EVEN IN MY DARKEST MOMENTS, YOU ARE THERE,
SEIZING ME AND LOVING ME.
I PRAY THAT I MAY ALWAYS FIND YOU
IN THOSE MOMENTS 
WHEN I AM UNMOVED TOTHE BEAUTY OF CREATION, WHEN I AM FROZEN TO THE LOVE OF COMMUNITY, WHEN I AM OBLIVIOUS OF YOUR ABIDING PRESENCE. AMEN.

You made the night your cloak,
you covered yourself in a canopy of storm clouds.
Psalm 18:11