monkinabus: blog of derek dominguez

Invocation of the HS

Most powerful Holy Spirit,
    Come down
          Upon us.

From heaven
   Where the ordinary
        Is made glorious,
   And glory seems
But ordinary,

Bathe us
   With brilliance
   Of Your light
Like dew.

~Celtic Daily Prayer Found muddling around in my prayer books this morning while looking to write a prayer guide for World Orphans.

Lauds Concluding Prayer for Advent

I often pray the daily office form Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary. The wording of the prayers usually stay with me throughout the day. Below is the concluding prayer from Lauds for Saturdays during Advent.

"Prepare a Way in our hearts for the day of your coming; let your glory shine out among us. Let your radiant beauty shine forth in our hearts, almighty God. Then the darkness of our night shall pass, and your Son's coming will show us to be the children of light. This we ask of you."

Visions

    I'm often a skeptic of subjective visions and trying to attribute significant meaning to them . Then circumstances happen and it is hard to define them by randomness or to explain them away. A week ago as I was running up to my parents house I had a very vivid set of images stream through my mind of my good friend Paul who is the president of World Orphans. He along with another co worker were in a small foreign sedan of some sort hauling down a dirt road. The car was either white or yellow and banged up. I had this strong urging and prompting to pray fervently pray for their safety. I knew they had been in Iraq attempting to plant seeds and open doors to be able to start some new orphanages.
    I skepticlly sent Paul an email sharing with him my vision of him in Iraq and how we were praying for him. He emailed me back from Iraq stating, "Wow, bro. We've been drivng around in a white (cream colored with the dust on it) Toyota Corona, a little sedan, the time we've been here. And, yes, we've certainly seen our share of dusty roads and dirt roads. We haven't encountered any problems yet, other than a few nasty looks here and there. Perhaps your intercession and the prayers of other saints have helped to avoid such things." My faith is very miniscule at times. Why am I a skeptic of visions and subjective intuitions? Why do I have a difficult time believing God was behind the images and promptings he gave to me to pray?
    The work World Orphans is doing is one of the things I believe in so strongly as we long to see kingdom peace rise above the violence and destruction in this world, seeing God's kingdom come and his will being done. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. God would you rise up more workers for the harvest who are dedicated to a "pure and undefiled religion, to care for widows and the misfortune of orphans." If you haven't already please check out the work they're doing and follow along with Paul on his journeys. Paul's personal reflections and thoughts are found here at his blog.