Prayer of offering

Lord Jesus,

I give you my hands to do your work.

I give you my feet to go your way.

I give you my eyes to see as you do.

I give you my tongue to speak your words.

I give you my mind that you may think in me.

I give you my spirit that you may pray in me.

Above all

I give you my heart that you may love in me,

your Father, and all mankind.

I give you my whole self that you may grow in me,

so that it is you, Lord Jesus,

who live and work and pray in me.

God be in my head, and in my understanding,

God be in my eyes, and in my looking,

God be in my mouth, and in my speaking

God be in my heart, and in my thinking 

God be at my end, and at my departing

-Book of hours (1514)

In a seemingly tiresome day

Sometimes every little thing would annoy you,

how the door shuts,

loud music,

too cold,

too hot,

too salty,

too bland,

too tedious,

too bored,

too uncomfortable...

Close your eyes,

take a deep breath and say,

Oh Lord, lift the fog over me,

Allow me to see all that is good.

Let me praise you and be grateful.

Amen. 

Hopeful

May our lent be a time of growth in our faith and ourselves. May our relationship with Christ deepen and our outlook in life be richer. May he soften our hardened hearts and fill our soul with his love. 

Let's start our Lent right. Be blessed! 

+:)

My tireless God.

These past few months have been somewhat rocky in my mind. If I have to describe it, I would dare to say that I was slowly sinking into depression. It started back in late November and gradually grew till I am feeling very unhappy and having depressing thoughts. I wouldn't want to admit it but I suppose one factor was my failure to get where I want, and even though I have never given it much thought in the forefront of my mind, somewhere in my subconsciousness it had a profound effect. But it wasn't just that, my unhappiness was caused by several factors.

My continuous weakness when I'm confronted by temptation, that act of giving in without much of a struggle and my doubts and anxieties toward my future, my longing for something I am still searching for, my guilt for ignoring the presence of God in my life and being ashamed to face him and humble myself in front of him. All of these and many more made up the storm that threatened to engulf me.

Looking back, I see now that I was never by myself. God was there, and he never gave up. Even at the times when I was very sad and feeling alone, he gave me things to smile about. He showed me how beautiful his creation was and guided me towards him again. I realise now that, I was being very selfish and narrow-minded. I was so caught up on myself that I blocked out all that is good around me and all the people whom I love.

It's a long journey. I may stray away from the road, take many detours, face a dead-end but one thing I know for sure - God will always be there throughout all of it and he will never tire of bringing me back to the road again. He will never tire of bringing You back to the road.

TIQ: Listening in the silence of your heart

Do not be afraid of the silence of your heart, for it is in your silence that you hear God speaking to you.

A weekend at Worth Abbey

It's the start of lent and what a great way to start it with a retreat! I'm currently in a retreat with the Catholic Society of my university at a Benedictine Abbey in Sussex. We'll be staying here till Sunday afternoon. Today we came at around 8 pm, had our dinner and joined the monks for their evening prayers. The church where they did their prayer was dome like and beautiful. We'll be joining the monks in their prayers throughout the weekend and at the same time do our own prayers as well. That's it for me for now, hope you guys have a good and spirit filled lent. :)

Discussions over dinner

Today I had a discussion with my housemate about religion and since we differ in our beliefs as she was a Muslim and I, a Catholic. We were both curious about the differences in our faith. It was interesting because there are a lot of common points between the two and yes, there are many differences but the most important point is that, we both believe in the same God. They may call him Allah and pray and worship him in a different way but it is still the same, Allah is God and God is Allah.

Having said that, our discussion brought upon many interesting questions about why we do this and why they do that, why we believe in this and how about that. She asked me many simple and obvious questions about my faith and I tried to answer it as best as I could but its sad how I wasn't able to answer it rightly and with more understanding. This made me realize about how vague and lacking my existing Catechism is and reminded me to continue seeking and understand my faith. But I feel really thankful to God for giving me such opportunities to talk to other denominations about our faith and for constantly reminding me to seek him out, to know him more and to understand him more.