Prayers That Remain

Dear Friends,

I keep thinking about the story Deacon John shared with us in his sermon last Sunday, about the woman who, though most of her memories had faded, was still able to recite word-for-word the Lord's Prayer. It's a powerful experience when you meet someone that has been so formed by prayer that prayer stays around as part of their life far beyond other things that seemed so important at the time.

It has me wondering, though, what prayers are forming me? I hope the prayers of the church are. I suspect that phrases from the Eucharistic prayer, for instance, will remain with me when the day comes that my memories begin to fade. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And, of course, the great prayers of the church, such as the Lord's Prayer. I suspect a few lines from hymns might be there. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, or The King of love my Shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. Who knows.

But I do know that I'm making choices about what, exactly, it is that will stick with me through the years. Yes, in the prayers I pray and the hymns I sing. But also in the many other ways I fill my life. So the question I'm really pondering is--am I giving myself to love so that love will remain when all else fades? Am I giving myself to care for neighbors, to worship God, to laugh, to sing--all of which can be prayer--so that as I grow old and tired and forgetful, those remain?

Am I giving my minutes, my hours, my days, my life to those everyday prayers that I want to hang on to when everything else fades?

God bless,

Fr. Quinn+