From the Heart

The AM- radio was playing their station ID when I woke up this morning and the voice of the man rattled on to give the names of the technical staff of the station until it aired a tape recorded Morning Prayer. It sounded so perfect yet so distant; well written but it doesn’t seem to touch me. In the middle of enjoying my coffee, it jolted my consciousness to think how we can all be like tape recorded voices calling out to the Almighty. Then, I knew why there was no echo in me. It was not my prayer… it didn’t come from my heart. Weird but I felt funny inside. Later, I just found myself groping for a pen in my bag. Soon I was intently writing on a scrap of scratch paper. Hahaha! Below is the voice that wants to be heard from the heart…

The Prayer
Yani P. Cordero

Lord, God, Heavenly Father,

We come before you with confidence in your love and merciful graces.

We adore You in Your great holiness,We glorify You even as we ask pardon

for all the wrongs we have done…

All-knowing Father,You know us as we are… the motives in our plans,

Our righteousness and inequities;And our thoughts and deeds,

Be they sublime or ridiculous.
You know our needs and You have always provided us –

even those that, in our narrow understanding, we discard.

Grant us the grace to see Your hand in the events of our lives,

To see Your face in the people that we meet;

Allow us to hear Your voice as it speaks softly into our hearts…
Let us have the courage to respond to Your call when it demands more

than what we can apparently give…

Let our weaknesses be our strength in clinging to You Lord

because in our limited faculties, we can never be good without Your guiding spirit.

Father,We aspire for big things but we fail to appreciate greater things You give,

We desire to improve the widest expanse of our place; yet, we do not lift a finger

to clean out the dust that gathers ‘round our feet.

We want to be praised for the little good we do

but we seldom praise Your goodness through which we live –
We have conquered the space beyond the atmosphere, Lord…

but we are hypocrites refusing to peep into our inner place where we may hear your soft instructions;

We have gone to conquer the moon,

but we do not have the graciousness to cross the street

to welcome a neighbor with a smile and nary a handshake;

We have progressed far in science and technology,

but we are so proud that we cannot advance a step in our faith;

We have seen through an atom

but we decline to examine the molecules of our prejudices to correct them –

We can openly give to people in high and mighty places

but it seems too painful to give to those who cannot give back the favor;

We are fast in criticizing policies in the government and politicians in our land;

yet, we do not look into our own selves that we might shed off the undesirable traits

to start that needed social change of heart.
Lord, we wear layers of masks so that it pains to pull them off our faces,

We always fall short of Your righteousness…

Help us change for the better because we are weak.

Increase our trust in Your love that we may not fear to go on in this pilgrimage of life;

Help us remember that You are our God and we are Your people.

We know that You are with us all the way –

through highs and lows, through hell and high water.

Please give us faith to believe, Lord,

that the best will come out of every experience in our lives,

That they are happening already even as we pray to You today.

Bless us all Father through our savior, Jesus Christ – Your son who suffered for us that we may have life eternal,

May our lives give pleasure to You

despite its imperfections when our day is done.

Your will be done in us… Amen.

The picture above is taken from Google Home Images.