Adventures in Daily Prayer Quotes

“Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with God. Speak with familiarity and confidence as to your dearest and most loving friend. Speak of your life, your plans, your troubles, your joys, your fears. In return, God will speak to you— not that you will hear audible words in your ears, but words that you will clearly understand in your heart.”1 —St. Alphonsus de’Liguori (1696–1797)”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“The Lord is not a divine vending machine," says a friend, who cautions against taking a procedural approach to listening. I just try to pay attention to God, especially when I am praying. I have always struggled to quiet myself and listen for his word. I have learned to reserve moments of silence during my prayer times to let God have an opportunity to say something. Better pray-ers than I recommend that at the very least we take five minutes”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“across this stunning paragraph:
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinies. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities ... that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“The Lord does not contradict himself. Nothing that we hear from him will conflict with Scripture or the teaching of the church. Recently, for example, on subsequent occasions at prayer I heard”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“from the Latin "Ite, missy est." This is the charge to the congregation that concludes the liturgy, now translated as "The Mass is ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord." I let my experience of worship at Mass flow into my daily prayer and life. It enhances my spirit of thanksgiving and strengthens me for my Christian service.
Expressing gratitude to God gives shape and substance to my daily prayer. It fills me with joy, binds me to God, carries me through hardships, erodes my self-sufficiency, and engages me with Christ in his eternal self-giving. Those are big benefits for just saying thanks.”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“-Psalm 118:1, 5-6, 19, 21-22
All our life is sown with tiny thorns that produce in our hearts a thousand involuntary movements of hatred, envy, fear, impatience, a thousand little fleeting disappointments, a thousand slight worries, a thousand disturbances that momentarily alter our peace of soul. For example, a word escapes that should not have been spoken. Or someone says something that offends us. A child inconveniences you. A bore stops you. You don't like the weather. Your work is not going according to plan. A piece of furniture is broken. A dress is torn.
I know that these are not occasions for practicing very heroic virtue. But they would definitely be enough to acquire it if we really wished to.3
When I am able to thank the Lord for an inconvenience, I believe he chips away at my mountainous need to be in control. "Thanksgiving," says Patrick D. Miller Jr., "whether to other persons or God, is an inherent reminder that we are not autonomous or self-sufficient ... Praise to God does that in a fundamental way as it directs our love away from self and all human sufficiency."4 In my case it will take a lot more thanks and a lot more chipping away of my self-sufficiency before an adjective like "heroic" could even remotely apply to me.
A Thanksgiving Sacrifice
Mary Lou and I attend our parish's contemporary Mass at 6 p.m. on Sundays, and I pray often at daily Mass. The heart of
the Mass is a celebration of the Eucharist, a representation of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice that rescued us from sin and united us to God. The word "eucharist" derives from a Greek root that means "thanksgiving." At Mass I enjoy the privilege of participating in Christ's eternal sacrifice, offering myself with him in thanksgiving to the Father. I am expressing my gratitude for his giving me a share in his divine life through the death and resurrection of”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“God will speak to you— not that you will hear audible words in your ears, but words that you will clearly understand in your heart.”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love

“Pray all verses of Psalm 145 once each day for a week.”
― Bert Ghezzi, Adventures in Daily Prayer: Experiencing the Power of God's Love