With a good courage and a willing mind

Praying for my Postulants

As I chanted the responsories at Matins in the pre-dawn darkness, it became clear that they, in some way, were addressed to my young brothers and to me at the onset of this week of new beginnings. This so often happens: when the liturgic Word is received humbly, just as it is given us by Mother Church, it penetrates mightily into the very core of one's here and now. The liturgy, unchanging and objective, is ever new and is always a word for today. Hodie.

Responsory I

The Lord open your hearts in His laws and commandments, and send you peace in your days, * And give you salvation and redeem you from evil. V. The Lord hear your prayers and be at one with you, and never forsake you in time of trouble. And give.

This is my prayer for the first postulants of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle. "The Lord open your hearts, and send you peace in your days, and give you salvation, and redeem you from evil, and hear your prayers, and be at one with you, and never forsake you in time of trouble." The liturgy is the complete prayer given us by the Holy Ghost who comes to help us in our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought. See Romans 8:26.

Responsory II

The Lord hear your prayers and be at one with you, and never forsake you in time of trouble; * May the Lord our God be gracious unto you. V. And give you all a heart to serve Him and do His will with a good courage and a willing mind. May the Lord.

And this is what I pray for Diego, and CJ, and now Brendan: "May the Lord give you all a heart to serve Him and do His will with a good courage and a willing mind. Monastic life requires men of valour.

Responsory III

Our enemies are gathered together, and do boast in their strength; destroy their might, O Lord, and scatter them, * That they may know that there is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, O God. V. Scatter them abroad among the people, and put them down, O Lord, our defence. That they.

Finally, we mustn't think, even for a moment, that we will be spared the messiness of spiritual combat and struggles. "Our enemies are gathered together, and do boast in their strength." And yet, fear is useless; confidence in the triumphant love of Christ withstands every spiritual attack. "If God be for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31). "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.