Catholic Education Week 2018
The Ontario Catholic School Trustees Association has published a series of prayer services for adults in the Catholic school system in preparation for May’s Catholic Education Week.
February 2018
“Praying the Promise”
SUGGESTED OPENING SONGS
- Seek Ye First ~Karen Lafferty
- Here I am to Worship ~Chris Tomlin
- Celebrate God ~Carey Landry
OPENING PRAYER
Good and loving God,
You call us to be your friend and you desire a relationship with us.
Through prayer, we encounter you and you open our hearts to your infinite love.
Guide us and encourage us so we can be in union with you whom we will encounter one day – face to face.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. +
READING: Matthew 7:7-8
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. R. Glory to You, O Lord.
Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who searches, finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
The Gospel of the Lord. R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION
In your relationship with God the Father, how do you ask, search and knock? What is given, found and opened for you?
READING AND GUIDED REFLECTION QUESTIONS
“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward Heaven; it is a cry of recognition and love, embracing both trial and joy.”~St. Therese of Lisieux
This simple quote is loaded with meaning, but I want to focus on three things. It first of all demonstrates the faith of one who is in relationship with God, as she speaks of her heart, “surging” in prayer. Anyone who has ever been in love has known the experience of being “twitterpated” and experiencing a surge of the heart at the sight or even the mere mention of their beloved. Second, St. Therese points out that the one who prays, looks beyond him or herself, to Heaven… seeking to know the God who has created and continues to love us. It’s not simply a question of deep self-reflection, but is by its very design, aimed to this eternal “Other” we know as God. And finally, that it embraces trial and joy and focuses on the fact that prayer is not simply there for the easy times when God seems close to us, it’s also for the difficult times where God is quiet or when life is difficult, and God seems very far away. The point with prayer is to put in the effort to fall in love with God by turning to him in the blessed moments of our lives, the ordinary moments and the difficult ones.~Mike Landry, Third Place Project, The Online Home of Mike Landry: Catholic Youth Minister, Speaker and Musician – http://www.thirdplaceproject.com/youcat-prayer-in-the-christian-life/ (November 10, 2017)
How do you, as Catholic educator, help your students understand God’s desire to be in a personal relationship with them and the graces that flow from it? How is this relationship central to their faith life and to Catholic education?
CLOSING PRAYER
Dear Lord,
St. Francis de Sales once said, “In prayer, more is accomplished by listening than by talking. Let us leave to God the decisions as to what shall be said.”
Good and gracious God, we are listening (sit in silence for a few moments).
In union with the Holy Spirit, we share this prayer with you, through Jesus Christ your son. Amen. +
SUGGESTED CLOSING SONGS
- Sweet Hour of Prayer ~William M. Wollford
- Open the Eyes of My Heart ~Michael W. Smith
- Thank You, Lord ~Don Moen
Source: Advance Kit