10/20/13- Twentieth Century Prayers

 A Month in Prayer Praying the Prayers of the Church throughout the Ages                October 20

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

God of the day and of the night,
in me there is darkness,
but with you there is light.
I am alone, but you will not leave me.
I am weak, but you will come to my help.
I am restless, but you are my peace.
I am in haste,
but you are the God of infinite patience.
I am confused and lost,
but you are eternal wisdom
and you direct my path;
now and forever.
Amen

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He also was a founding member of the Confessing Church, a group of Reformed, Lutheran, and United pastors who resisted Hitler’s attempts to control the churches in Germany.  Bonhoeffer staunchly resisted the Nazi dictatorship especially the persecution of the Jews.  He was also involved in plans to assassinate Hitler. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and executed by hanging in April 1945 while imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp, just 23 days before the German surrender. His last recorded words were, "This is the end - for me the beginning of life.”

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 Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an Anglo-American Trappist monk. His father was Anglican and his mother was a Quaker. His Catholic monastery was in Kentucky. He was a writer, a mystic, a poet, and a social activist.

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 Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

Dear Jesus,
Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your Spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching
not by words, but by our example
By the catching force
the sympathetic influence of what we do
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) was born in Albania who served God in India most of her life . She founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which is now active in 133 countries. The over 4500 sisters run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; children's and family counseling programs; orphanages; and schools. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor".