Category Archives: Spiritual Practices

Spiritual Practices

Advent Hymns

Advent Hymns . VID

Comfort, comfort, O my people,
Speak of peace, now says our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ’neath their sorrows’ load.
Speak unto Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell of all the sins I cover,
And that warfare now is over.

Hark, the voice of one who’s crying
in the desert far and near,
bidding all men to repentance,
since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey,
now prepare for God a way;
let the valleys rise to meet Him,
and the hills bow down to greet Him.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
make the rougher places plain,
let your hearts be true and humble,
as befits His holy reign;
for the glory of the LORD
now o’er earth is shed abroad,
and all flesh shall see the token
that His Word is never broken.

Jesus our King and Lord

The coming of the kingdom of God, says our Lord and Saviour, does not admit of observation, and there will be no-one to say “Look here! Look there!” For the kingdom of God is within us and in our hearts. And so it is beyond doubt that whoever prays for the coming of the kingdom of God within himself is praying rightly, praying for the kingdom to dawn in him, bear fruit and reach perfection.

For God reigns in every saint, and every saint obeys God’s spiritual laws — God, who dwells in him just as he dwells in any well-ordered city. The Father is present in him and in his soul Christ reigns alongside the Father, as it is said: We will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Therefore, as we continue to move forward without ceasing, the kingdom of God within us will reach its perfection in us .. For this reason let us pray without ceasing, our souls filled by a desire made divine by the Word himself.

From a Discourse of Origen

Attitude and Gratitude

Each of these prayers gives us a sense of the attitude we want to cultivate in our hearts following the Mass ..Therefore, it is fitting that we may wish to do so with our Lord through these prayers provided in the missal; however, this same sense of wishing to prolong our intimacy with God is also found in the ancient practice of entering into a little meditation while we are still in the glow of the Eucharistic celebration.

Fr Boniface . WEB