Showing posts with label prayers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayers. Show all posts

December 10, 2013

A Student's Prayer for Finals Week

Hello there, happy Tuesday! So around the time for midterms this semester, I posted A Student's Prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas. Today, I'm writing this prayer that this week will go well for all of us college students. Good luck on your tests, and merry Christmas!

Dear God,

Thank you for this semester. It has been a long one, at times challenging and draining, and at other times full of discovery and joy. We rejoice in the difficulties that you have presented us with, for they are contributing to our growth, mentally, emotionally, or physically. 

Thank you for the new relationships we have formed in these past months, for placing people in our lives to help us along the way. And thank you also for preserving the old, because those relationships are gold.

Please bless the rest of this semester. Help us to see through with our hard work. Give us motivation to study efficiently and constructively, and give us wisdom as we sit down to take tests and write papers. 

Please help us remember that our grades do not determine our worth as people, as important as they are, and help us maintain our joy in learning and energy for doing good will.

Amen.

And remember:

articles.elitefis.com

Take care,
-Riley XO

November 28, 2013

A Prayer of Generosity

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a lovely time with your friends and families. Today is a wonderful time to reflect on everything we have. 

I personally think that when you realize how blessed and gifted you are, you become inspired to share your blessings with all the people around you. So for this Thanksgiving, I wanted to share this short prayer of generosity from St. Ignatius Loyola:

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to look for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I am doing your will.

Have a wonderful evening!
-Riley XO

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October 3, 2013

A Student's Prayer

Hello there, good morning! Today I have my calculus midterm and I am pretty nervous but I have spent a lot of time studying and have prepared as best as I can. With the hectic schedule I had this past week, it became more important than ever to just slow down and pray. I know that a lot of the people who read my blog are students, so here is a little meditation for you guys, just to relax, refresh, and be ready for all the tests, papers, and quizzes that are coming up.

Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding. 

Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. 

Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. 

 Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. 

 I ask this through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.

-St. Thomas Aquinas, "A Student's Prayer"


mrwallpaper.com

Take care,
-Riley XO

July 6, 2013

"I Still Love You, But You're Not Worth The Pain."

I found the following quotation from Ritu Ghatourey: "Moving on isn't about not loving them anymore and forgetting them. It's about having the strength to say 'I still love you, but you're not worth the pain.'"

While I was playing the second movement of the Carmen Fantasy, I thought about Jay. [Which is 0:00-2:20ish in the following video.]




I actually have trouble playing this part of the piece because it is in a minor key but my instinct is to play in in a major key. (I suppose that's why I end up thinking about him.)

I discussed a little bit about my motives to talk to Jay in this post, but finally on Monday, I had the courage to reach out to him. I saw him, tried to be friendly, and later texted him, asking if it were possible to talk sometime. Initially, he was willing, but when I revealed that I would like to try to rebuild our friendship, he began slamming walls against me. There are some striking parts of our conversation that leave me...confused.

Me: "Ok, here's what I've wanted to say: I'd like to try rebuilding our friendship and I don't think that the bad things from the relationship are worth hating each other for forever because I was the first relationship and we were still learning."

Jay: "...You deserve better than me. I am not worth being friends with... I'm a hateful, cynical person. I treated you like shit toward the end. I'm sorry; you deserved better. I read your story and was blown away by how well written it was. You're going to go places. I'm all for ending on a positive note, but you deserve far better than anything I'm capable of."

Me: "...I think that people are put into our hearts for a reason, and I believe that in your heart you are better than you have been behaving--that's why I liked you. I had faith in that part. To be honest though it's a very fragile belief, has been for a while...I don't think friendships/relationships are supposed to be about "deserving" each other, but learning from each other, and I am sincerely concerned about your well-being. I told you I forgave you, and I still do... I thought you were better and all of those actions were a method of coping."
Despite my words, however, he still declined.

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Even now, I have trouble making sense of many things concerning our relationship.

Is it normal for someone to look back at his/her first relationship and feel...trifled?

Last night, I felt lost, like I had failed somehow. That somehow, if I had tried harder I would've been able to reestablish the connection with him or that somehow things would've all worked out, and we would've been able to show others that finding goodness even in a broken friendship is possible. Maybe, if I'd done better, he would've found the awesomeness that is inside of him, and that as a result he would never have made such self-depreciating comments.

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But today I finally realize that those conflicts that Jay has are ones that he must deal with himself. He is the one who must live with himself for the rest of his life, after all. I truly do want to help him, but the best way I can help him right now is by leaving. (Is there even another option?)

It is so hard walking away.

I hope that things will start to look up for him, sooner than later. In the meantime, all I can do is pray. I might not be able to soothe his anger or give him a better perspective in life, but God can.

Thank you to those that have been with me through this, and I would also appreciate having your prayers for Jay and me as well, if it's not too much to ask.

I hope that you take away something from this story; it certainly has given me a lot to think about.

-Riley XO

Thank you for reading this post, and please join me on the magical journey of life by subscribing by email or Bloglovin'. I am still at such an early stage of life, so there will definitely be better things to report in the Diary label of this blog in the future, but otherwise I post many things that are inspiring, fun, or quirky and would very much like to share and connect with you the lessons I am learning in this adventure of a lifetime.
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