Profiles in Catholicism

Prayers

A prayer for Franciscan, Capuchin Friars:

“Into the Silence”

If I were busy, busy with the busyness that makes me dizzy …

If there were too many colors and lights, dazzling my sight …

If the pace of the race was fast, faster, and fastest at first …

If there were too many places to go and too many things to do …

If there were too many people who did not see the poor who …

If there were too many ways to avoid the challenges of today …

Then I, like others, will go in search of you, Lord, to whom

St. Francis listened,

to whom you said, “Rebuild my Church”.

Yes the Church is falling down, but the Good Shepherd died

And rose again, so that the sheep can be brothers, called ‘friars’

And, being brothers, wear a hood that names them ‘Capuchins’:

And if the hood is up, it could be I am in the praying room.

Our life, Lord, varies as you know, between long and well-

Established friaries,

homes to our brothers, where work has

Replaced begging, and begging has become interior, in our

Talking silence with you, our God, taking with us so many

Requests for prayer that we spend hours in your presence, not

That you don’t see, that you don’t hear, that you don’t know.

The lady, Lord, down the road has called in to tell us to visit,

Her father is weak, her son is wandering about, she herself has

Needs unmet and then there are those who are homeless, poor,

Who need both hope and bread, bread and hope and, perhaps,

To be called by name, “Ben”, “Domini”, and “Peter” and then,

Lord, we come into your Eucharistic presence to take on love.

While we sit in silence, Lord, sometimes for hours, we bring all

Who have asked our prayers, all whom we have met, all whom

We have noticed and thought about and wondered how they can

Be helped and, as we see the little we can do and the rolling, ocean

Waves of need upon need, needing our help and thus we pray, as

We know, if you do not see, if you do not hear, if you do not act …

But we know, Lord, that you do see, that you do hear, and that you

Do act, and so help us to be patient, knowing that you love as no one

Else loves, and that your love is not just for now, for this or that

Problem, but your love is for, forever, for an eternity of living in

Love, and that if it seems to us that you do not act, or act quickly

Enough, it is because we are being taught, too, to love like you.

And so we go into the silence, seeking light, like we are dull bulbs,

Unlit, needing to connect with the light-source, as if to say that if

We are not soaked in prayer, we will not alight, not smile, not open

To the gift of glowing grace, coming from the burning coal of your

Passion, coming to brighten the eyes of our looking, the tenderness 

Of our touching, the helpfulness of our helping, like lighting a smile.

And so, Lord, let me be led by you to see myself as I am so that I

Can see who I am called to meet so that, facing myself, I can face

Others who need me to be there, for them, turning from you to them

And returning from them to you, a little lighter, a little brighter, with

The love that cannot escape the encounter with another although,

Humanly speaking, all we can do is to bring everyone to be with

You .by Francis Etheredge , Catholic married layman, father of 11, 3

of whom are in heaven, and an author: