Grant the constant happiness of being devoted.
To you , because it is full and lasting happiness.
We search for a light unclouded.
And for a greater tenderness.

I was trying to get to sleep, stop worrying.
And pray for the souls in purgatory waiting.
I started with my mother and father remembering.
And went through all the others, names recalling.

It’s amazing how much better I felt.
Thinking about others and not myself.
The heart started to melt.
As it contemplated another self.

I don’t know if it helped  a suffering soul.
But it certainly stopped me feeling low.

……

Praying for others
May or may not help others
But it does help us

…..

See The Collect of today

Take that scroll out of the hand of the angel.
Standing on sea and land.
Always there, our guardian angel.
But nothing can be planned.

At mass we were told about purgatory.
That people only escape from it with our prayers.
Is this  to be our story.
Before we can be taken upstairs.

But I wonder if this is right.
Would a merciful God make us wait.
I think I believe that when we die, we see the light.
We are never too early or too late.

But really who knows.
Maybe we’re just laid out in rows.

……

What’s purgatory
So are we all going there
Or can we skip it

……

See Apocalypse 10: 8-11

Since she keeps pestering me.
I must give this widow her just rights.
Do we also hear peoples plea.
During all those long nights.

Are we like the unjust judge.
With neither fear of God or respect for man.
Always having to respond to a pestering nudge.
Only looking after our own clan.

Will not God give justice to his chosen.
Who cry to him day and night.
Even when he delays to help them there and then.
For they are ever in his sight.

We may not to others listen .
But to us does he hasten.

……

Are we listening
Or respond to pestering
And is God the same

……

See Luke 18:1-8

People were marrying wives and husbands.

O God who from living and eternal stones.
Prepare a eternal dwelling for your majesty.
We will not just be dead bones.
We will be spared any agony.

I was at the mass for deceased priests.
A time to remember selfless ministry.
To recall their names’ feasts.
And to remember their industry.

I recall one thought , at the threshold.
They will find many they have helped and known.
As a great light they behold.
And a new path is shown.

Lives , we can only hope, not wasted. A new glory , we pray , tasted.

……

Stand on the threshold
Will we meet there some old friends
But can we be sure

… …

See The Collect of the Day

We are merely servants .
We have done no more than our duty.
Nor are we savants.
We are merely seeking beauty.

Think on this moment.
On the eternal being.
Seeking empowerment.
And a greater seeing.

The past is gone.
The future not yet here.
The line is drawn.
We need not fear .

We should be aware of the mind.
Not dwell always inside the mind.

…..

The past is now gone
And the future may not come
There is just present

……

See Luke 17: 7-10

Give them the hope of eternal life.
That was promised so long ago.
Free us from consuming strife.
So that in new life we may grow.

I was asking  the Blessed Richard for a sign.
We pray but do we ever get a response.
However much we appeal to a shrine.
And hope for renaissance.

I suddenly felt a presence in the room.
I was so sure I was not alone.
Of course it might be illusion in the gloom.
But it was something  real and unknown.

I prayed so hard for an answer to receive.
And when it came I could hardly believe.

……

We pray, no echo
But of course if it does come
We do not believe

……

See Titus1:1-9

I am ready for anything anywhere.
Full stomach or empty stomach.
Bad weather or fair.
Whatever I may lack.

I was tossing with toothache.
How I dread a visit to the dentist
One can’t let go of the ache.
Will this pain persist

Should I pray to a saint that is constantly bothered.
No I prayed to poor blessed Richard.
He never in his short life really mattered.
To play and to win he had no  ace card.

The toothache didn’t get any better.
But off to heaven I had sent a letter.

…….

At night we feel pain
We stay awake but we pray
And we feel better

…..

See  Philippians 4: 10-19

Their going looked like a disaster.
But they are in peace.
One day we will hear the celestial choir master.
Then we will have on life, a freehold.

I was standing in the Holy Souls Chapel.
Admiring Bentley’s design.
Quietly away from life’s terming babble.
Looking for a sign.

But I am soothed by the deep iconography.
My eye rising upwards.
Thinking of parents, grandparents’ biography.
There is no need for words.

Just prayer for their memory.
And a passing  century.

……

We are holy souls
And we are not risen yet
But soon we will be

……

See The Book of  Wisdom  3: 1-9

Truly I have set my soul.
In silence and peace.
Try to make me whole.
If I pray without cease.

When I can’t sleep.
I think on maybe the Bhagavad Gita or the rosary.
Rather better than counting sheep.
Or thinking not of others but me.

I try to root out the negative.
Dwell on the good things .
And be positive.
Rather than go round on rings.

But I still stay awake.
Whatever I seem to do for his sake.

……

Often I’m awake
The night passes to slowly
Good to meditate

……

See Today’s psalm 130

Lord, you love all that exists.
You hold nothing in abhorrence.
Through all our turns and twists.
Till our ultimate disappearance.

Are there really two types.
There certainly is two paths.
Good and bad, we come in many stripes.
On life’s stormy sea on our fragile rafts.

Contented , resentful, taking.
Angry and calm, lazy and full of zest.
Greedy and giving.
hypocritical and honest.

Understand, do not grudge.
And do not judge.

…….

We are two persons
We are all the good and bad
Our choice where to go

….

See The Book of Wisdom 11: 22-12:2