The Great Spirit Prayer

I was talking to a brother on the phone and we were just sharing at how amazing God answers our prayers. Then I remember this prayer that I am going to share with you. A very beautiful prayer that speaks so much about reverence of God, seeing Him in the beauty of nature and actually receiving answers from the ways of His creation. It was attributed to Yellow Hawk, a Sioux Chief. It is called The Great Spirit Prayer. Here it is:

“Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind, whose breath gives life to all the world. Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.

Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others. Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.”

If I may add a little more, let me pray: May we learn the ways of nature O God, because they are footprints of Your great plans for us. Amen.

by aats

“Knowing Their Hypocrisy”

The gospel reading today taken from Mark 12:13-17, tells about how some priests and elders tried to set up Jesus by asking some tricky question. They asked, “Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, yes or no?” Jesus seeing through their hypocrisy said to them, “Why do you set this trap for me? Hand me a denarius and let me see it.” They handed him one and he said, “Whose head is this? Whose name?” “Caesar” they told him. Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.” This reply took them completely by surprise.

The first reading from Tobit 2:9-14, tells the story of a righteous man named Tobit, who became blind. One day he heard a kid bleat. He told his wife to return it for he said they have no right to eat stolen goods. His wife said that it was given to her but he did not believe. The wife then said, ““Where are your charities and your righteous deeds? You seem to know everything!”

It is easy to admire or judge a person because of spoken words, but ultimately real motives will be known. In the 1^st reading, it was not Tobits righteous anger that made him mad at his wife, it was his situation, he was blind and probably in a stressful and depressing condition. As with the gospel, it was not really about righteous question that they ask Jesus but about setting him in a trap. What is our take home on this?

1.   We might consider holding back judgment of why this person is acting like that and consider first there background and situation because there might be some condition that made him/her react in that way.

2.   It pays to be discerning when confronted with tricky question and situation least we fall into the trap.

3.   God knows what is in our hearts. No amount of eloquence can hide the truth. No amount of righteous talks can hide the motives of the heart. No amount of articulation can save us from our lies.

Nothing hidden that will not be known. He knows everything including our hypocrisy.

by aats