A Prayer For My Wife

Last year my wife made a Cursillo. As she prepared to go, I wrote my wishes for what she would gain from the experience in a letter she opened after I left her there.

I recently re-read the letter and it strikes me that the letter could be turned into a prayer that I want to share openly.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for bringing this warm human being into my life. She has been my spouse, my soulmate, my leader, my teacher, my healer and my best friend since we were 18 years old.

If it is your will, please grant her these things:

Her eyes will be opened to see new things

Her ears will be opened to hear new things

Her mind will be opened to learn new things

Her soul will grow in deeper kinship with You

She will read the words forged with love from many people she holds closest to her heart that will her you much she is loved, honored and cherished.

She will know that You will never stop guiding us toward Your plan for us.

You will never stop encouraging me to become the spouse she deserves

She will remember that love is constant but forgiveness must but renewed every day.

She will develop new relationships with other women that will be authentic

She will continue grow a vision of what our life together should be as our life purpose becomes clear

She will be assured that the sacrament of our marriage is the reason I want to stay sober.

She will learn that her children honor her more than she can ever comprehend

She will learn that You have sent forth the holy spirit to forge the chains that binds our family together. Not just between us, the children and us but ALL of us.

She will remember that You never stop listening but sometimes we forget to start talking back.

She will be renewed in spirit and reminded of much she is loved

God, please reward her devotion to you and her steafast to faith in You all of these years

You will be strengthen herto continue to be her joyful self despite all of the challenges being married to an alcoholic brings her.

You will be guide us to full restoration as a couple and that You will show us Your will for us

These things I ask of You for her, not for me. She is your beloved daughter who brings all of us closer to You through her example.

Thanks be to God. Alleliua.

Amen.

Peace be with you.

Don't Be Alone

I love my sons with all of my heart and that love is eternal. My love will continue all the days of my life on this earth and that love will be perfected in the next. I do not love one son more than the other. I love each one differently than the other because they are different from each other.

As I have healed and learned how to better love them, I have come to understand that there is nothing that either could do that could cause me to love them any less. Let me repeat that thought again with emphasis: there is nothing they could do that could cause me to love them any less. While I did not coin the phrase, I hold it as close to my heart as if originated there. They know this - just as I know that I am loved in this way by my mother. The strength of that love also means there is nothing they could do that I could forgive. There is also no hurt they could suffer that I would not reach out to embrace and hold in my heart.

If we are capable of this kind of love even though we are human and imperfect, than what kind of love is God capable of showing us? His love is perfect, abiding, constant and endless. There is nothing we can do that can cause him to love us less. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it and we can’t describe it. It is always there for us. We just have to turn toward him and accept it. God created us in His image so that He would have a self aware spiritual being gifted with free will to know His love. God does not need our love. We need His love.

I know there is at least one person in my life; maybe even more than one, whom I pray will find solace in these thoughts. There are things that I have been learning in the past months that I wish I could say that I have fully experienced but I can’t just yet. I have seen enough, however, to know the truth in what I now say.

If you feel unloved and alone, know that God loves you. It is possible to be loved by someone you do not know. That is how God’s love works. At this moment open your heart and soul to see and feel that you are also loved by humans who don’t know how much you need the love they can offer you. Reach out to them that they may know what you need so that they might give it to you.

If you feel guilty or shamed by what you may have done or think you may have done, know that if a human parent can forgive much, an all powerful God can and will forgive anything. Forgiveness and the healing grace of redemption are there for the asking. We have who have invited God’s forgiveness and known it are capable of forgiving as well. Just ask.
Finally, if you are hurting and in pain, know that God knows your pain and He shares it. There is no harm that He can’t heal or give you the strength to endure. God is with us always and knows our hearts. Those of us who seek to know and serve the Lord are with you also. Reach out that we might share your burden.

If you read this and your soul is moved, then my heart has reached yours. Believe the truth of what I say because I see these gifts happening for me and for others every day. The path I desire to travel leads me day by day to where someday I will know the full truth and live in it forever. Until then, we are all just learning. If you wonder why and for whom I have written these things, please don’t ask because I can only guess. Instead, pray for those unknown people as I do. Look for the moment when you can reach out and be the font of love for another as God is always for us. It could be happening at this moment and we don’t even know it.

Peace be you.