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Appleton, WI

Nov 4: Day by Day with Father Bill

MEMORIAL OF SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO, BISHOP

A PRAYER FOR STILLNESS by Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

God of stillness and of quiet…

– Still my anxiety, my heartaches, my worries, and stop me from always being outside the present moment. Give me the grace to know that you have pronounced my name in love, that my name is written in heaven, that I am free to live without anxiety.

– Still my unrelenting need to be busy all the time, to occupy myself, to be always planning for tomorrow, to fill every minute with some activity, to seek distraction rather than quiet. Give me the grace to accept what circumstance and failure have dealt me.

– Still in me the fear I feel in the face of the powerful, dark forces that unconsciously threaten me. Give me the courage to face my darkness as well as my luminosity. Give me the grace to not be fearful before my own complexity.

– Still in me the fear that I’m unloved, that I’m unlovable, that love has to be earned, that I need to be more worthy. Give me the grace to know that I’m a beloved child of a God whose love need not be earned.

– Still in me my false fear of you, my need to treat you like a distant and feared dignitary rather than as a warm friend. Give me the grace to relate to you in a robust way, as a trusted friend with whom I can jest, wrestle, and relate to in humor and intimacy.

– Still in me my doubts, my anxieties about your existence, about your concern, and about your fidelity. Give me the grace to trust, even in darkness and doubt, that you will give me immortality.

Still in my heart so that I may know that you are God, that I may know that you create and sustain my every breath, that everyone, myself no less than everyone else, is your beloved. Nothing falls outside of your love and care, and that everything and everybody is safe in your gentle, caring hands, in this world and the next.

Father Bill +