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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Praying with the Civil Defense

Public Safety Siren

It's the first Tuesday at 10 am and the Civil Defense siren just finished wailing. It caught my ear this time, and I prayed for peace, in my family, in the world, in the Church.

Funny which seeds are planted, and how long they lay alive, if dormant. In high school, our biology teacher sister, so pious we were embarassed, made us pray for world peace every Tuesday when the then-weekly siren sounded. Her constant connecting of life to Jesus gave us brainless teenagers the nervous giggles, although we all really liked her, without understanding the attractiveness of holiness. Reminiscing: she also made us pray for the repose of the soul of the person who used to be in the skeleton in our lab. Thanks, Sister, long since gone to the Father, for those helpful suggestions of mindfulness; I'm sorry we didn't appreciate you at the time.

No reason why worldly things can't work as bookmarks in our day to stop us and remind us to lift our hearts to God.

Look! A prayer for peace that doesn't involve St. Francis!

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed,
kindle in the hearts of all men the true love of peace,
and guide with Your pure and peaceable wisdom
those who make decisions for the nations of the earth;
that in tranquility Your kingdom may go forward,
till the earth be filled with the knowledge of Your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

3 comments:

Roz said...

Beautiful prayer. I love the idea of life events being bookmarks for prayer. Years ago, when my husband and I were students and our marriage wasn't even a glimmer in our eyes, I saw that he made the sign of the cross and prayed for a moment whenever he heard an ambulance or fire siren. I'd like to develop more habits like these.

Therese Z said...

Oh! We did that in Catholic grade school, too! I'd forgotten! I still do it, but I tend to pray for the police and firemen, since that's my family's profession.

Oddly, it goes together in my memory right along with a strange superstition we had that we had to hold a button on our clothes, or others' clothes, if a hearse went by. That's odd.

Roz said...

Yes it is. But it goes along with picking your feet up when you drive over the railroad tracks so they won't get run over. Of course, this doesn't work well when you're the driver.

 

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