Meditation – A prayer of abandonment

Read this Prayer of abandonment. It is Charles de Foucauld’s translation of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father.

It does not become your prayer until the words become your thoughts, feeling & action.

Father,

I abandon myself into your hands;

Do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me,

& in all your creatures-

I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;

I offer it to you with all the love if my

Heart,

For I love you Lord,

& so need to give myself,

To surrender myself into your hands,

Without reserve,

& with boundless confidence,

For you are my Father.

• What part of this prayer do you find most easy to pray?

• What is most difficult?

Read & Contemplate this prayer again but instead of addressing it to the Father, put in the names of the people with whom you live & work each day. (Tom, Mary, Jane, etc. “I abandon myself into your hands.”

How does this affect your prayer?

• Is it possible to give yourself to another in this way?

• What do you find possible to say? What do you find most difficult?

How could we dare trust ourselves to another person so totally? Would it be good for them? Would I be good for us? What would happen if we did? What would happen if someone entrusted themselves totally to me? We forget the awesome creative power we have in each other’s lives. When someone trusts us totally & completely, they compel us to grow, to measure up to their love, to be come what they us to be. Each of us has incredible power to enable each person in the measure we believe in them., hope in them & love in them into the fullness which they never recognized in themselves. Such love & trust from another can be humbling & frightening. At times we are more comfortable with our enemies or strangers that do not ask this of us.

The more honest we are with ourselves, the more we see that we do not & cannot pray like this.

Only Jesus is able to pray like this, & only he is able to  say “Father” with the fullest depth of his being. We can’t pray the PRAYER OF ABANDONMENT. This is Jesus’ prayer alone. But if we desire, Jesus will teach us & enable us to pray his prayer.

Now listen to Jesus pray this prayer to you. In the place of “Father” & “Lord,” put your own name & take time to try & listen to the way Jesus says your name, the way he calls you.

Am I happy or unhappy

I find it sad that we live in a world where right and wrong is determined by whether we are happy. By doing this a person is making the ultimate selfish comment. “I am happy when things work out my way” The insinuation is that I must be right if I feel happy. I am unhappy when things are not working out my way. Something must be wrong if this is occurring. I will either blame other people or God for this problem. Either response reflects the immaturity of childishness by demonstrating determining our place in the world on the basis of how the world is responding to me. Personal desire is the benchmark for right and wrong.

It has struck me recently that when dealing with conflict in my workplace that some people have never progressed simple childish responses. And ultimately if the decisions that I make don’t make them happy then I am wrong.

I hope that my children are able to grow beyond this. I don’t want to raise emotional infants. I hope that my children are able to see the world through other people’s eyes as well as their own. So that they don’t live in the illusion that simply because they are happy that everything else is alright.

A prayer

“Almighty . . .
Forgive
My doubt,
My anger
My pride.
By Thy mercy
Abase me,
By Thy strictness
Raise me up.”

“Have mercy
Upon us.
Have mercy
Upon our efforts,
That we
Before Thee,
In love and in faith,
Righteousness und humility,
May follow Thee,
With self-denial, steadfastness, and courage,
And meet Thee
In the silence.

Give us
A pure heart
That we may see Thee,
A humble heart
That we may hear Thee,
A heart of love
That we may serve Thee,
A heart of faith
That we may live Thee.

Thou
Whom I do not know
But Whose I am.

Thou
Whom I do not comprehend
But Who hast dedicated me
To my fate.
Thou –“

Sir Ken Robinson from Fora TV

The more I hear of Sir Ken the more I like what he has to say. Much of what is said here is based on his latest book, “A New View of Human Capacity”.

When is anger good?

In most of the popular literature today we are told that aggressiveness is wrong and that assertiveness is the way to go. I think that this is because we equate aggressiveness with the negativity of a bullying attitude.

Of course we know that people get angry. We never really get to see this anger because like many other emtions we are told to bury it. And, because it is rarely expressed and we are out of practice we forget how it should be displayed.

Anger is not always bad. It can be very bad if its done in the wrong way. But, anger can be a good thing. It shows that we care and have a vested interest in what is going on around us. That we have desire to contribute to the discussion or the injustice that we perceive is happening.

Anger is mostly bad when it is about ourselves. In many cases anger because of a personal injustice can quickly become resentment and frustration.

Remember the song, “Don’t worry, Be Happy”. A great little tune, catchy punchline but not always true. We do worry, we aren’t aways happy and shouldn’t always expect to be. Of course I would prefer to be happy than to be angry, but, a part of the key to being happy is knowing how to use anger to be motivated to change the things that are causing my unhappiness.

Everyday spirituality

Sometimes I long to sit and reach out to spiritual world. I want to sit and read books and meditate and contemplate life. I want to think about higher things and not deal with the corruption that we face with our physical world. But, I think that I am learning that this will never happen unless I remove myself from all reality. Spirituality must be able to deal with reality and importantly it must be able to deal with our physical reality.

The difference between success and failure

“Rewarding success is easy, rewarding intelligent failure is more important” (Bill Harris, Intuit)

How great men spend organised their time

In this post at LifeDev less is more is definitely true.

The way that great men organised their time is a reminder to all of us that busyness is not always the answer. I think that part of it is about using our most productive times productively.

I know that for myself productiveness also comes in cycles beyond the daily routine. I might have a week where I am incredibly productive and then have another week where I just get the everyday stuff done.

I think one of the hardest things to recognise that after a cycle of productivity comes the routine of making the creation work. Thats hard work and requires perserverance.

Starting small – a key to success

I was reading through the story of brining mobile phones to Bangladesh. Its the tale of GrameenPhone — a partnership between Norway’s Telenor and Grameen Bank, co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize — illustrates a new approach to building business opportunities in the developing world.

“Nothing good in society ever started out big,” says Quadir: verything good, whether it’s a company or an institution, tarts small and grows and spreads. If the idea is no good, it doesn’t spread, and no harm is done.” source

Iqbal Quadir’s story is worth the read.

Teddy Roosevelt on Leadership

Theodore Roosevelt said “The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

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