#prayer

May those who love us love us.And those that don't love us,May God turn their hearts.And if He doesn't turn their hearts,May he turn their ankles,So we'll know them by their limping. ↗

— Irish Curse

#don-t-love #love #malediction #prayer #love

The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. ↗

— E.M. Bounds

#men #prayer #men

O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who, after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy, was made to stay grievously about the coasts of men, the sport of their customs, good and bad, while his heart, through all the sea-faring, ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home. Vain hope – for them. The fools! Their own witlessness cast them aside. To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun, wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return. Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse.” – from Homer’s Odyssey, translation by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) ↗

— Steven Pressfield

#creativity #prayer #men

We fail to prevail with unconverted men because of our more fundamental failure to prevail with God in prayer. ↗

— John R. Mott

#prayer #men

Hail Mary full of Grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.' Then he added, 'Blessed Virgin, pray for the death of this fish wonderful though he is. ↗

— Ernest Hemingway

#art

Devotion gradually progresses to higher levels. . . . One type goes to God and asks Him to remove his suffering. Another one will ask for money or material things. A third will request liberation or release from his bondage. And the fourth will not ask for anything. He will just enjoy praying and praising his Lord. That is the highest form of prayer. (Beyond Word, 119) ↗

— Swami Satchidananda

#devotion #prayer #suffering #money

There is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is. ~William Shakespeare ↗

— William Shakespeare

#prayer #music

I don't pray because it doesn't work. Prayer doesn't fix anything. Bad things happen anyway. ↗

— Nicholas Sparks

#religion #religion

Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them. ↗

— Dag Hammarskjold

#ask #attend #because #become #cravings

So you make this deal with the gods. You do these dances and they'll send rain and good crops and the whole works? And nothing bad will ever happen. Right.' Prayer had always struck me as more or less a glorified attempt at a business transaction. A rain dance even more so. I thought I might finally have offended Loyd past the point of no return, like stealing the lobster from frozen foods that time, to get myself fired. But Loyd was just thinking. After a minute he said, 'No, it's not like that. It's not making a deal, bad things can still happen, but you want to try not to cause them to happen. It has to do with keeping things in balance.' In balance.' Really, it's like the spirits have made a deal with us.' And what is the deal?' I asked. We're on our own. The spirits have been good enough to let us live here and use the utilities, and we're saying: We know how nice you're being. We appreciate the rain, we appreciate the sun, we appreciate the deer we took. Sorry if we messed up anything. You've gone to a lot of trouble, and we'll try to be good guests.' Like a note you'd send somebody after you stayed in their house?' Exactly like that. 'Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch. I took some beer out of the refrigerator, and I broke a coffee cup. Sorry, I hope it wasn't your favorite one. ↗

— Barbara Kingsolver

#prayer #religion #business