Favorite Prayer?

Shouldn't this be in DT?

The Tridentine Mass.

Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Hensley

^ and ^^ good stuff.

Originally Posted by Magician

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video here
I do like Jay-Z, and Puff Daddy has some prayerful songs, but I'm more of a West Coast guy.

Originally Posted by IUtoSLU

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Another Jesuit prayer I learned in school:

Teach me, Lord, to be generous,
To serve you as you deserve.
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to ask for rest,
To labor and not to seek reward
Save that of knowing I do your will.

St. Ignatius
This is a great one. Merits repeating, imo.

Originally Posted by redgrail

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Even though I'm not a particulary religious man, here are a couple of passages that resonate with me:
Great choices.

Originally Posted by X-It

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Serenity prayer here.
Also wonderful. As w/ many things, there's been some controversy about the original author. May have been a woman.

Originally Posted by grimslade

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X-It, your avatar is hot.

Is that wrong to say in a thread about prayer?

The Our Father is probably the best.
+1
No -- finding God in all things.
Probably true.

I am an atheist, but I truly love sacred music. Sadly most people assume that atheists despise religion. This is totally the opposite in my case. I come from a strident Irish Catholic family and am well aware that my ancestors' religion was maybe the primary reason they survived the Famine (my great-grandmother, before she died, told me how her parents cited their faith as the primary reason for their survival; she was not one to lie, and I tend to believe her on this point). Well, they also were fiery nationalists and supporters of the Fenians so perhaps their righteous hatred for the British oppressors helped get them through... I had the pleasure of singing John Rutter's Requiem a few years back. It is my favorite aside from Mozart's, but I am biased becaue I really love Rutter. Requiem Aeternam always gets me. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Originally Posted by grimslade

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X-It, your avatar is hot.

Is that wrong to say in a thread about prayer?

The Our Father is probably the best.

Have you ever heard The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, grimslade?

Originally Posted by emptym

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Also wonderful. As w/ many things, there's been some controversy about the original author. May have been a woman.

+1
No -- finding God in all things.
Probably true.


Möge dann und wann
deine Seele aufleuchten
im Festkleid der Freude.

Möge dann und wann
deine Last leicht werden
und dein Schritt beschwingt
wie im Tanz.

Möge dann und wann
ein Lied aufsteigen
vom Grunde deines Herzens,
das Leben zu grüβen
wie die Amsel den Morgen.

Möge dann und wann
der Himmel
über deine Schwelle treten.

-----

May now and then
Your soul light up
Filled with festive joy.

May now and then
Your load become light
And you have
A Spring in your step
As in a dance.

May now and then
A song rise up
From the bottom of your heart
To welcome life
Like a blackbird the morning.

May now and then
Heaven
Cross your threshold.

~ Antje Sabine Naegeli

aus/quoted from: Ich spanne die Flügel des Vertrauens aus

^Schoen. Danke.

Part of St. Patrick's Breastplate:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Now I lay me down to sleep...

They're all beautiful and I like the prayer of St. Francis. The Gayatri mantra. This mantra is the mother of all mantras. The oldest prayer in the rig vedas.

The Gayatri Mantra

* OM BHUR, OM BHUVAHA, OM SWAHA, OM MAHAHA, OM JANAHA, OM TAPAHA, OM SATYAM, OM TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM BHARGHO DEVASYA DHIMAHI DHIYO YONAHA PRACHODAYAT *

The Entire Mantra says, "I invoke the Earth Plane, The Astral Plane, The Celestial Plane, The Plane of Spiritual Balance, The Plane of Human Spiritual Knowledge, The Plane of Spiritual Austerites, and The Plane of Ultimate Truth. Oh, great Spiritual Light which is the brilliance of all Divinity, we meditate upon You. Please illumine our minds."

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Originally Posted by emptym

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Since it was his feast day yesterday, we said the prayer of St. Francis in church today. Such a moving prayer.

I went to a Catholic school bearing the name of the other St. Francis, where that prayer was a favorite among the faculty. I recall reciting it before every history and religion class.

Having been exposed to almost every prayer conceivable, "Hail Holy Queen" is certainly my favorite.

Hail Holy Queen

Hail, holy Queen,
mother of mercy,
our life, our sweetness,
and our hope.
To thee do we cry,
poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning
and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this our exile
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

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Agnus Dei from mozarts requiem.

Originally Posted by emptym

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Schoen. Danke.

Oh, I have another one but not my favorite one.


~THE SENILITY PRAYER~


God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway.

The good fortune to run into the ones that I do,

and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Now that I'm older, here's what I've discovered:

ONE
I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

TWO
My wild oats have turned into prunes and All Bran.

THREE
I finally got my head together - now my body is falling apart.

FOUR
Funny, I don't remember being absent minded...

FIVE
All reports are in - life is now officially unfair.

SIX
If all is not lost, where is it?

SEVEN
It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.

EIGHT
Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant.

NINE
I wish the buck stopped here. I sure could use a few...

TEN
Kids in the back seat cause accidents.

ELEVEN
Accidents in the back seat cause... kids.

TWELVE
It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.

THIRTEEN
Only time the world beats a path to your door is when you're in the bathroom.

FOURTEEN
If God wanted me to touch my toes, He would have put them on my knees.

FIFTEEN
When I'm finally holding all the cards, why does everyone decide to play chess?

SIXTEEN
It's not hard to meet expenses... they're everywhere.

SEVENTEEN
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

EIGHTEEN
These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter... I go somewhere to get something and then wonder what I'm here after.

^ good one