A simple Prayer

 “Jesus, I love you.  Help me to love you more.”

The most profound prayers we send to God are often not the prayers that we believe are profound.  Simplicity speaks.  Speak louder, broader, deeper, truer.  In the east, the monks of Mount Athos continually utter, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  In the West, St. Faustina gave the Church, “Jesus, I trust in You.”

Oftentimes I find myself inclined to pray, “Jesus, I love you.  Help me to love you more.”  And not just Jesus, but Mary, Joseph, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit.  Love, true binding of the soul to another, is spoken in simplicity, in trust, in humility, no matter what the prayer is.

There is a great need for simplicity in our lives today.  The world has become too complicated, too brash, too transfixed on what comes and goes, and so we lose our simplicity, our childlikeness before God.

Prayer.  Simple, loving, Spirit-blown prayer, turns our eyes back to God, to the Holy Eucharist, and helps us remember that this world is passing.  That God, who is simplicity and love itself, remains unchanging and eternal.

Remember that Jesus first loved you.  How many times a day do you tell Him, “I love you,” in return?  Try to do so as many times as you take a breath, as the Spirit leads.

Jesus, I love you.  Help me to love you more.

 

By: Brother Angelo Marie final professed member of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist