Poll: Where Is Your Heart?

[beatitude]

[u][b]My prayer[/b][/u]

I love to take a short prayer or a line from Scripture and say it silently over and over. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." "I am the first, the last, and the living one." "Most sacred heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you." "Let us go with him, that we might die with him." I do this especially in Adoration.

Sometimes I just take a story from His life and think about it and chat to Him about what it means. Reading the Bible is very important to me.

The rosary has been a favourite form of prayer ever since I began to pray. As a child I had a very intuitive understanding of 'ad Iesum per Mariam', even though I'd never heard the phrase before. I can't really put it into words.

[u][b]Spirituality[/b][/u]

Carmelite. Desert spirituality, silence, solitude, emphasis on mental prayer, devotion to Mary, and the spirit of Elijah. "With zeal have i been zealous for the Lord God of hosts."

[u][b]Apostolate[/b][/u]

I feel drawn to work with people who are vulnerable for one reason or another. That might be because of disability, chronic illness, crimes that they have committed, or something else entirely. Care and support work is all I have done in my career so far. I didn't start out looking for jobs like this - I just fell into them, and realised that they fit. I want to listen to people whose voices often go unheard and who are frequently judged harshly by others because of the difficulties they have or bad choices they've made. This kind of listening is connected to my understanding of prayer.

[emmaberry]

Prayer:
Spontaneous and just being in the His Presence. As a convert, just sitting in the real presence of Jesus is like flying....sometimes it is very overwhelming, and there is nothing to be said. If more people were properly catechized and allowed themselves to believe in the Eucharist more deeply, the adoration chapels would be overflowing! Like LC, my Protestant upbringing has imprinted on me that desire for spontaneous and informal prayer with Jesus, Mary, and the Saints.

Spirituality:
Franciscan/Poor Clare, though I was not naturally drawn to St Francis due to misunderstanding him for so long. I have realized over time that the Franciscan way of living the Gospel is the path that will bring about the most perfection in me, since St Francis emphasizes the virtues which supplement my greatest faults. I love the poetry and song of the Franciscan order.

Apostolate:
Prayer/Contemplation, though I see so much good in the more active apostolates...but the active works are just not my path to a) be saved myself and b) bring salvation to others. I love praying for the poor souls in Purgatory, and well known sinners in the public eye. I am very drawn to the story of Esther in the King's castle pleading on behalf of her people (source: Edith Stein) and Moses with raised arms on the mountain top. When his hands would drop, the Israelites would begin losing. His intercession won the battle for his people! (forgot the source here)

Thanks for the poll!

[BarbTherese]

The common denominator of my prayer time is silence. I am drawn to Carmelite spirituality and to a life of prayer. I do have an apostolate which I call "to the streets" under the patronage of Our Lady of The Way and The Sacred Heart. The apostolate to the streets consists in responding to anyone at all, neighbours, friends and family and those I come across in the course of my day in the same way as I would respond and relate to a member of my religious community, if I had one. All I come across in any way at all are my community and if in any sort of need I do my best to respond to that need. I have no vehicle and travel everywhere by bus which in a week can be considerable bus travel time. It never ceases to amaze me who I may sit beside in a bus if conversation does occur and the course that conversation can take. The Holy Spirit is absolutely everywhere and often speaks through the most unlikely and in the most unlikely of ways. Such are not truly "unlikely", just the most unexpected to me personally.
Those I do come across in the course of a day are not an 'accident of fate' rather a deliberate act of Divine Providence and often mysterious in His reasons.
I have never been able to see Jesus in others - I can however view and have internalized that every single person is a truly beloved child of God and beloved brothers and sisters of and to Jesus. Personally, I find it offputting to love another because one can see Jesus in them. It seems to me to rob them of a quite unique identity humanly - and my poverty I am sure. We are, along with very single person, loved totally and unconditionally, warts (even huge ones!) and all, and beyond our wildest imagining. If I imagine the person(s) I love most on this earth, God's Love is so far beyond that and in an absolute extreme that all human love pales right out in comparison. The Lord never ever ceases to love every single person, even the most morally corrupt, and in an absolute and unconditional manner even as He loves His greatest saints. God's Love is Total and Absolute and All Embracing - it is we who can, gifted with free will, refuse our own love to Him. I pray from the heart daily for those morally corrupt knowing that the Heart of Jesus grieves over them.
I think we shall be stunned to find those who are our neighbours in Heaven.

Edited August 23, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[Kylie Spinelli]

For spirituality I put other. Right now I feel drawn to the Sisters of Life in NY... They're independent of all the ones listed, I believe...
and for apostalate I wasn't sure but I put evangelization, retreat, missionary and other. Other being the work that the SOL do. I wasn't sure if that fit in any of the descriptions..... *shrug*
Great poll, BTW! Very cool questions!!
God bless!
~Kylie (SSWW)

[TheresaThoma]

So I changed my vote up a bit. Basically a more refined version.