Prayers

by Dom Alan Rees

Abbot Alan was popular as retreat giver and spiritual guide. Many have have found helpful his prayers and meditations that have been published in Prayers from the Cloister, Praying in the Benedictine Spirit and as part of the collection To Speak in your Presence, all published by Kevin Mayhew.

IT IS FINISHED

Thirty-three short years are over. When we hear of the sudden or tragic death of a young person, we are saddened by the loss of a life that has not reached the fullness of years. But the fullness of years is not in quantity but in quality, in achievement, in completion.

Your work, Lord Jesus, is complete;
you have done what the Father
has given you to do -
‘Having loved his own
who were in the world,
he loved them to the end.’
Your work was to love,
even to death on the cross.
You could do no more -
Through the cross you have brought together
heaven and earth;
the gap has been closed.
‘God loved the world so much
that he gave his only Son;
whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.’
The earthly giving is complete
but God’s love is eternal,
everlasting, unending -
‘of his fullness we have all received’,
and will continue to receive
as long as we approach with open hands
and loving hearts.

In silence, we immerse ourselves in the eternal gift of God’s love, and pray for those who have not yet realised his generosity or whose eyes are not yet opened in faith.

FATHER, INTO YOUR HANDS
I COMMIT MY SPIRIT

We came from God, and we can be sure that we shall return to God. We cannot avoid death. There are two moments of which we can be sure - the moment that is now and the moment we shall die. ‘Pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death’ - these are the two points of reality for each of us.
The past is gone, we leave it to God’s mercy; the future is uncertain, we give it to God’s providence. But we live now, and we ask for God’s help to live this moment as he wants us to, so that we can be ready to meet him, and to hear his resurrection greeting: ‘Peace be with you’ - Shalom.

Help us put into your hands, Lord Jesus,
each successive moment of our lives.
every day our prayer has to be
your last prayer on the cross:
‘Father, into your hands
I commit my spirit.’
Show us how to make this great act of faith,of trust, of surrender;
help us to tell our heavenly Father
that we trust him absolutely
and entrust everything we are, and have,
and hope to be into his care.
You told us ‘do not be anxious;
look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap
nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
are you not of more value than they?’

Let us always believe that our God is a God who cares because he loves. We may go through the valley of darkness, but he is there with us - he is our shepherd who goes before us. He has plumbed the depths of our darkness so that he can take us to the heights of his joy.
In the silence, he asks us: Will you trust me? Will your surrender your life to me? Will you believe that I want only what is best for you? I look at you with the eyes of my Son, the eyes of Jesus, that are full of tenderness, love, mercy and forgiveness. Believe that, and say, ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit.’

Dom Alan Rees

from Prayers from the Cloister