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Friday, July 22, 2011

Last Prayer

Tonight my housemates from Costa Rica and I said our last prayer together.  In Tom's room in Pennsylvania, a couple weeks back from down south (some of us more), and we laid in his bed and prayed for the last time. We each said one thing we were thankful for in the year.  One mentioned gratitude for the people we met, another for the fun we had, another for how she has changed, another specifically about St. Francis and his model to live by.  

I was thankful for how much this year has (unexpectedly) altered the way I want to live the rest of my life.  In this past year, I got to find out that I want to teach and has pushed my ambitions and life goals in that direction.   Through our community I found out that it is possible to pray together every day with someone else, to share a meal every day together, both things I was skeptical that it was going to happen, but it did, and I want to bring that to my family.  I told them that I too had fallen in love with St. Francis and the Franciscan way of thinking and living.  And no, maybe I won't be a Franciscan friar, but I want to have a Franciscan family one day, a family that is big on feasting together, laughing together, and being true to each other.  And words are not necessary in any of those activities. 


At the end of our prayer, we ended with one Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be in Spanish.  It was touching for me, to say it together, probably the first full Spanish sentences some of us have said since Costa Rica.  And I was proud, that we knew it with our eyes closed, with a Tico accent and everything.  It took me personally a long time to get these prayers down by heart, longer than everyone else when we first learned them in our first several weeks.  I write them below:


Padre nuestro 
que estás en el cielo.
Santificado sea tu nombre.
Venga a nosotros tu reino.
Hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo.
Danos hoy nuestra pan de cada día.
Perdona nuestras ofensas,
como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden.
No nos dejes caer en tentación
y líbranos del mal. 
Amén.

Dios te salve María, llena eres de gracia,
El Señor es contigo.
Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres,
y bendito es el fruto tu vientre Jesús.
Santa María, Madre de Dios
ruega por nosotros, pecadores,
ahora y la hora de nuestra muerte.
Amén.

Gloria al Padre, al Hijo y al Espíritu Santo
Como era en el principio, ahora y siempre, por los siglos de los siglos.
Amén.  

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And for me, it wasn't a better way to end our prayer, our year.  In Spanish, something we had learned and experienced together, to our Father and Mother who took care of us down there.  Thank You God.  Gracias a Dios.


Amén.

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