As has been my custom for years now, I begin each day with prayer.  For a guy who has learned from his liberal youth; it is best to grow up and be an adult.  MY faith in God has restored me to wholeness and I know the truth.  The truth is that Jesus is Lord.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” Jn3:16.  So I was taken out from the pit and set back on my feet again.  I have learned to slide out of my bed in the morning and say a prayer.  It goes something like this.  “Lord. God of Heaven and Earth, direct my thinking throughout this day.”

Then, I go to our prayer table and light our prayer candle.  By this time the coffee has automatically brewed and is ready to pour.  I pour two cups and one carafe and bring it to our prayer table.  I announce to my wife that the coffee is ready.  After my bathroom break, I return to the prayer candle and begin the rosary.  The rosary is an amalgam of different kinds of devotions set around 58 beads, 5 spaces and a crucifix.  The Rosary begins with a prayer to God, then the Apostles Creed, followed by meditation of a particular event in the life of Christ, then one Our Father, ten hail Marys and one Glory Be.  All of these prayers have scriptural references.  This is one decade.  We do this for 5 decades and then finish with several prayers.

My mind tends to ramble.  So I need to recite prayers to keep me on track.  Even in this structured form of prayer, my mind will go off in various directions, speculating what

I will do in the new day.  Yet, as I begin a new decade, I refocus and commit to centering my life in God’s Grace.  Ah! Yes, the Grace of God.  For that is what all life and goodness come from.  That is what sustains me.  That is what cleanses me from my sin.  I am ready for the day and refreshed.  But there is more.

We read the Bible.  Every day, we read from the one year Bible.  I have come to love these stories.  On any given day, something will have an impact on me, on my being.  And this will guide me, or at least set me on solid footing.  Then I am ready for the day.  For years I have been doing this.  And my life is good.  Life is good.  I want you to know that, for several years in the past, I didn’t see much value in my life.  I lived in dread, but not any more.

Prayer, the first thing in the morning, leads me to God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit.  I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.  This is the Apostles’ Creed.