Let Us Pray

How many times have we heard it said,
That we must always pray before we go to bed?

We are also encouraged to start each, day,
By spending some time preparing to pray.

But what is prayer? and why do we do it?
What is the reason some people pursue it?

Surely petition is a much lesser deed,
Than physically helping someone in need.

How does prayer then change the fate

Of someone in trouble, when time will not wait?

How does prayer work to stop a war,

Or increase the benefit of those that are poor?

No matter our worries, or what we say,
Who really listens when we fervently pray?

Does prayer work by simply convincing each other,
That our needs go deeper than our sister or brother?

Can we really acknowledge, with pride aside,
That we have made the effort and really tried?

Yet the God that loves us does understand
And He hears our prayers from all over the land.

God wants us to talk and pray aloud,
Alone, together or in a crowd.

He allows us to talk in a very simple way,
Of the needs and cares of every day.

Whether we petition, thank, plead or say,
God acknowledges our efforts to really pray.

Then we pretty soon learn that it isn't that odd,
To understand praying is just talking to God.


Br Jeff Daly CP (see below)
(From his booklet "Potpourri")
© The above work is copyright, however it may be reproduced for non-commercial use.
If reproduced please acknowledge Br. Jeff Daly CP as the author and include this notice.

Brother Jeff Daly CP

Passionist Brother Jeff Daly CP passed into Eternal Life early in 2009 after a short illness although he struggled with other health problems for many years. He was a South Australian and as a Passionist was familiar to many people from various parishes who visit the Monastery from time to time. I knew Jeff very well and along with many others, regarded him as a good friend. I last saw him in October 2008 when he picked me up from the Marrickville Railway Station and took me to The Passionist Monastery and Church of St. Brigid at Marrickville, where he had been stationed for the past 4 or 5 years. We spent a few happy hours together and he showed me the Passionist Province Archives for which he was responsible and introduced me to some people I hadn't previously met. He showed me the beautiful St. Brigid's church in great detail and also the Marrickville Monastery. We lunched together with the other Passionists before my return with him to the Railway station.

Brother Jeff was a very talented man. He served God well and he served his vocation with distinction. In doing so he performed many functions. He was a missionary in Papua New Guinea, a pastoral associate - he was a worker and a diligent archivist. He performed as Klutzo the Magician to the delight of children and the elderly. As a hobby he ran a ham radio station from the back of the Monastery at Glen Osmond. He also had an interest in spinning and weaving, using wool from his friends' alpaca farm. Jeff loved birds and animals and seemed to know the names of everyone's dog. He also dabbled in caring for bonsai plants. He was an artist - a painter, sculptor a cook and in fact a practical man who could turn his hand to many things. Brother Jeff produced two booklets of verse during his time at The Monastery at Glen Osmond and much of his verse was reproduced on The Monastery website during my time as webmaster.

Possibly Brother Jeff's cheeky sense of humour was one of his most well used and greatest talents. At a memorial mass at The Monastery at Glen Osmond on Tuesday 9th June, Jeff's brother, Bob Daly, recollected some humour about his viewing the Passionist Archives where Jeff meticulously maintained all sorts of curios from the past. Bob had asked the significance of an old clothes iron (the type heated on top of a wood stove). Jeff instantly said "Oh that's very important. - It was a wedding gift to the young couple at Cana from the Holy Family." Likewise there was an odd-shaped key hanging in a frame - and when Bob asked about it, Jeff quipped " Oh, that's for the old Toyota out the back that Jesus used to drive the traders out of the Temple."

The great sense of humour was retained right up to the time of Brother Jeff's death to which he was courageously resigned and ready to go to God. As Jeff remembered and memorialised all his late Passionist brothers with great care as archivist, may we also remember him with love and affection.

May he enjoy eternal happiness with the Lord; the angels and saints, his loved ones and all God's good creations.

Stan O'Loughlin
Web-minister
13th June 2009

XYLOTOMOUS - Capable of boring or cutting wood; -- said of many insects.

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