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If you’ve been following my posts this past week or so, you’ve seen a number of petitions, prayers for some particular graces. They are all a part of the St. Thomas More novena I’ve been praying for a special intention.

As so often happens to me when I embark on an intentional prayer regimen, I grow in ways that I wasn’t expecting or anticipating. I mean, I started with a very specific intention, but it moved in me a number of changes that I’ve experienced daily.

It jump-started my prayer life — something that got away from me with all the excuses about the end of term responsibilities gobbling up my time. I am annoyed with myself for letting that “lack of time” excuse get me, every time. God operates outside of time, and I find that when I give Him that first hour of the day, I manage to have the time to do what I need (read that as want). Yet — I’ve managed to get everything done that was meaningful.

I’m done with the novena, but I intend to fill that time with something else. More prayer. More contemplation. More intentionality in my use of time.

Here’s a piece of the novena:

Dear St. Thomas More, you spent your whole earthly life preparing for the life to come. Everything you endured prepared you not only for the glory God wished to bestow upon you in heaven, but for your work as the patron of lawyers, judges and statesmen, and steadfast friend to all who call upon you. Through your prayers and intercession, obtain for us aid in all our necessities, both corporal and spiritual, and the grace to follow in your footsteps, until at last we are safely home with you in the mansions our Father has prepared for us in heaven.