Living Catholicism

This is my favorite prayer. I noticed on the side of your site though "being a pro-life family". I challenge you to encompass every sense of that phrase, not just the conventional one.

Allison,

Just noticed your comment...

What do you mean by "I challenge you to encompass every sense of that phrase, not just the conventional one."?

In Christ,
Joe

I'm sorry. I don't believe this is from St. Theresa. A prostitute reading this in a brothel learns that she is exactly were God meant her to be. We have free will. We are not puppets. We can choose good or evil and not everything we choose is God's holy will.
Read books by the saints to learn about God.
God Bless,
Brad

aloha Brad,

How do we know that the prostituite is not exactly where she is supposed to be? Can we place judgement on others and the plan that God has for them?

just wondering,

Tyler

Tyler,
Tyler, you must be joking. God does not plan us to sin. Is it also his plan to have drug dealers,
pedophiles, terrorists,etc. ??? It should be our desire to be good and do good. Being in the state of grace is God's will for all of us. People of today have lost the sense of sin, and of holiness, which causes us to question everything. Read St. Alphonsus Liguori books. I find they explain in great detail what we need to know about God. They are jaw dropping.
Brad

I think this is St Theresa's prayer

I think it really depends on how one interprets "where you are meant to be". Clearly, Brad interprets it as either a holy place or an occasion of sin. Tyler, you translate this prayer of dubious authorship (I just got it in a chain mail) as where God has placed you (i.e. the Year of Our Lord... with every opportunity to be a great saint and be converted. What's tricky about this prayer is it seems very out of context. If the Little Flower did write it, she obviously would not be asking us to be slothful in faith, but rather be neither sinfully anxious nor untrusting of God our Father.

I understand this is indeed a prayer of St. Therese of Lisieux and taken in context, it is meant to assure you that, though you may feel you are not doing what He wants you to do, He is caring for you and will bring you Home so long as you ask Him for forgivness and you believe in His grace and the salvation purchased for us through His only son, Jesus The Christ.
Taken out of context, you can give it many incorrect meanings. Trust your Triune God.

The prayer is a chain e-mail going around. I didn't pass it on because I like to know what I send is non-fiction, and truth. However, I don't mind rciving a prayer from a friend, nor think it is a bad thing. It gets people to think about God and that they do have a purpose in life. Bottom line we don't know our puropose, we don't know if God planned drug dealers and terriost. But he did not mean for us to have a life of roses either. If everything was easy we would not learn, there would be no need to give the shirt off our backs. I found this site looking for an official cite where there might be an actual prayer from St.Theresa. We all keep looking for answers and I dont think we were ment to. We fight over who's version of the bible is right, we call the other wrong when it could be us who is wrong. Life is not about what is right or wrong but about giveing of ones self, to teach what we know to be true. If someone comes along with diffrent belifs we listen and explain our selfs many times we have to agree to disagree and let others chose the path that they feel is right. If we are always right and they are always wrong and we must find 'one ture' way we will never find peace.

Hi all, I am not Catholic, or particularly Christian, but I enjoyed this prayer and forwarded it, along with the wikipedia entry on St. Therese, and a few poems by her to my friends. Those arguing over the content or context seem to be, as Zen Buddhism would say, "mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon".
Here is my favorite poem attributed to St. Therese I found online:

LAUGHTER CAME FROM EVERY BRICK

Just these two words He spoke
changed my life,
"Enjoy Me."

What a burden I thought I was to carry -
a crucifix, as did He.

Love once said to me, "I know a song,
would you like to hear it?"

And laughter came from every brick in the street
and from every pore
in the sky.

After a night of prayer, He
changed my life when
He sang,
"Enjoy Me."

From Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky. Copyright © 2002 by Daniel Ladinsky. Reprinted by permission of the author.

- Teresa of Avila

In The Final Analysis (written by Mother Teresa)

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centred; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
The good you do today, people will forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough; Give the world the best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

Pray for releif of cancer for Mom and those who need a kidney. Pray for Kevin, etc. that God's will be done. Pete marriage. Happy Birthday Michael. Susan and J. and H. thank you. xxoo

Hello

The Final Analysis, often atributed to Mother Teresa, was actually written by Kent M. Keith.

Peace, Jamee

I'm inclined to think Therese's words more of a blessing directed towards the reader than a prayer offered to God.

Nothing wrong with blessings ... I'm just sayin', let's call a thing what it is.

Thank you Jamee for clarifying the prayer attributed to Mother Theresa and being passed around on the internet along with A WISH, that will come true if you pass it along within 'x' amount of time. I knew it was not from Mother Theresa no St Theresa of Lisieux, and wasn't sure that it may be from St Theresa of Avrila.
A sincere prayer sent to someone should be just that - one of love, not a veiled threat that your wish will not come true if you don't pass it on. That defies all holiness.
Thanks again, Jamee

Mother Teresa should not be confused with Saint Therese, often represented by roses, of the Society of the Little Flower. The prayer posted on this page is ascribed to Saint Therese, but is sometimes circulated online with a picture of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, which only serves to confuse the authorship. As far as the meaning behind the line, "May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be", it tends to imply that there are lessons to be learned or opportunities to show God's love and compassion in every station of life we may find ourselves in. Any person, regardless of their profession, be it "the oldest one in the world" or a physician, educator, or priest or no profession, may be in a position to minister to another or lead them from despair. We do not need to be rich or famous to minister to others and do the will of God in showing compassion to others, so rather than railing against the life circumstances that put us where we are, let's never fail to see the opportunities to be a positive force in our own life, the lives of others, and the world, while we grow in love of God.

Oh, pshaw. It's not really a prayer, anyway. It's just a bunch of wishes and exhortations. None of it asks God to do anything.

Yes it is from Mother Theresa 4 sure -- There is a supernatural divine purpose for everything including the prostitute. We are here in Earth School to learn. Ya need Good as well as the not so good. So yes the prostitute is exactly where she is suppose to be. No doubt about it its a set up by God to learn.

I like what I read in Theresa's "Prayer". I don't see this as a prayer, though. I see it as a blessing and wish for the reader. Prayer is talking with God. Albeit, It is real inspiring.

Tyler i think your right, we are right where God wants us to be, we aren't to judge others or God's work, if the prostitute is in the wrong place to brad how do we not know that she is there for a reason, to help someone else, to find a higher meaning........God's plan is not known to us only the tiny piece of it that involves us and even that is unknown to us. its not my place to judge others, some thought Jesus was a sinner going against the temple and the religious leaders of the time, he befriended mary magdalen
a prostitute........he was crucified no one works or spends their life trying to do that but he had his reason for doing it, to cleanse us of our sins. So its impossible for you brad or anyone else to judge others and where they are in their lives, it may not be where God wants you to be but he may have a reason for them being there. we all have a purpose and maybe that drug dealers place isn't where God wants him to be forever but is a stepping stone to where he wants him to be eventually. If we believe in God and trust in him then we are exactly where he wants us to be and only he knows the reason why. And only he has control.

First of all, we are all God's children and that is where he intended us to be, in his will. The prostitute, has chosen to be where she is, due to whatever circumstance.
Regardless of where the prayer came from, it is uplifting.
John states the prayer of a righteous man works.
So, everyone could use a little prayer, and help.

I truly believe that everything is as it should be under a perfect God. He does not cosign us to sin, but sin we do. He knows we will sin, and uses it as a part of establishing His Will. Good can come from the sins of others, and ourselves - through God. Drug dealers fall and succumb to a bottom where only then they become humble and teachable. Rehabilitating and thus coming to be of the Spirit, they help others who once followed their path. Many of the apostles did the same.

I am in a place that I don't want to be, I moved here two years ago and became ill. I feel ill and alone and I dont feel that this is where I should be. Maybe I am here for someone elses purpose. Someone is to know me or some reason. I guess bloom where you are planted. I want so much to go. I do not know where. Contact with my
amily is gone, I am alone. I was alone through my illness. That scared me so much. Ihave reached a place where I have no one to put on my emergency call list. I could die and no one would care. Maybe this is where it comes that God is all you need.

Be kind to one another, forgive other's shortcommings. Believe that God is the one, who ever you belive is God, for He is the one that you will ultimately awnser to in your end. Bless and be blessed for that is what God wants.

Des, Please know that your end is not near. You are here, in the predicament that you are in, because what ever you do, from moment to moment, effects another, just as we have meet and you have affected me. God's plan for you is to affect other people; by chance, by glance, by circimstance. As I hope you are treated for your illness, your meeting with another, affects their life in ways you may never know. The importance of your contact with others is God's will. I pray you health and happiness. You are blessed. You can and will easily rebuild family releationships simply by faith. Re-read the prayer that brought you here and live by it. God bless you!

Sent in from Zoe Vecchio, Organizational Development Consultant at the Children's Hospital of Orange County. "The poem, 'The Final Analysis' was written by Dr. Kent M. Keith and is frequently attributed to Mother Theresa as she had it posted on her wall - she knew a good poem when she read it."

I always try to verify email prayers and stuff. Susan