Prayers Before the Meeting

My Prayer Collections

(A prayer suitable for a school/college department meeting)

Heavenly Father, we come to you today asking for your guidance, wisdom, and support as we begin this meeting.

Help us to engage in meaningful discussion; allow us to grow closer as a group and nurture the bonds of community.

Fill us with your grace, Lord God, as we make decisions that might affect the students, the staffs, the faculty, the alumni and friends of this academic institution. And continue to remind us that all that we do here today, all that we would accomplish, is for the pursuit of truth for the greater glory of You, and for the service of humanity.
We humbly ask these things in your name, Amen.

(A prayer suitable for a business or work meeting)

Lord, before I go into this meeting, I still myself before you. For you are filled with beauty and light, and care deeply about me.

Help me to listen, before speaking.

Help me to fully understand these people, before making my case.

Help me to value and appreciate the ones I am about to meet, before thinking of my own concerns and anxieties.
May your light enfold me.
May your spirit guide me.
May your grace abound in me.
All these, we pray.
Amen.

(A prayer suitable for a general/regular meeting)

Before we become involved in the routines of our work, we pause to seek inside for strength and wisdom.

Though we are each experienced in the ways of the world, we all of us know too little of the ways of the spirit.

Our community calls us, by appointing us to office, to give all of our worldly knowledge in this meeting; the spirit that moves between us calls us, by a secret whispering in our hearts, to give all that we can of love.

May we find in ourselves the ability to forgive and forget the failures and failings of the past, so that we may be set free from them.

May we be always more ready to see the good and hopeful in any person and any matter than we are to see the bad and the despairing.

May we remember that when we set standards for what we expect of others, we should expect more from our selves.

In our differences may we be kind, in our agreements may we be humble, that those who learn of our work may see the fruits of the spirit working among us.

Amen.

Dear God,
I dedicate this work to You.
Imprint Your mind upon it,
Fly with it unto the heavens.
Use it to shower Your love onto the world.
Thank You for Your faith in me that such a
Glorious mission has been placed in my hands.
Amen.

Another Test of Faith in 2009

"Mai, if we know how to embrace God's blessings, who are we not to accept life's trials and sufferings, His challenges." - Hubby Rainier

A fire incident (May 7, 2009) took everything away from us, our houses, things, properties, assets, savings, and a lot more. We have nothing except each other’s hands, our son, Eieo, families, relatives, friends, clients and colleagues. We had no material things at all.

Though this traumatic incident happened right after planning our future, of a better life and a more stable and happier lifestyle, we were proud to say that we were able to accept the fact that though we had to get detached from all of these earthly stuffs, we never felt sad, worried and depressed. In other words, we never thought that we could actually live with nothing at hand.

Despite of it all, we were still thankful and grateful to GOD for we were able to cope with and recover from that test of faith – the fire incident.

Unexpectedly, on September 26 (of the same year, 2009), we faced another test of faith. We were some of those who got affected by typhoon Ondoy’s (Ketsana) aftermath. For the second time, we needed to turn our backs to our house, things, properties, assets, savings, and a lot more just to save ourselves from this calamity. We had to relocate to save our lives.

On our way out of the house and as the floods were coming our way, destroying many houses and properties, I was only thinking of one thing: GOD has His plans – even a lot better than what we have.

However, the saddest part was we lost a loved one – my father-in-law passed away. He was drowned because of very high, unexpected and unusual floods. It was too late when it was his time to get rescued. Losing a loved one is indeed the most painful of it all.

When that happened, one thing was running in my mind: I had to be strong for my hubby. He needed me the most at these trying times and so I did – thank and praise GOD.

Honestly, we were hurting; we cried, mourned and grieved BUT we never asked GOD why. In fact, our faith and trust in HIM get even stronger, better. We are holding on to HIM – tighter than ever. He is indeed our source of inspiration, understanding, wisdom and strength. And prayers have always been so powerful, so calming, so reliable, such a relief, our spiritual energizers.


These are indeed tests of faith and we strongly believe that God has His plans after all. Again and as always, we are optimistic that we can surpass all these trials and be able to recover with God’s help, in His time.

Thy will be done.

God bless us all!

Everything Has Turned into Ashes

It was a gloomy Thursday afternoon of May 7 when a traumatic incident happened to my hubby and son along with our extended families.

Around 4 p.m., when we were about to take a nap, I found a smoke coming from somewhere along the hallway. I shouted and ran – telling my hubby that there was smoke. He ran out of our room holding our little prince and sweet little niece so tight. Then, he gave me our little Eieo, went out and asked for help. My sister and I ran out of our house calling our uncle.

Little did we know that the fire had already horribly taken my aunt’s house; we didn’t notice it because there was no fire or any doubting smell at all, merely smoke. Witnesses and fire prevention specialists eventually told us that the fire hid in our ceilings – once freed, the fire burnt it all.

When I alone got back inside to get my cellphone, I could hardly breathe. The black and suffocating smoke invaded our house. I ran inside our room, grabbed my phone and looked around to supposedly save more things. But it was too late. When I was about to do that, my uncle shouted a warning, to run outside because the fire was already in our stockroom. I wasn’t able to get anything except my cell. My uncle, our two neighbors and I ran fast, saving only ourselves.

Just right in time, when we were able to get out, our home sweet home collapsed. If we were late for even a couple of seconds, we might be trapped and indeed gone by now. Well, my hubby didn’t know I got back; God is really good. He knows it wasn’t our time yet; we still have missions and dreams to fulfill.

Having some few steps away, we again looked back and witnessed all our houses, properties and things being eaten by wildfire. That moment, we cried as we began to lose hardly-earned money, assets and possessions. My hubby just hugged me and said that we could make this through because God is with us. We were so thankful that everybody was safe and secured.

After a couple of hours, the firemen said that it was under control. Though my family felt quite sad and depressed of what had happened to us, we never – not in an instance, asked God why. We were certain that HE has better plans.

We are optimistic that though we were left with nothing, we can truly survive this traumatic incident and indeed pass this test of faith.

Thanks to Jay-R Sia, our dear friend, for allowing me to use his laptop to make this post.

Myraine