The situation would have been worse for my husband and me had it not been for a neighbor who lives on a street perpendicular to mine. His street did not lose power. He rapped at our door the morning after the transformer on our utility pole blew out with a loud bang and asked if we would like to string an electrical cord from one of his home outlets so that we could at least plug in our refrigerator. After that, for about four days, a bright orange, fifty-foot-long extension cord could be seen stretching from my neighbor’s cellar hatchway to our slightly open kitchen window. That one skinny power line meant cold water, cold milk for cereal in the morning, and all those other convenient foods that taste much better unspoiled!
One line—not a whole bunch of lines, just one—made such a difference. I got to thinking about simple things and how they can bring about change. I remember how, when I was in parochial school, my sixth-grade teacher used to have us students recite a simple prayer when we were changing from one subject of study to another:
That little prayer brought our attention to Mary and how she helps us with her prayers; it was a sort of holy way to transition from one task to another. It was a good little habit of prayer to adopt at our early age.
Short prayers like that are useful ways to go about a busy day; I like to call them spiritual segues. In today’s world, with so many distractions away from spiritual thoughts, a short, even one-line prayer, sometimes called an aspiration or ejaculatory prayer, can serve useful purposes. One little line can be a prayer-starter, a re-focuser, maybe even a beginning of a mantra.
The aspiration can be a power line to prayer. While there is certainly no substitute for spending blocks of time in prayer conversation with our Lord each day, we can ask for special help with a certain task at hand or put a loved one into his loving hands as we get word of an unexpected problem:
There are litany prayers, lists of petitions we often use for novenas or public prayer gatherings. We can certainly borrow from those lists for our little prayer shortcuts. We can borrow a line from the prayer at mass, the Gloria;
If we can punctuate our day with these one-line holies but goodies, these small prayers of praise, thanksgiving, or supplication, we might be holier and happier or, at least, more in touch with our main source of power.
Sharon Krause is a RENEW volunteer whose writing has appeared in several resources for small-group faith sharing. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother residing in Manchester, Connecticut. Over the years, she has served in many parish ministries.