Category Archives: Prayer/Prayer Requests

A Fantastic Evening

Of Trials Opportunities and Gifts, Prayer/Prayer Requests, Sacraments, , , , , , , , , ,
SHMS Jesus

Have I mentioned lately that I love God? Because I love God! He blesses me so often, and so much! (I know that is not a *reason* to love God, but others showing you affection is always a happy thing).

Tonight, I had a *fantastic* evening! Oh, let me count the ways!
1. I wasn’t as sick as I have been lately.
2. After work, I dragged my friend with me to Reconciliation. She hadn’t been to Confession since Easter, and was glad that she had gone.
3. Next, I took her to Fiamma Grille in Plymouth, where we had yummy appetizers! Another friend had mentioned that we might be going out for dinner later, so I didn’t eat a meal.
4. After dropping my friend off at home, I went to the Seminary’s Christmas Choir Concert.
5. I listened to some great music!
6. I met up with several friends and got to spend some time with them. I love these people and I’m so happy that I was able to be around them, even if for a short time!
7. Through everything, God was very present to me. Earlier in the day, a dear friend had asked me to pray for him for something specific. Before the evening’s activities, I found out that God had granted my prayer request for my friend! After Reconciliation, I felt the Lord’s presence in everything and everywhere I went.

God + food + music + friends has got to = some small preview of Heaven! Can I go there now? 🙂 Because I loved tonight, and if Heaven is anything like tonight (and I have reason to hope that it is better), I want to go there NOW! 🙂

A Good Shepherd Will Lay Down His Life for His Sheep

Prayer/Prayer Requests

Prayer.

That very intimate and special gift of yourself that you can offer for the good of someone else.

When I really need someone to pray for me, I will ask my priests. Not to say that I won’t be asking *everyone*, but I will specifically ask my priests to pray for me.

Why is this? I ask myself.

Perhaps it’s because I expect that they will “get it” more than the average person. That they will truly understand the gift of prayer and the import of this communication with our Lord. That they will not pray in a careless manner, but pour themselves into it sincerely.

Perhaps because of their ordination. That extra mark on their soul. That special conformity to Christ. The way a miracle happens in their hands (at least) once a day. Perhaps I have some expectation that because of this their prayers are heard (or at least heeded) louder than someone who is not a priest.

But, perhaps most of all, it is because of an image lodged in my mind. Of what they look like when they pray for me:

And of course, they do this for hours at a time. Wearing a man-shaped depression into the floor.

So, if you ever wonder why Father is busy, where his time goes, or why his back hurts … question answered. He’s been praying for me! (And probably you, too!)

Because a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Or at least lays down. 😉

The First Day of Advent!

Advent, Prayer/Prayer Requests

Happy Advent!

It feels as if this season just snuck up on me! To be honest, I am not fully prepared for Advent yet. I haven’t found my Advent wreath from last year, although I didn’t have dinner yet and I did light a purple candle tonight. I hope that “counts.” 🙂

I did put up parts of my Nativity to get ready:

Mary and Joseph are starting their long trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
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Meanwhile, in Bethlehem, the manger and the sheep are waiting for their arrival:
dscn4782

A new tradition that I am starting is what I call the “Advent Tree of Prayers.” I didn’t know that there already was something called an Advent Tree, otherwise known as a Jesse Tree, before I named it. On my tree, I intend to place prayer intentions each day of Advent, and pray for those people and intentions throughout the season. To make my “tree,” I cut down a branch from a pine tree in my yard.

And here is my first intention of the season!
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More time in prayer, reading Scripture and participating in the sacraments are also on my agenda for this season.

What are your plans for Advent? Also, if you have any intentions for which you would like me to pray, please let me know! 🙂

Because Prayer is Important

Prayer/Prayer Requests, ,
praying man

Since I have a long commute, I have a long time to think about things in the morning. This morning, intercessory prayer was on my mind. Specifically, I had asked a friend of mine to pray for a different friend of mine and was thinking about this.

See, I ask this particular friend of mine to pray for others on a fairly regular basis. And, when I have a intention that really needs prayer, I always ask this particular friend.

He happens to be a priest, but this is not why I ask him to pray for others.

I’m sure he gets many prayer requests due to his line of work, but I go to him for who he is. Of course, this gets a bit complicated because ordination changes you, and you are ontologically conformed to Christ, so being a priest *is* a part of what it means to be him in a way that my job is not and will never be a part of who I am.

What I mean, then, is that I go to him because I recognize him to be a man of integrity. And I don’t just mean that he does what he says he will do (although this is part of it), but an all-encompassing integrity that colors everything.

So, when I ask him to pray and he says he will, I know that he isn’t praying in an empty fashion, but is putting something of himself into the effort. Which is how we are all supposed to pray, right?

Prayer is an encounter with God. So it really shouldn’t be undertaken lightly. Happily, joyfully, frequently — of course! But with gravity, reverence and sincerity, also. In a way, prayer is an offering of myself to God. Hopefully, I would do this to benefit others much more than I do so to benefit myself.

And because prayer is an encounter with our Lord, the God who made us, and because it necessarily involves all of me (and not some sort of superficiality), prayer is at once incredibly important and the best gift you could possibly give another person.

So, I do not take this lightly. If you ask me to pray for you, I will do so with as much integrity as I can. And if I ask you to pray for something or someone for me, it is because I trust you and believe you to be a person of integrity.

And I don’t ask lightly, because I know of what I am asking of you.

With all my heart, Thank You and God Bless!

A Prayer for Purity

Neat Things I Didn't Author, Prayer/Prayer Requests

Our Lady of Good Counsel
Image via Wikipedia

O Most loving Father, we need You to attain purity and the joy it brings, for without You we can do nothing. Teach us Your children to reverence our bodies and the bodies of our sisters and brothers in Christ. Help us to recognize in each human person an incarnate spirit, an image of God, a sacred temple of the Holy Spirit, a person worth all the blood of Christ, a child of God to be loved with Your benevolent love. Teach us to reverence the sacredness of human sexuality, an icon of Your divine self-giving and divine creative power. Deliver us, Father, from the evil of seeing the bodies of Your daughters and sons as mere things and objects, and the evil of using them for our own selfish ends. Forgive us our sins which destroy our friendship with You, the source of all our happiness. O Most beloved Mother, through your all-powerful prayer, help us to live with the dignity of a child of God. May our reason and free will be the masters of our feelings and desires. And may Jesus be our one Master and Lord.

Amen!

(Composed by Dr. Raul Nidoy, taken from today’s bulletin, Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Plymouth, MI)

St. Alphonsus De Liguori’s Conclusion to a Short Treatise on Prayer

Neat Things I Didn't Author, Prayer/Prayer Requests
Saint Alphonsus Liguori

I found this on the internet here, and thought it was so good, I needed to share with you!  Enjoy!

Let us pray, then, and let us always be asking for grace, if we wish to be saved. Let prayer be our most delightful occupation; let prayer be the exercise of our whole life. And when we are asking for particular graces, let us always pray for the grace to continue to pray for the future; because if we leave off praying we shall be lost. There is nothing easier than prayer. What does it cost us to say, Lord, stand by me! Lord, help me! give me Thy love! and the like? What can be easier than this? But if we do not do so, we cannot be saved. Let us pray, then, and let us always shelter ourselves behind the intercession of Mary: “Let us seek for grace, and let us seek it through Mary,” says St. Bernard. And when we recommend ourselves to Mary, let us be sure that she hears us and obtains for us whatever we want. She cannot lack either the power or the will to help us, as the same saint says: “Neither means nor will can be wanting to her.” And St. Augustine addresses her: “Remember, O most pious Lady, that it has never been heard that any one who fled to thy protection was forsaken.” Remember that the case has never occurred of a person having recourse to thee, and having been abandoned. Ah, no, says St. Bonaventure, he who invokes Mary, finds salvation; and therefore he calls her “the salvation of those who invoke her.” Let us, then, in our prayers always invoke Jesus and Mary; and let us never neglect to pray.

I have done. But before concluding, I cannot help saying how grieved I feel when I see that though the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers so often recommend the practice of prayer, yet so few other religious writers, or confessors, or preachers, ever speak of it; or if they do speak of it, just touch upon it in a cursory way, and leave it. But I, seeing the necessity of prayer, say, that the great lesson which all spiritual books should inculcate on their readers, all preachers on their hearers, and all confessors on their penitents, is this, to pray always; thus they should admonish them to pray; pray, and never give up praying. If you pray, you will be certainly saved; if you do not pray, you will be certainly damned.

As Catholics, Can We Pray for God’s Forgiveness for the Sins of Others?

Bible Study, Of Vice and Virtue, Penance, Pope John Paul II, Prayer/Prayer Requests, Question of the Day

Here’s the question: The acknowledgement of the sins of his ancestors and asking for forgiveness for those sins constitute a large portion of Nehemiah’s prayer in Neh 1:4-11. During the 2000 Jubilee Year celebrations, Pope John Paul II asked God’s forgiveness for sins committed by Catholics over the last two millennia. In your opinion, is it ever possible for a later generation to ask forgiveness for the sins committed by earlier generations? In what ways can that be redemptive and healing?

My answer: I would imagine that if Pope John Paul II saw that asking God’s mercy and forgiveness for sins of the past was a worthwhile endeavor, I wouldn’t have any reason to think that this might not be efficacious. For individuals who have passed, we can merit indulgences and perhaps ease their way through Purgatory. I think we are probably more connected than we think — as the body of Christ — and if the sin of one can affect all, perhaps the repentance of one can also be universally applicable. Even in my own body, if it is my hand which sins, it is still my tongue which confesses. This can be redemptive in ways we do not fully understand. But if Jesus took upon Himself all of our sins, and if we are to conform ourselves to Him, perhaps there is not only something known as redemptive suffering, but also redemptive repentance. I think it can be healing precisely in the fact that it underlines our unity in Christ and encourages us in our love of neighbor. Our neighbors are not just those who are temporally proximal to us, but all people in all times.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Of Trials Opportunities and Gifts, Prayer/Prayer Requests
The Holy Spirit descends upon Ann Arbor - IMAG0575
Image by CadyLy via Flickr

I went to the Fellowship of St. Paul meeting last night, not knowing exactly what to expect.  I suppose my initial expectation was that it would be a little like the Life in the Spirit seminar that I attended at St. A’s and OLGC earlier in the year, especially since this month’s meeting included a panel that would be speaking on the gift of tongues and indicated that there would be an opportunity for people to be prayed over who wanted the gift.

After Life in the Spirit, everyone focused on the gift of tongues.  “Did you get it?  Did you speak in tongues?”  It was all anyone asked about.  They had made sure to say that there were many gifts of the Spirit and that not everyone received the same gifts.  I concluded that perhaps I just wasn’t one of the people to receive the gift of tongues.

I made a few friends upon arriving at the Seminary and saw several other friends there, which helped me feel more welcome and comfortable.  We started off with praise and worship (singing), which was quite like Steve and Lynn’s Fisherman’s Net prayer group, so it felt familiar and I liked it.  The fact that they sung songs which I knew was helpful, too.  Luckily, I sat next to a man who thought that I had a decent singing voice.  🙂

Next, we had a panel of people speak about the gift of tongues.  Dr. Williamson gave an introduction to the gift of tongues, including describing three uses of the gift:  as a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, to build up the Church when used in conjunction with the gift of prophecy, and as a gift for personal prayer.  Carol shared with us some personal experiences, especially healings, related to her gift of tongues and praying in the Spirit.  The priest from England, Fr. Gerard I believe, was quite funny and had some good analogies like relating this gift to laughter and how it wells up from within you but how you have control over it to an extent and can choose when to start laughing and when to stop.  He also related the experience of being in a community of people praying in the Spirit to being at a football (soccer) game, where people would be cheering and chanting and making noise — and how many people go to the games more for that atmosphere, rather than for the game itself (of this, I am so guilty!).

We then spent some time in prayer, led by Fr. Gerard on guitar.

We broke in to small groups, and I joined Dr. Williamson’s group, as he said that he would offer Q&A for people who still had some questions.  I wanted to listen to the various questions and answers, but didn’t particularly have any of my own.  I ended up getting busted for not asking anything, which was a little surprising as I wasn’t aware that I had a reputation for being particularly garrulous.  One of the guys in the small group asked the question about people receiving different gifts, and maybe not everyone would receive this particular gift.  The answer given was one that really makes me think.  He said that while people are given various gifts, it is suggested in Scripture that the gifts of tongues and of prophesy seem to be general gifts given to all.  The problem with many people is not that they do not have the gift, but that they do not use it and nurture it.

Huh.

Well, if I have been given a gift by God, don’t I then have a responsibility to use that gift?  It sounds like I have another area of spiritual growth to explore.

This meeting has also helped me related to our separated brethren, in particular communities like the Pentecostals, where it seems like everyone in the congregation speaks in tongues.  It has always been a mystery to me that — if everyone is given different gifts of the Holy Spirit — how can you have a congregation where everyone has the same gift?  The idea that it is a general gift given to all…well, that explains it quite nicely.  🙂

Amen!

Jennspeak, Of Vice and Virtue, Prayer/Prayer Requests

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1061 The Creed, like the last book of the Bible,[644] ends with the Hebrew word amen. This word frequently concludes prayers in the New Testament. The Church likewise ends her prayers with “Amen.”

1062 In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word “believe.” This root expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. And so we can understand why “Amen” may express both God’s faithfulness towards us and our trust in him.

1063 In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression “God of truth” (literally “God of the Amen”), that is, the God who is faithful to his promises: “He who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth [amen].”[645] Our Lord often used the word “Amen,” sometimes repeated,[646] to emphasize the trustworthiness of his teaching, his authority founded on God’s truth.

1064 Thus the Creed’s final “Amen” repeats and confirms its first words: “I believe.” To believe is to say “Amen” to God’s words, promises and commandments; to entrust oneself completely to him who is the “Amen” of infinite love and perfect faithfulness. The Christian’s everyday life will then be the “Amen” to the “I believe” of our baptismal profession of faith: May your Creed be for you as a mirror. Look at yourself in it, to see if you believe everything you say you believe. And rejoice in your faith each day.[647]

1065 Jesus Christ himself is the “Amen.”[648] He is the definitive “Amen” of the Father’s love for us. He takes up and completes our “Amen” to the Father: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God”:[649]
Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, God, for ever and ever. AMEN.

How many of us say “Amen” in a thoughtless or empty fashion? Do any of us really understand what it means when we say this?

I think paragraph 1064, of all of these, is most important for us to reflect on today. For God calls us all to live with integrity. That means that if we say something, we should mean it.

So what does it mean?

I think that when you say, or pray, “Amen,” you are saying a few different things:
1. I believe and adhere to my baptismal profession of faith and to the Creed.
2. I believe and am faithful to the entirety of the Truth that is God.
3. I am saying “Yes” to all that God is asking of me.
4. I pledge my faithfulness.
5. I consecrate my life. [Meaning that I set myself apart for the service and worship of God.]

We should be putting our entire selves into that word and offering ourselves as a gift back to the Father. Especially in our prayer. Prayer is not supposed to be a quick listing of all the things in my life that I want God to fix for me, with a quick “Amen” at the end. It should be a dialogue, a conversation, an encounter with the Father/Son/Holy Spirit who LOVES ME.

Yes, we should have all confidence and trust in God as the only one with power. Yes, we should know that He is all good and that He loves us and that this means that He always has our best interests in mind [even if those best interests may be painful or cost us]. Yes, we should remember that He always hears us.

But this is a love relationship.

I cannot see myself as disengaged from this. Prayer is never a one-sided affair. You can never think of prayer or encounters with God as a disconnected transaction, as an impersonal withdrawal from God’s Bank of Grace.

We need to give our entire selves back to Him in return. We need to engage our hearts. We need to enter into the relationship with the persons of God. Because God *is* a person — or, rather, three persons — and not a vending machine to feed my whims and desires.

We need to have integrity when we pray “Amen.” We need to recognize that it is an affirmation of our adherence to and reliance upon Him, the Almighty, who has done, is doing and will continue to do great things for us.

Our “Amen” should be an “I love You.”

Sacrifice and Love

Of Trials Opportunities and Gifts, Penance, Prayer/Prayer Requests, Sacraments, Tales of My Amazing Priests

I have to confess that lately my prayer life has really stunk. I mean, I pray every day, especially intercessions for the people I care about. But I haven’t felt that I am growing in my relationship with the Lord. I just feel disconnected in a way. And this is upsetting to me because I am used to having, or feeling that I have, a close connection to Him. So, I have been floundering quite a bit. Which also means that I have been sinning more often and in worse ways than “normal” (if sin can ever be called normal). Which is also irritating, because I really have no desire to do the sins I do, yet I find myself doing them anyway.

I know the problem is me. All me. And I need Reconciliation. I need to stop what I am doing in my life right now and re-order everything — making God my center. This morning, I got up early and went to Adoration before the exposed Eucharist in our chapel. I started by reading the Pope’s book, “In the Beginning,” but was soon interrupted. Something was bothering me; what was it?

I looked up. The Lord was present in the center flanked by 4 candles. In the niche to the right was the tabernacle. In the niche to the left was the Book of Gospels.

Divine Mercy Chapel - dscn0074

However, the Book of the Gospels wasn’t lit as brightly as the tabernacle. You could see that the light was on, but it was as if the dimmer switch was turned very low. This is what was bothering me. We are fed from both tables. We should revere the Word of God as we revere His Body. I wanted the lighting for the two niches to be equal.

I looked back to the book in my hands. It is a great book, and I was enjoying reading it. However, I was still unsettled and I felt an urging, a nudge, to read His Word. So, I got up and grabbed a Bible and sat back down, reading Genesis 3-5.

After Benediction, I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte at my local Starbucks. Instead of leaving right away as I usually do, I settled into a comfy armchair and continued reading the Pope’s book. At one point, I stopped reading…because he said something that made me review my week.

In my last post, I talked about fractioning using a large vs. medium sized host and I included a quote about the Altar of Sacrifice, which gave us a graphic image of the Lord’s Blood and Body splashed all over the altar — for us.

Two days after that post, I was at Mass during lunch at the hospital. Our priest told us that there was a priest upstairs who had been declared brain dead, and that our Transplant team was going to be harvesting his organs for Gift of Life later in the day. I work for the Department of Surgery. That was my team that was going to be in that OR. I was involved, in a way, with this. I thought about what this meant. This priest, whom I didn’t know personally, was giving of himself — one final time here on Earth — for the benefit of another person. Talk about sacrifice. Talk about self-gift. All priests lives flow from and return to the sacrifice on the altar. This news, this realization of what he did and was doing, was a powerful image for me of that visceral, close connection that our priests have to the Mass, to the Lord’s Passion, to the Eucharist. So beautiful.

When I go to Mass, at consecration when the Body of our Lord is elevated, I pray in a particular way. Usually, it goes something like this,

This is Your son, who has You in his hands. I see him looking up at You, and I feel You looking down on him with such love. Please Lord, bless and protect him. Strengthen him to be able to do Your work. Refresh him and support him and give him comfort and encouragement, as only You can do. Keep him healthy in mind and body. Help him to turn his heart ever more towards You. Let him know of the incredible love that You have for him.

I hear back the words the Father spoke at the Baptism of the Lord, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

As I finish my recollection of these events of the past week, I return to the Pope’s book. What had given me pause was where he was speaking of the greatest love there is: “I will for you to be.” I think, in context, he was speaking of the incredible love that God has for each one of us that he not only called us into being, but is continually sustaining us in being. For me, I think that this is the best kind of love, one that we should all aspire to have towards the people around us. They are not objects to be used, but people to be loved. Just because they are. Their existence alone gives such joy…or it should.

I am blessed, blessed, blessed by the people I have around me. I love them and I love our Lord who gifted me with them. And I realize that even though I have felt like I’ve had a bad week in my relationship with the Lord, he has been there through it all, giving me grace and love.

After Starbucks, I headed to SS. Cyril and Methodius for Reconciliation prior to Mass. I was to be the next person into the confessional when the priest stopped hearing confessions in order to pray Mass. I looked at the Lord in the tabernacle for a while, “Now what?” After a bit, I headed to St. Anastasia for the 10:15 am Mass. During his homily, Fr. JJ was talking about the Prodigal Son, saying that most people think that they have to reconcile with the Father in order for him to bestow his grace and love upon them, but in fact it is the reverse: it is the fact of the Father’s love which leads to reconciliation.

So, now that I have been graced with this reflection and with the beauty and power and gift that is the Mass…. I will try again to get to Reconciliation this evening. Because God has given me everything which is good in this life.

And I love Him.