ABCs of Talking to God

Critical Mass, Lent, Prayer/Prayer Requests

Perhaps you will enjoy lots of little posts throughout the day, instead of one big post with a thousand different topics? 🙂 Anyways…

I am trying to be more intentional and more thoughtful about my prayer life and the various spiritual reading that I do. My tendency is to skim through things just to get them done, rather than to ponder them for the spiritual riches they may contain. Then, when I do find something worthwhile, I seldom take the time to write it down, and I eventually forget about it, so all that benefit? Gone.

I received this article, How to Talk to God, as a link in my e-mail yesterday. Her ABCs are to (A) Focus on God, (B) Listen Carefully, and (C) Respond Thoughtfully.

Distractions seem to be my way of life. And then I get distracted from my distraction and everything snowballs until it’s several hours later and I haven’t accomplished a single thing. Frustrating. Sometimes my prayer time is like that too. I know that it’s difficult for me to sit still. It’s physically painful, as well as out-of-the-norm for me. So, I bring things for me to do: rosary, Bible, spiritual reading, lists of people to pray for… But then, I end up going from thing to thing and don’t get solid time to be quiet before the Lord. Granted, it’s still good to spend time in the presence of the Lord, even if you are just — as Father puts it — balancing your checkbook. But so much better if you are actively working on growing in intimacy with Jesus.

Then the listening part. Truly, if you know of a really good way to learn how to listen… I’m… listening? Most of what I’ve heard is to Just. Do. It. Sit before the Lord and be quiet. And eventually good listening skills will come. I am still waiting. Fidgety. May the Blessed Mother help me.

God invites, God gives grace, and then we are to respond. Like, to actually *DO* what He says, not merely to agree that X is a good idea.

Where will *you* seek out God?
Adoration at Vigil
Adoration at Vigil, World Youth Day, Sydney, 2008

Halo

Lent,

Since I’m trying new things this Lent, what better fruit to try than a Halo? 🙂

Halo

And doesn’t it look delicious? Don’t let my ultra-close-up photo fool you — it’s only the size of a stress ball or hacky sack. Which tempts me to use it as a stress ball or hacky sack… or to just toss it around like a baseball. Seriously, I am a danger to spherical food items. 🙂

I am unfamiliar with peeling oranges and the like, so I Googled how to to this. Here is my end result:

Peeled Halo

Not bad, eh? 🙂 They are pretty good! Sweet and juicy and not messy, even after peeling.

And since it’s Lent, and since we are called to help bring others to Christ, I shared my Halo with my co-workers. 🙂

In Christ, We Suffered Temptation

Neat Things I Didn't Author

This has been sitting in my e-mail inbox for a few days, sent to me by one of my Dads. I finally read it today, and find it a great passage to reflect upon. Trial and suffering are integral aspects to a truly Christian life. Thanks be to God that He gives us the grace to endure and to image Him in our afflictions.

In Christ we suffered temptation, and in him we overcame the Devil
Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer. Who is speaking? An individual, it seems. See if it is an individual: I cried out to you from the ends of the earth while my heart was in anguish. Now it is no longer one person; rather, it is one in the sense that Christ is one, and we are all his members. What single individual can cry from the ends of the earth? The one who cries from the ends of the earth is none other than the Son’s inheritance. It was said to him: Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. This possession of Christ, this inheritance of Christ, this body of Christ, this one Church of Christ, this unity that we are, cries from the ends of the earth. What does it cry? What I said before: Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer; I cried out to you from the ends of the earth.’ That is, I made this cry to you from the ends of the earth; that is, on all sides.

Why did I make this cry? While my heart was in anguish. The speaker shows that he is present among all the nations of the earth in a condition, not of exalted glory but of severe trial.

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

The one who cries from the ends of the earth is in anguish, but is not left on his own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.

He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained salvation for you; he suffered death in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation. — St. Augustine

Family Dinner

Lent

Just a quick little post. I ended up being 10 minutes late for Mass, due to Daylight Savings Time. Luckily for me, I only missed part of the first reading, so they must have been running a little late as well.

I got a voicemail from my mom, letting me know that dinner was going to be at 2:30 pm. Since it wasn’t that far off, I just headed over to their house after Mass. We did our grocery shopping together and enjoyed a family dinner. Usually, my parents, brother and I only get together for a meal on holidays, so this was an unusual event. It was a lovely turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, biscuits and asparagus.

I was so tired the entire day — I just kept yawning. After dinner, about 5 pm, I was so exhausted that I was about to fall asleep, so I headed home. I crawled into bed and promptly fell asleep for a 5 hour nap. 🙂

Lent: Day 4

Lent

I made plans to spend part of today at church interceding for needs of the parish; however, my plans went the way of mice and men. I needed to take my car in for an oil change, and was pretty excited about it, as it was finally warm enough that the dealership would run the car through the car wash before giving it back. It’s been so cold for so long, my black car had turned grey with all the salt.

It was a long time at the dealership, over 2 hours. Normally, the waiting room is loud and irritating with the constant drone of the TV, but I just sat there, reading the book I had brought and it ended up passing fairly quickly — I didn’t get irritated at all! Grace of God, right there!

I left and didn’t have enough time for an hour’s worth of intercessory prayer, so I just headed in to work. Stopping first to get some Jimmy John’s, since I was *starving*. But we were a little busy at work, so I didn’t get to eat my lunch until a few hours later. It was delicious, though. Thank you, Jesus, for the sandwich. I really appreciated it.

My Lenten “thing” of the day: Vance and I re-organized my desk at work. We got rid of unnecessary items, rewired things and did a bunch of cord control. We cleaned the cube thoroughly — which it *really* needed — and in the end, there was about twice as much desk space for my cube mate. So, she benefited from the cleaning more than I did.

Clean Cube

Got off work late, got home after 11 pm, had dinner, went to bed. I didn’t do my reading for today, so I’ll catch up on that later in the week.

Random Acts of Graffiti

Lent

Temptation finds you where you least expect it sometimes.

I went to Stations of the Cross after work today. After, I walked back to my car, parked in the small lot by the Day Chapel. While I was sitting there, as the few remaining people left, I saw in front of me the soccer field with it’s pristine blanket of snow.

Suddenly, I knew that I couldn’t leave the snow all perfect and unmolested. But to do something, I’d have to climb over the thigh-high ridge of snow created by the snowplow and wade around in knee-deep snow. Worth it, but I wanted to wait until everyone else left. It’s hard to be the crazy woman sometimes. So, I sat there in my car, lurking in the parking lot — not too much better.

Finally, the parking lot was empty. I had decided to “write” something in the snow with my footprints.

Wouldn’t you know…

I didn’t even get the first letter completed, when FATHER pulls into the parking lot. WHAT?!?! What is he doing here now? I am trying to cause mischief here! So, I walk closer to my car, kinda sorta “hiding” behind it. He goes into the church. Okay. Great. I go to resume my “writing”.

But wait!

He comes back out! Argh! I guess he forgot something in his car. He goes back in. I quickly finish my project. I’m barely able to breathe and in a lot of pain (stupid MELAS), and can’t get back over the ridge to the parking lot without crawling. Then, I’m having trouble breathing and dizzy, so… water. Water sounds great. I walk back into the church, headed for the drinking fountains. I run into Father in the hall, in vestments. I’m not sure what he’s doing, but he goes into the Adoration chapel.

I get my water, go back to my car and head home. It’s still another 30-45 minutes before I can breathe normally, because my exercise tolerance of late is horrible. Once I can breathe, I text Father, “Did you see it?!” He did. (And now can you…)

"Jesus" written in the snow

See? Jesus can make even snow better! 🙂

Linky Takes

7 Quick Takes Friday

— 1 —

Why “Linky Takes”? For a couple of reasons…  First, since I’m finding it motivating to blog my progress through Lent, I thought it might be helpful for some of you out there as well.  And maybe you’re already doing it.  So, I am going to try this “linking up” thing so that we can help keep each other accountable, see what creative and inspiring things other people are doing, and enjoy this season as the body of Christ!  If you are interested, please link up by clicking on the Mister Linky icon at the bottom of the post.  Second, I am going to be posting this on Jen’s 7 Quick Takes Linky list.  I am not quite sure if the universe will implode or something, having a Linky list on a Linky list, so I apologize in advance if that does occur.  🙂

— 2 —

40 Posts in 40 Days!  This is my challenge to me this Lent.  It’s not *all* that I’m doing, but I figure that it’s a good thing for me to do.  It will serve as motivation, accountability, and my journal — which my spiritual director has been after me about.  I am horrible about journaling. 🙂  As you can tell by my journal page for today:

Unedited

— 3 —

And since this is the Linky post… I might as well share some of the links that have been growing dust in my to-do list…
Like this one for playing old Nintendo games on your computer. We came up with this one at work. A co-worker even got Playstation controllers to work with his Macbook and we played Mario. I remembered that I suck at Mario.

— 4 —

I have been doing a TON of reading lately. I challenged myself to read 150 books this year, and I think I have read about 50 so far — way ahead of the game. And, unlike last year, very few of them are small children’s books!
In keeping with the book theme, I give you Word on Fire’s Favorite Books of 2013!

— 5 —

In other work-related matters… The same co-worker of Mario fame above is interested in making something out of a tiny $35 computer known as a Raspberry Pi. Here’s a link to a list of suggested projects. We’re not sure what we are going to do, but rest assured that we will do *something*. And perhaps work will even pay for it!?!

— 6 —

Lifehacks. Some of these are common sense, some are wacky, some are ingenious. Here’s only one of a whole genre of posts on the subject. What are some of your personal favorites? Either amusing ideas that you’ve seen on the internet or ones that you actually use?

— 7 —

Link Up Fun! As promised, below is a Mister Linky image (I know, mine isn’t as cool as others’, I can only do as much as my blog host will allow…). For anyone who would like to join me in blogging through their Lent for support and encouragement, please join me! I’d love to walk with you through this journey! 🙂

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!

Lent: Day 2

Critical Mass, Lent

Plan of the Day

It’s already after 5 pm, and I still don’t have a coherent plan for the day. Since we don’t have Bible Study tonight, I think I’ll spend some time in Adoration after work.

Song of the Day

In the middle of the afternoon yesterday, one of the songs that was played at a recent Mass ran through my head, so I attached it to my blog post. Now, I’m thinking that maybe I’ll listen to *at least* one Christian song per day. Not giving up secular music (although I’ve done that before), but adding something that will help me stay focused.
One Way, Jesus by Hillsong is a song that I heard first at a Catechism session at World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008.  I’m not actually well-versed in a lot of Christian music, so if you have some favorites, please send them my way!

Chastity

In the interest of chastity… I recently helped teach at a Confirmation retreat for 5th graders. I taught on the fruits of the Holy Spirit, of which one of them is Chastity. We usually think of chastity as being chaste with our bodies, meaning that we act appropriate to our state, whether married, religious or single. But chastity also includes being pure in what we do in other ways. I got to exercise that just a minute ago. I have all of the blogs that I follow on a reader, and after reading a friend’s latest post, there’s a link up at the top that I can click on to read the Next Blog. I assumed this meant that I would read the next blog on my list. However, it opened up a post of someone I’ve never read before. That post was really interesting, so I followed it. Feeling good about that little link, I clicked it again. And found myself staring at a nearly naked woman. Aaah! Not what I want to have displayed on my screen at work! Certainly, not anything that I care to look at, either. I quickly clicked off and now resolve to not leave my browsing to random chance. I want to be careful what I take in. Images, words and music which are immoral or amoral can have a real, negative effect on me, and I want to give myself the best possible chance for holiness.

Saints in the Making University

They suggest that we recognize the fact that each one of us has a unique guardian angel assigned to watch over us, and recommends praying to our guardian angel:

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love
commits me here,
Ever this day,
be at my side,
To light and guard,
Rule and guide.
Amen.

They have a bunch of other suggestions, including spending at least 10 minutes today in prayer (which I’m already doing, according to Meg‘s Lenten Boot Camp), so check them out, if you haven’t already.

My Day So Far

I prayed the Office of Readings this morning (but not Morning Prayer, because that podcast was broken for some reason).  I managed to call only *one* person a “jerk” on the way to work.  And, to be honest, they didn’t do anything wrong.  But how dare they slow me down while making a right, when I want to get. to. the. intersection??  That was probably a failure in charity, patience AND humility.  Good thing going to Confession is on my list of things to do.  Speaking of things to do…  Getting caught up on my Google Tasks is one of my penances during Lent.  And it’s LONG overdue.  I’m working on finishing up a reading assignment that I put on my To-Do list in 2011.  It’s a commentary on Philippians, in case you were interested.  I brought the book with me to work and have only read about 2-3 pages of it so far.  I have 26 pages to go.  But I keep distracting myself.  I am my own worst enemy.

My Plans for the Rest of the Evening

I will go for Adoration after work; read Joel 2:12-17, Psalms 5-8, and Genesis 3; pray a decade of the Rosary; observe 10 minutes of silence; go home; clean out the linen closet (I’ve NEVER done this, so I’m choosing it as my penance-of-the-day); do a load of laundry and put it away; and finish up a blog post for tomorrow.

Test Post

Blogging and Blog Friends

Ok, so I’m going to be trying out this “linking up” thing. This blog platform doesn’t give me a ton of flexibility — I can only pick from 9 themes and can’t do any javascript stuff and I can’t imbed videos… So, I’m testing out this version of a Mr. Linky.

If you have a blog, please hop over for a second and test it out for me. Please and thank you! 🙂

“Auto” version does not work. The one above appears to work, although if you want to see the links and connect to those blogs, you have to click the icon to go to the page that lists them. 🙂

We’ll call this endeavor a success. 🙂

Ash Wednesday 2014

Lent

For as much as I blog, I have always been really bad about keeping a prayer (or otherwise) journal. I’ve been encouraged by my priest, my spiritual director and others to do this, but it’s always been a weak area for me. Perhaps in chronicling these days of Lent here, I will learn to make a daily examen and be more committed to journaling my experiences. I think if I can have an honest look at myself and where I fail and where I am strong as regards my relationship with Christ, I will be better able to see where I need to make changes.

One of my biggest downfalls so far? I don’t have a plan (not for Lent, but in general). I kind of do things ad hoc and by whim and there’s no consistency. I will start with these daily entries. Perhaps I won’t be able to pray at a consistent time… YET … but I have hope that I can grow. Baby steps, right?

I started the morning praying the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer as I was driving to church. There was a lot of traffic. It frustrated me. So I was continually periodically thinking uncharitable thoughts about the other drivers around me and about the situation in general. And immediately, I’d recognize my lack of charity and apologize to God. Rinse. Repeat. Not a very glamorous start to Lent, but an honest one. I arrived at church a little late — just as the homily was beginning. The church was packed. They had bused the kids over for an All School Mass. The children’s choir sung and it was lovely.

All School Mass, 9am, OLGC

I received my ashes, but not from Fr. Anonymous (because I was late, I was in a back corner by the cry room), which is probably a good thing. 🙂 We have a joke about ashes, that he would put a big L on my forehead instead of a cross, and I’d hear “You’re a loser and you won’t amount to anything,” in the place of “Repent and believe the Gospel”. (For anyone who may be concerned, (a) we’re friends and (b) I don’t think he’d actually do it.) On the other hand, it doesn’t look like I’ve received a cross, either. It more looks like a Rorschach inkblot. Here. What do you think it is?

Ashed!

When I got to work, I received my first ever, “Hey, you have something on your forehead!” comment. 🙂 I’m a little surprised that I haven’t received one before.

I had signed up for several different text/e-mail bots that would send me suggestions for things to do/give up/take on for Lent each day. One of them, 40 Acts, suggested that I start a journal. Ahead of the game! 🙂 They also suggested that I take a picture of said journal and post it on Instagram, etc. Done!

Today's first task is to make a journal for Lent. #40acts

Saints in the Making University also has a Lenten program. They note that if we are sincerely making an effort to become holier this Lent, we should expect some opposition from the Evil One. Therefore, we should keep the prayer to St. Michael on our lips:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

SIMU also suggests that we read 1 Cor 13:4-8, replacing “Love” with our own name. E.g. Jenn is patient; Jenn is kind… How does saying that passage with you as the subject make you feel? Are you living up to that?

They also have a great suggestion to help us stay on track this Lent:

Say this simple prayer: “Lord, I offer up the sacrifices and sufferings of this day for……” Pick any soul…lost sheep, family, friends, enemies, strangers, souls in purgatory…anybody. When you get busy and distracted just remember, other souls are counting on you. You have the power to help get souls to heaven….don’t waste it. You may offer up your days for whomever you please, however, I strongly encourage you to offer up each day of this challenge for “disengaged Catholics” or “lost sheep”. Let’s bring them home.

I typically request Fr. Anonymous to give me the names of some people to pray for during Lent (this year, just one person). I offer up my Lent for them, and knowing that what I am doing is helping someone else has been a great motivator.

Perhaps I’m just hungry, but as I’m praying my Psalms for the day, this one stood out for me: Psalm 4:8

But you have given my heart more joy than they have when grain and wine abound.

God is everything. Through good times and bad; plentiful and lean. He loves us, He has firm hold of us, and He isn’t letting go.

I’d like to say I ended Ash Wednesday by doing the Liturgy of the Hours or something like that, but what really happened is that I had dinner and went right to bed. I did try to pray, but praying in bed mostly looks like falling asleep.

I’ll leave you with the song that was in my mind today:
Mighty to Save