Reminds me of an old riddle: What is the wrong way to eat spaghetti? The answer is: Alone "For whenever two or more of you are gathered in My Name, there also I will be." There's nothing, I believe, that requires the other people with us have to be with us corporeally, only spiritually. If you're alone, try inviting the Holy Souls, or your favorite saint, or your Guardian Angel to pray with you.
Mario Great comment. Spiritual reading and the sacred scriptures are both very valuable to lead us into greater prayer. If you love someone, isn't a joy to read about them and learn more about them? It also calls to mind St. Augustine who said in speaking of the Old and New testaments: The new lies hidden in the old and the old is revealed in the new
That's a great grace you have been given kathy k, and it's brill to see someone as open as you obviously are! I do feel the Lord may change your "assignment" in a while perhaps. But only in order that He wants to draw you into a deeper relationship with Him.
I am an aspiring Carmelite....I am trying to listen and not recite as much....very difficult for me, very difficult....so many squirrels running around my head. I pray to St Michael to take away the distractions and my Guardian Angel.....listening while walking in nature or before the Blessed Sacrament.....listening....what is your Divine Will for me today Lord? What is it?
yes, the dana and fr scallon rosary is very, very good. that is what I have on my app and it is also on youtube.
I use APPS as well. I use Laudate and Pray Scriptural Rosary in the morning with Melissa....I have the Divine Mercy App from Stockbridge on my phone for meditations for the 3pm hour.....it's wonderful....
Laudate app under Rosary and Chaplet apps....there are many rosary selections. one is scriptural rosary with Melissa
I forgot to add one more point and that is faith share groups. I have been involved with the ACTS community here in North Texas for many years. It is a 4 day retreat for 40 men hosting and 40 other men as retreatants. The women have the same for women. It is fully supported by the bishop and we have done dozens in our parish and dozens in other parishes in the diocese. While they are life changing for many men who have been away from the faith it is also great for those who love their faith. For me, it moved my faith from giving talks and lectures on theological topics to speaking from the heart to friends. I am in a few faith share groups in my parish, one every Friday at a Starbucks with about 10 men. The same group of customers/coffee aficionados comes through and listens to us while in line and leaves with their coffee. Many have stopped and said, God bless you or on occasion challenged us on Catholic beliefs. We always respond in kindness. We all need each other. Sometimes for teaching, sometimes correction, sometimes to listen, sometimes to just be guys and speak about sports and politics without the trappings of all the negative stuff. Small groups are important.
Wonderful post, Robert. How marvelous to see your inner life seeking ways to bear fruit in your outer life. God bless you and all your fellow workers! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
I like to work at saying the Hail Mary better.... Here is what our Blessed Lady revealed to Blessed Alan de Rupe as recorded in his book, The Dignity of the Rosary, and as told again by Cartagena: "Know, my son, and make it known to all, that lukewarmness or negligence in saying the Hail Mary, or a distaste for it, is a probable and proximate sign of eternal damnation, for by this prayer the whole world was restored."
In an other thread Padraig shared that he is being called more to silent prayer. Silence is a great and mysterious prayer. A few thoughts on that: Many times in the Bible we see the prophets go to the desert to seek the face of God. Even our dear Lord would seek seclusion at times as the Evangelist says, “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed” (Mk 1:35). God calls the soul out into the desert where he can be intimate with him. In the silence there, he can speak to him as a friend speaks to a friend. When the soul is quiet, then he can hear the gentle words of our Maker, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10). In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah fled to the mountain to escape those who were seeking his life. The Lord told the prophet, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by" (I Kings 19:11). We then read that there was a mighty wind, then an earthquake and then a fire but the Lord was in none of these. But, “after the fire there was a tiny whispering sound” (I Kings 19:12) and “Elijah hid his face in his cloak” because God was present. The omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the universe speaks to those whom his heart loves as a Bridegroom speaks to his Bride in silence. Yes, Elijah called down fire from heaven (I Kings 18) but he was also a man of the desert. The man of prayer was taken up in a chariot of fire but the scriptures prophesied, “Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the LORD comes” (Mal. 3:1). Centuries would pass until Elijah would again come up from the desert. As Elijah called down fire from heaven John now preaches fire and prepares the way for the son of God. He cried out, “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt 3:11). After John had been jailed, our dear Lord would speak to the crowd about him. He said, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.' . . . . All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come” (Matt 11:7-13). An old spiritual axiom says you cannot give what you do not have. Now, if John preached with such zeal that he became the new Elijah, surely he spent great amounts of time in prayer. The Forerunner was truly a man of the desert. The icon is called “The angel of the Desert”. Angel in Greek means messenger and St. John is sometimes depicted with wings because he is the messenger of the God-man. View attachment 3562
Just a few morning thoughts. When I was a child I remember asking mum and dad for money so I could buy them a present. "When I grew up, I gave up childish ways." Childish, not childlike, ways. And so in my prayer I was brought to King David who said "I will not offer to God someting that costs me nothing." Mother Theresa was asked how to know how much to give. She said "Give til it hurts." And so I found myself asking if the prayers I offer cost me enough. Am I attentive enough in this work? For me it's not so much quantity as quality that counts. Our Lady has confirmed this. But quantity does count. We are told to pray unceasingly. I was born on August 6 1953. It was a Thursday. "Thursday's child has far to go." And so i fear, it is with me. Sometimes when I phone someone I know the person on the other end is busy with something else. I sometimes find this infuriating...almost insulting. They should be paying attention to our conversation. I wonder if God and Our Blessed Mother feel like this when we allow ourselves to be distracted in prayer and life and wander off. How much is such prayer really worth? Is it really costing me anything? It has been said the measure of journey from infancy to adulthood can be assayed by how well and how much we have gone from thinking about ourselves to thinking about others. We are told at Garabandal that God will be looking for full hands when we appears before him. Hands calloused by good works full of their fruits. This will be our entrance fee. "For as long as you neglected the least of my children you negelcted me." "We may not be able to do great things but we can do small things with great love." Mother Theresa. Just a few morning thoughts.
Lately, I've been working at praying the Our Father better. I'm a big multi-tasker, so I'm praying the rosary as I go about my work. But I've been inspired to stop, close my eyes, and imagine praying the Our Father with Jesus, as He gave it to us. Amazing!!!
that was my penance today for confession! Say the Hour Father in front of the Blessed Sacrament, slowly....and comprehend each word!!!!!
I've been working on the Our Father, too. And the Hail Mary! Our Blessed Mother told, I believe it was Blessed Alan, that the Angelic Salutation was how God decided to renew the face of the earth. Imagine, saying the Hail Mary and helping to renew the face of the earth.
The greatest prayer. I will have to work on that too. The Our Father The Our Father or the Lord's prayer has great value--above all because of its Author Who is neither a man nor an angel but the King of angels and men, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Saint Cyprian says that it was fitting that our Savior by Whom we were reborn into the life of grace should also be our heavenly Master and should teach us how to pray. The beautiful order, the tender forcefulness and the clarity of this divine prayer pay tribute to our divine Master's wisdom. It is a short prayer but can teach us so very much and it is well within the grasp of uneducated people, while scholars find it a continual source of meditation on the mysteries of our Faith. The Our Father contains all the duties we owe to God, the acts of all the virtues and the petitions for all our spiritual and corporal needs. Tertullian says that the Our Father is a summary of the New Testament. Thomas 'a Kempis says that it surpasses all the desires of all the saints; that it is a condensation of all the beautiful sayings of all the Psalms and Canticles; that in it we ask God for everything that we need; that by it we praise Him in the very best way; that by it we lift up our souls from earth to heaven and unite them with God. Saint John Chrysostom says that we cannot be our Master's disciples unless we pray as He did and in the way that He showed us. Moreover God the Father listens more willingly to the Prayer that we have learned from His Son rather than those of our own making which have all our human limitations. We should say that Our Father with the certitude that the eternal Father will hear it because it is the prayer of His Son Whom He always hears and we are His members. God will surely grant our petitions made through the Lord's Prayer because it is impossible to imagine that such a good Father could refuse a request couched in the language of so worthy a Son, reinforced by His merits, and made at His behest. Saint Augustine says that whenever we say the Our Father devoutly our venial sins are forgiven. The just man falls seven times a day, but in the Lord's Prayer he will find seven petitions which will both help him to avoid downfalls and will protect him from his spiritual enemies. Our Lord, knowing how weak and helpless we are, and how many difficulties we get into, made His Prayer short and easy to say, so that if we say it devoutly and often we can be sure that Almighty God will quickly come to our aid. I have a word for you, devout souls, who pay little attention to the prayer that the Son of God gave us Himself and asked us all to say: It is high time for you to change your way of thinking. You only like prayers that men have written---as though anybody, even the most inspired man in the whole world, could possibly know more about how we ought to pray than Jesus Christ Himself! You look for prayers in books written by other men almost as though you were ashamed of saying the prayer that Our Lord told us to say. You have managed to convince yourself that the prayers in these books are for scholars and for rich people of the upper classes and that the Rosary is only for women and children and the lower classes. As if the prayers and praises which you have been reading were more beautiful and more pleasing to God than those which are to be found in the Lord's Prayer! It is a very dangerous temptation to lose interest in the prayer that Our Lord gave us and to take up prayers that men have written instead. Not that I disapprove of prayers that the saints have written so as to encourage the faithful to praise God, but it is not to be endured that they should prefer the latter to the Prayer which was uttered by Wisdom Incarnate. If they ignore this Prayer it is just as though they pass up the spring to go after the brook and refusing the clear water, drink dirty water instead. Because the Rosary made up of the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation, is this clear and ever flowing water which comes from the Fountain of Grace, whereas other prayers which they look for in books are nothing but tiny streams which spring from this fountain. People who say Our Lord's Prayer carefully, weighing every word and meditating upon it, may indeed call themselves blessed for they find therein everything that they need or can wish for. When we say this wonderful prayer we touch God's heart at the very outset by calling Him by the sweet name of Father---Our Father. He is the dearest of fathers: all-powerful in His creation, wonderful in the way He maintains the world, completely lovable in His Diving Providence,---always good and infinitely so in the Redemption. We have God for our Father so we are all brothers--and heaven is our homeland and our heritage. This should be more than enough to teach us to love God and our neighbor and to be detached from the things of this world. So we ought to love our Heavenly Father and should say to Him over and over again: St Louis de Montfort
Each of the ancient Rabbis gave their students/followers prayers to say. These written prayers were often very long and complicated. Apparently John the Baptist did the same for his disciples. So, Jesus' disciples in Luke chapter 11 also asked Jesus for a prayer in this same manner. Jesus did not give them pages and pages (or scrolls and scrolls), rather he gave them a simple small prayer. One that all could understand. Whether a small child or a PhD could understand in their own way: God is your Father, his will is best, trust in him, forgive, stay small. Read the other sections that follow on prayer in Luke chapter 11 for context. The Jews prayed all 150 psalms everyday in the Temple. The early christians continued this practice. Around 800 A.D. the monks in the Western Church started dividing the 150 into 3 groups of 50 called a Na tri coicat: chanting 50 psalms in the morning, 50 in the afternoon and 50 in the evening. Around 1000 A.D. the devotion among the faithful began praying the Na tri coicat using the Our Father as they did not know all 150 psalms. This was known as the Pater Psalter. 200 years later it was changed to one Pater (Our Father) followed by 10 Hail Marys with a meditation attached. The Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Dominic in the 13th century giving him the form most used today. (The Franciscans have their own Crown Rosary which is different). So, our Lady gives us a prayer that all can say. It is simple. It meditates on the life of Jesus, as the catechism says, it is "the epitome of the whole gospel". The Our Father is so important that the Church places it is in the Liturgy, which is the preeminent prayer. But, as with all prayer it is most effective when said from the heart.
Today is the feast of St. Teresa de Avila and Fr John Paul at EWTN gave a great homily on prayer this morning. It normally takes a day or so for EWTN to load the daily homily to their website but it is worth a listen (Oct 15) when available
