I came across one of my favorite prayers a few days ago when I bought the book "Day by Day with the Catechism" at a Catholic Church run rummage sale. It's a very well known and valued prayer among Catholics who look for thoughtful prayers, and I was happy to see it included in this booklet. As I reread it, I thought of my recent blog posting about getting out of deep trouble, where I provide commentary and advice through the wisdom contained in Psalm 1 of the Book of Psalms. I realized that I could do something similar with this prayer, so here it is.
This prayer is entitled "A Prayer for All Things Necessary to Salvation" and it was written by Pope Clement XI (1649-1721). As you read through this prayer, written by a Roman Catholic Pope, and thus heir to St. Peter, who Catholics consider the first pope, recognize that this scholarly and spiritual man has developed a virtual checklist of the correct things to ask God for. This is why I had the idea that if any of you are in deep trouble, you can take this prayer and thoughtfully use it to attune yourself more to the desires expressing within the prayer, and less to the worldly things and temptations that may be the cause of or contributing to your suffering as you attempt to handle the deep trouble that you may be in. Just a note, remember that I explained that to be "sanctified" means that one is focused on serving God first and foremost.
PRAYER FOR ALL THINGS NECESSARY TO SALVATION
I believe, Lord, but may I believe more firmly.
I hope, but may I hope more securely.
I love, but may I love more ardently.
I grieve, but may I grieve more deeply.
I adore you as my first beginning.
I aspire after you as my last end.
I praise you as my perpetual benefactor.
I invoke you as my merciful protector.
Direct me by your wisdom.
Keep me in your grace.
Console me with your mercy.
Protect me with your power.
I offer you, O Lord,
my thoughts, that they may be about you;
my words, that they may be spoken for your glory;
my actions, that they may accord with your will;
my sufferings, that they may be accepted for your sake.
I desire whatever you desire.
I desire it because you desire it.
I desire it insofar as you desire it.
I desire it for as long as you desire it.
I pray, O Lord, that you will enlighten my mind,
inflame my will,
cleanse my heart,
and sanctify my soul.
May I repent of past sins,
repel future temptations,
correct wicked tendencies,
and cultivate virtuous ideals.
Good Lord, grant that I may love you,
renounce myself,
and do good to my neighbor,
and be detached toward the world.
May I strive to obey my superiors,
support my inferiors,
aid my friends,
and spare my enemies.
Help me to overcome sensuality by self-denial,
avarice by liberality,
anger by meekness,
and tepidity by devotion.
Make me prudent in counsel,
steadfast in danger,
patient in adversity,
and humble in prosperity.
Grant, Lord, that I may be attentive at prayer,
temperate at meals,
diligent at work,
and constant in resolutions.
Let my conscience be upright,
my outward appearance be modest,
my conversation edifying,
and my whole life be ordered.
Help me to labor to overcome nature,
to cooperate with your grace,
to keep your commandments,
and to further my salvation.
Teach me the futility of earthly things,
the greatness of Divine things,
the shortness of temporal things,
and the length of eternal things.
Grant that I may be prepared for death,
fear judgment,
avoid hell,
and obtain paradise-
through Christ our Lord.
Clement XI (1649-1721), Pope and Scholar
Now that you have read this prayer, marvel along with me at each and every line, how each one could be the topic of a prayer request. Yet, how many people ask God through prayer to "desire whatever you desire," to "hope more securely," to "cultivate virtuous ideals," to "spare my enemies," to "overcome avarice by liberality," to "overcome tepidity by devotion," to be "constant in resolutions," or to "cooperate with your grace?" People, even true believers, tend to pray to God when they "want something," and that is fine, if only what you want are the qualities and devotion to God that are listed here! When one prays to God for any or all of these qualities, one sets one's self on a different path, one where one recognizes more clearly the blessings that one has received (and answered prayers), and understanding of why and where a specific aspect of life that is not going as hoped is still not a total loss.
So a great exercise for everyone who wants to become closer to God would be to regularly pray this prayer and, as a way to promote one's spiritual development, why not select one or two specific lines of request in this prayer as the focus of your "prayer request to God." I think this is the type of prayer one should read and reflect upon at the beginning of each day.
I hope that you have found this helpful!
Showing posts with label enriching one's prayer life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enriching one's prayer life. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Understanding God: God is active & involved
Many people, even those of strong faith, have a stumbling block to fully understanding God. It is that they tend to think of God in the abstract, and not as someone who is very aware and involved in each individual's life, and who cares very much about the day to day of the world's joys and, it seems, increasing sorrows. I find I have to remind people, even those who have always believed in Jesus Christ, and Biblical events, that God is constantly present and concerned. Further, God's concern is not abstract but reactive: God does respond to what individuals do.
So it is odd for me to see that people continue to wonder if God is "around" at all when there are thousands of encounters with God that happen every day. In a way I understand that modern people have great difficulty perceiving that God is present. People are very poor listeners of each other, so it is not surprising that moderns barely "hear" or notice God, if they do at all. Everyone is guilty of having conversations with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers where you barely listen to what they are saying because you are eager to get to your point. In many ways people are like that with God except people jump directly to their point. People do not listen to God's "conversation" first, if you know what I mean. It is like you know that one of your colleagues loves to talk about football, so instead of waiting for him, one Monday morning, to start the conversation about the past weekend's football, you jump in, start the conversation (anticipating what he might say) and basically all by yourself provide both halves of the conversation. So it is with many people who seek dialogue with God. They both start the conversation (usually by asking for something in prayer) and/or anticipate what they think God is going to "say" anyway (that he will like some of the things you did and disapprove of others). But God may not really have "in mind" to discuss that day's praiseworthy, or shortfalling, event. He often has a different "agenda" than what people expect.
So there is the problem of moderns having difficulty noticing how God really is present due to their controlling impulses in all dialogue, including with God. A second problem is that God is drowned out by so many people claiming to "understand" him and who "market" him. There's too much preaching and too much teaching, and not enough meaningful silence in God's presence. Here is an example. Suppose you have a wonderful grandfather in your family, a "paw paw" as they say here in the South, who you and everyone else loves. What if he lived in your house, and his room was right through one door, yet you never saw him because people constantly blocked your way to his room, telling you "on his behalf" what he would "probably say to you anyway." So you go to your paw paw's room to wish him "Good Night" and someone blocks your way and says to you, "He would probably wish you 'Good Night' in return. He might ask you how your day went. If you told him about that thing you did he'd praise you, but if you told him about that other thing he'd give you some stern advice. Then he'd tell you to 'get some rest' and 'don't stay up too late' and then close the door." So after telling you what your paw paw would probably say, the person pushes you away from paw paw's door and you never got to actually talk to him.
That, my friends, is what many of the preaching and teaching "choices," both in the mainstream churches and the goofy New Age and 'self help' voices are doing: drowning out your own dialogue with God. They are so busy telling YOU what God would "probably" say, think or do that you never actually have a conversation with him. The person who blocked you from your paw paw and told you like some sort of surrogate what your paw paw would say when you wanted to wish him "Good Night" at the end of the day may have been a good mimic of your paw paw, or may have been totally wrong. One thing is for sure: he or she deprived you of your paw paw's authentic companionship.
So even as I am, to be very candid with you, extremely shocked at how much moderns have lost their ability to authentically commune with God, I can easily see why this has happened, though I am horrified at its depth of rupture and the swiftness with which it has happened over the past several decades. One need only look at the quality of listening and dialogue between two people to see how agenda ridden virtually all discourse, even the most casual and friendly, has become, say nothing of how intensely controlling and directed even believers are when they initiate dialogue with God rather than be open to his form of continual dialogue. Again, it would be like you only wanted to speak to your paw paw on a schedule, let's say at each of the three mealtimes, and only when you have something that you want to say to him, not about the things he genuinely wishes to speak about with you.
A third reason people have trouble understanding and noticing God's constant involvement is that his involvement does not look like the type of involvement that many 'expect' to see. This is a problem of not understanding the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seeks to reach all and to help them to know and to serve God and, also, to bear the burdens of life and seek out the genuine joys too. Believers do not have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit seeks to be known even (one might even say 'especially') to non-believers. Sometimes believers think that the Holy Spirit is present in direct proportion to one's faith. Actually, I'd explain that the Holy Spirit has to be more persistent, and work the hardest, among those of weak or no faith.
Think of how the Holy Spirit usually appears as a bird. Think of how easily a bird can soar, especially on a light breeze, where it can travel with very little effort, with just a few flaps of the wing and a tilt to change direction. That breeze is like a person of faith. However, think of the person of no faith as having no breeze. The bird has to flap mightily in the still air in order to remain in place over that person. It is like the Holy Spirit has to expend a huge amount of effort "hovering" over the unbelieving person. As the gospel singers sing "Have you got the Holy Ghost?" means that the Holy Spirit is moving with you, with ease. However, a non-believer does not "have" the Holy Ghost in the sense of moving in unison with the Holy Spirit, but forces the Holy Spirit to hover in place trying to reach the person on his or her terms.
An example of this is with a virulent and mouthy atheist, the Holy Spirit has not given up, even though the Holy Spirit, as God himself, of course, is not believed in. The Holy Spirit may even try things such as bringing a particularly irksome believer in contact with the atheist. This is not an intellectually persuasive or debating strategy, such as what the atheist seeks, since he or she constantly seek 'worthy' 'combatants.' Rather, the Holy Spirit may cause the type of believer for whom the atheist has complete scorn and contempt for to cross his or her path in encounter. For example, the believer may seem like a simplistic dunce to the self congratulatory elitist atheist. On the surface that would seem a poor gambit by the Holy Spirit, as the atheist has only more contempt for the "stupid sheep" who are so dumb that they "fall for" religion as a "crutch" since they are too ignorant and shallow to know better. That is an example of how God has dialogue with people in ways that humans just don't seem to expect or understand anymore, but they used to. Students of human nature, as the elders used to be, and of animals, such as sheep, know that curiosity, even if based in scorn, opens more minds than intellectual lectures. Even hardened atheists start to wonder, how can this stupid person be so believing? After a while they might start to explore the foundation of that person's faith.
God seeks to comfort everyone, in every place and at all times, even in the most painful and disastrous of circumstances. This is one reason why, as we have seen in the dreadful shootings in the past two days, the pathos of rage within the perpetrators who explode into killing machines because they feel they deserved "better." Even the most violent, disenfranchised and mentally unbalanced people know, in the center of their spirit, that there is something better that should have been taking place in their lives. Even in those who do not believe, God is there inside of them, in the form of the Holy Spirit, as a touchstone for what ought to be everyone's spiritual stability and reality. When their personal reality does not match the internal imprint of what every child of God is entitled to, whether due to mental disease, addiction, the degradation of their family life or societal exposures, trauma, abuse, meanness of nature, you name the reason, there is an explosion between their reality and the core, even if it is minuscule and not even believed in, imprint of the worthiness of what each and every person should experience as a child of God. Often the angriest people are those who in their heart of hearts know that there is "something better than this," with "this" being their life's circumstances.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is encountered not only as a gentle bird, but as a flame. The flame inspires people to know the truth and to crave justice, and to be active, not passive, in the search for God in a personal relationship. Yet the dulling of moderns in their many addictions and false idols, and the slavery of the demands of modern society (get a job, have a perfect career, otherwise risk homelessness, medical insurance disaster, and scorn) mask genuine dialogue with God. For example, many pray to God as they have lost their jobs and their homes, and believe me, God sympathizes more than you can realize. But God cannot or will not "fix" a broken system that humans have made for themselves. People who have lost their homes and their jobs are not the failures: society with its free market slavery has become the dehumanizing new reality idol. God not only "wants" for you to have your job back, but he wants a more just society where you are not at the mercy of political patronage, looting bosses, "obsolete skills" and cruel "performance reviews." So when you pray to God in petition about your suffering, know that he hears you very well, but may be responding in something of a parallel tract to you. He may be telling you that this is all part of the falling apart of something that has been built wrong throughout society, and that you should consider how you might be part of building something more righteous and filled with peace of mind, rather than hoping for restoration of what was wrong for you in the first place.
Many of us have been told that we are "not good enough" or "qualified" for a job by someone who actually is not even fit to tie our shoelaces.
Again, think of your paw paw, the good one of our analogy. Would he think of you in terms of how you scored on your most recent performance review on your job? Of course not. Likewise it is difficult to get the full benefit of dialogue with God if you figure that he shares the values of the society that you are immersed in. Believe me, there's not much in this society that he shares the values of. So God is always there for you, always on your side (unless you are one of the looters and oppressors, liars and power hungry idolaters... in which case he 'wants you back' on the good guys' side). The comfort of God is both not of this earth but also surprisingly practical. The comfort of God is of things beyond the limitations and potential for sorrow on earth during one's life, but also asks you to consider how to break out of the slavery that modern society has imposed on just about everyone, rather than hoping just to regain one's place in the chain gang.
God understands that if you don't get the job or the good performance review that you face paycheck and medical disaster. But God, when you open yourself to him, will ask that you do not judge yourself the way others have judged you and that instead of hurt and rage you try to find a way to join with others and not allow one's soul to be sucked dry by the injustice of the times. Jesus Christ got some pretty bad "job reviews" in his several years of public ministry, where people attempted to stone and to kill him even as he preached goodness and raised the dead.
Unless people start to care for each other again and help each other this worldly economic and spiritual disaster will only get worse and worse. The Holy Spirit moves constantly among people to urge them to recognize what is good and of God, or is at least worthy of him, and what is the idolatrous lies and dross that passes for so much of "value" and "reality" today. Honestly, I never thought I would see times such as these where just for one example of contradictions, we have fights over the right to experiment on embryos to "save lives," while babies are being given bath products and food containers filled with toxins. I mean, I could use the obvious example of abortion, but its more fundamental even than that. The things that are given to babies to consume, or put on their skin, are filled with cancer causing toxins, yet moderns crave the purity of an "unwanted" frozen embryo to perform medical experiments on. The milk of living babies are poisoned while their cells are valued to cure those who have at least reached adulthood but who suffer from some illness. If you could see through my eyes you'd be horrified.
Another problem with having a personal relationship and dialogue with God is this drama queen society and media with its "watch the train wreck" fascination used as a metaphor for God and his "miracles." Um, consider this.
o Hudson River plane "miracle"
o A few days later in Australia "we have our 'own' miracle" as a plane lands on a beach
o Buffalo plane.... hmm, well, a big silence there, not so much a 'miracle.'
o Turkish plane in Amsterdam .... "miracle" (except for those who did die, of course).
o Helicopter ditches on way to oil platform off Scotland "miracle" as all survive.
o Helicopter today ditches off of Nova Scotia, one alive, one dead, rest missing (er, not hearing about the miracle of the one survivor so far).
How about not using the term "miracle" except for, you know, real miracles? I mean, where in the Bible are there lists of people who "miraculously" survive donkey cart accidents?
It would be funny if it were not so profane and awful. It is no wonder that people do not even see the thousands, yes millions of low key but real interactions of God with those who turn their eyes and heart to him, and even those who don't. The noise, distractions and sheer effrontery of "identity theft" of the divine has made it difficult for even the most pious and believing to retain the intimacy of authentic quiet contact with God that your ancestors had without even trying.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
So it is odd for me to see that people continue to wonder if God is "around" at all when there are thousands of encounters with God that happen every day. In a way I understand that modern people have great difficulty perceiving that God is present. People are very poor listeners of each other, so it is not surprising that moderns barely "hear" or notice God, if they do at all. Everyone is guilty of having conversations with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers where you barely listen to what they are saying because you are eager to get to your point. In many ways people are like that with God except people jump directly to their point. People do not listen to God's "conversation" first, if you know what I mean. It is like you know that one of your colleagues loves to talk about football, so instead of waiting for him, one Monday morning, to start the conversation about the past weekend's football, you jump in, start the conversation (anticipating what he might say) and basically all by yourself provide both halves of the conversation. So it is with many people who seek dialogue with God. They both start the conversation (usually by asking for something in prayer) and/or anticipate what they think God is going to "say" anyway (that he will like some of the things you did and disapprove of others). But God may not really have "in mind" to discuss that day's praiseworthy, or shortfalling, event. He often has a different "agenda" than what people expect.
So there is the problem of moderns having difficulty noticing how God really is present due to their controlling impulses in all dialogue, including with God. A second problem is that God is drowned out by so many people claiming to "understand" him and who "market" him. There's too much preaching and too much teaching, and not enough meaningful silence in God's presence. Here is an example. Suppose you have a wonderful grandfather in your family, a "paw paw" as they say here in the South, who you and everyone else loves. What if he lived in your house, and his room was right through one door, yet you never saw him because people constantly blocked your way to his room, telling you "on his behalf" what he would "probably say to you anyway." So you go to your paw paw's room to wish him "Good Night" and someone blocks your way and says to you, "He would probably wish you 'Good Night' in return. He might ask you how your day went. If you told him about that thing you did he'd praise you, but if you told him about that other thing he'd give you some stern advice. Then he'd tell you to 'get some rest' and 'don't stay up too late' and then close the door." So after telling you what your paw paw would probably say, the person pushes you away from paw paw's door and you never got to actually talk to him.
That, my friends, is what many of the preaching and teaching "choices," both in the mainstream churches and the goofy New Age and 'self help' voices are doing: drowning out your own dialogue with God. They are so busy telling YOU what God would "probably" say, think or do that you never actually have a conversation with him. The person who blocked you from your paw paw and told you like some sort of surrogate what your paw paw would say when you wanted to wish him "Good Night" at the end of the day may have been a good mimic of your paw paw, or may have been totally wrong. One thing is for sure: he or she deprived you of your paw paw's authentic companionship.
So even as I am, to be very candid with you, extremely shocked at how much moderns have lost their ability to authentically commune with God, I can easily see why this has happened, though I am horrified at its depth of rupture and the swiftness with which it has happened over the past several decades. One need only look at the quality of listening and dialogue between two people to see how agenda ridden virtually all discourse, even the most casual and friendly, has become, say nothing of how intensely controlling and directed even believers are when they initiate dialogue with God rather than be open to his form of continual dialogue. Again, it would be like you only wanted to speak to your paw paw on a schedule, let's say at each of the three mealtimes, and only when you have something that you want to say to him, not about the things he genuinely wishes to speak about with you.
A third reason people have trouble understanding and noticing God's constant involvement is that his involvement does not look like the type of involvement that many 'expect' to see. This is a problem of not understanding the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seeks to reach all and to help them to know and to serve God and, also, to bear the burdens of life and seek out the genuine joys too. Believers do not have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit seeks to be known even (one might even say 'especially') to non-believers. Sometimes believers think that the Holy Spirit is present in direct proportion to one's faith. Actually, I'd explain that the Holy Spirit has to be more persistent, and work the hardest, among those of weak or no faith.
Think of how the Holy Spirit usually appears as a bird. Think of how easily a bird can soar, especially on a light breeze, where it can travel with very little effort, with just a few flaps of the wing and a tilt to change direction. That breeze is like a person of faith. However, think of the person of no faith as having no breeze. The bird has to flap mightily in the still air in order to remain in place over that person. It is like the Holy Spirit has to expend a huge amount of effort "hovering" over the unbelieving person. As the gospel singers sing "Have you got the Holy Ghost?" means that the Holy Spirit is moving with you, with ease. However, a non-believer does not "have" the Holy Ghost in the sense of moving in unison with the Holy Spirit, but forces the Holy Spirit to hover in place trying to reach the person on his or her terms.
An example of this is with a virulent and mouthy atheist, the Holy Spirit has not given up, even though the Holy Spirit, as God himself, of course, is not believed in. The Holy Spirit may even try things such as bringing a particularly irksome believer in contact with the atheist. This is not an intellectually persuasive or debating strategy, such as what the atheist seeks, since he or she constantly seek 'worthy' 'combatants.' Rather, the Holy Spirit may cause the type of believer for whom the atheist has complete scorn and contempt for to cross his or her path in encounter. For example, the believer may seem like a simplistic dunce to the self congratulatory elitist atheist. On the surface that would seem a poor gambit by the Holy Spirit, as the atheist has only more contempt for the "stupid sheep" who are so dumb that they "fall for" religion as a "crutch" since they are too ignorant and shallow to know better. That is an example of how God has dialogue with people in ways that humans just don't seem to expect or understand anymore, but they used to. Students of human nature, as the elders used to be, and of animals, such as sheep, know that curiosity, even if based in scorn, opens more minds than intellectual lectures. Even hardened atheists start to wonder, how can this stupid person be so believing? After a while they might start to explore the foundation of that person's faith.
God seeks to comfort everyone, in every place and at all times, even in the most painful and disastrous of circumstances. This is one reason why, as we have seen in the dreadful shootings in the past two days, the pathos of rage within the perpetrators who explode into killing machines because they feel they deserved "better." Even the most violent, disenfranchised and mentally unbalanced people know, in the center of their spirit, that there is something better that should have been taking place in their lives. Even in those who do not believe, God is there inside of them, in the form of the Holy Spirit, as a touchstone for what ought to be everyone's spiritual stability and reality. When their personal reality does not match the internal imprint of what every child of God is entitled to, whether due to mental disease, addiction, the degradation of their family life or societal exposures, trauma, abuse, meanness of nature, you name the reason, there is an explosion between their reality and the core, even if it is minuscule and not even believed in, imprint of the worthiness of what each and every person should experience as a child of God. Often the angriest people are those who in their heart of hearts know that there is "something better than this," with "this" being their life's circumstances.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is encountered not only as a gentle bird, but as a flame. The flame inspires people to know the truth and to crave justice, and to be active, not passive, in the search for God in a personal relationship. Yet the dulling of moderns in their many addictions and false idols, and the slavery of the demands of modern society (get a job, have a perfect career, otherwise risk homelessness, medical insurance disaster, and scorn) mask genuine dialogue with God. For example, many pray to God as they have lost their jobs and their homes, and believe me, God sympathizes more than you can realize. But God cannot or will not "fix" a broken system that humans have made for themselves. People who have lost their homes and their jobs are not the failures: society with its free market slavery has become the dehumanizing new reality idol. God not only "wants" for you to have your job back, but he wants a more just society where you are not at the mercy of political patronage, looting bosses, "obsolete skills" and cruel "performance reviews." So when you pray to God in petition about your suffering, know that he hears you very well, but may be responding in something of a parallel tract to you. He may be telling you that this is all part of the falling apart of something that has been built wrong throughout society, and that you should consider how you might be part of building something more righteous and filled with peace of mind, rather than hoping for restoration of what was wrong for you in the first place.
Many of us have been told that we are "not good enough" or "qualified" for a job by someone who actually is not even fit to tie our shoelaces.
Again, think of your paw paw, the good one of our analogy. Would he think of you in terms of how you scored on your most recent performance review on your job? Of course not. Likewise it is difficult to get the full benefit of dialogue with God if you figure that he shares the values of the society that you are immersed in. Believe me, there's not much in this society that he shares the values of. So God is always there for you, always on your side (unless you are one of the looters and oppressors, liars and power hungry idolaters... in which case he 'wants you back' on the good guys' side). The comfort of God is both not of this earth but also surprisingly practical. The comfort of God is of things beyond the limitations and potential for sorrow on earth during one's life, but also asks you to consider how to break out of the slavery that modern society has imposed on just about everyone, rather than hoping just to regain one's place in the chain gang.
God understands that if you don't get the job or the good performance review that you face paycheck and medical disaster. But God, when you open yourself to him, will ask that you do not judge yourself the way others have judged you and that instead of hurt and rage you try to find a way to join with others and not allow one's soul to be sucked dry by the injustice of the times. Jesus Christ got some pretty bad "job reviews" in his several years of public ministry, where people attempted to stone and to kill him even as he preached goodness and raised the dead.
Unless people start to care for each other again and help each other this worldly economic and spiritual disaster will only get worse and worse. The Holy Spirit moves constantly among people to urge them to recognize what is good and of God, or is at least worthy of him, and what is the idolatrous lies and dross that passes for so much of "value" and "reality" today. Honestly, I never thought I would see times such as these where just for one example of contradictions, we have fights over the right to experiment on embryos to "save lives," while babies are being given bath products and food containers filled with toxins. I mean, I could use the obvious example of abortion, but its more fundamental even than that. The things that are given to babies to consume, or put on their skin, are filled with cancer causing toxins, yet moderns crave the purity of an "unwanted" frozen embryo to perform medical experiments on. The milk of living babies are poisoned while their cells are valued to cure those who have at least reached adulthood but who suffer from some illness. If you could see through my eyes you'd be horrified.
Another problem with having a personal relationship and dialogue with God is this drama queen society and media with its "watch the train wreck" fascination used as a metaphor for God and his "miracles." Um, consider this.
o Hudson River plane "miracle"
o A few days later in Australia "we have our 'own' miracle" as a plane lands on a beach
o Buffalo plane.... hmm, well, a big silence there, not so much a 'miracle.'
o Turkish plane in Amsterdam .... "miracle" (except for those who did die, of course).
o Helicopter ditches on way to oil platform off Scotland "miracle" as all survive.
o Helicopter today ditches off of Nova Scotia, one alive, one dead, rest missing (er, not hearing about the miracle of the one survivor so far).
How about not using the term "miracle" except for, you know, real miracles? I mean, where in the Bible are there lists of people who "miraculously" survive donkey cart accidents?
It would be funny if it were not so profane and awful. It is no wonder that people do not even see the thousands, yes millions of low key but real interactions of God with those who turn their eyes and heart to him, and even those who don't. The noise, distractions and sheer effrontery of "identity theft" of the divine has made it difficult for even the most pious and believing to retain the intimacy of authentic quiet contact with God that your ancestors had without even trying.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Friday, January 16, 2009
A nice morning prayer from the 1962 Missal
Prayer for Consecration of the Day
O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, may it please Thee this day to order and to hallow, to rule and to govern our hearts and our bodies, our thoughts, our words and our works, according to Thy law and in the doing of Thy commandments, that we, being helped by Thee, may here and hereafter worthily be saved and delivered by Thee, O Saviour of the world, who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Catholic daily prayer schedule "Divine Office"
Many Christians, including Catholics themselves, grew up in modern times where they do not realize that the Church has a very rich prayer life and schedule.
The principle way that Catholics pray is to attend the Holy Mass. The Divine Office, which is the name of the daily prayer schedule, is the second most important means of prayer. Observance of the Divine Office is binding upon the religious orders of the Church, many of whom attempt to pray at least part of the Divine Office each day. Here is the schedule and the traditional names.
Matins prayers of the night
Lauds the morning praises
Prime morning prayer
Terce prayer of the third hour
Sext prayer of the sixth hour
None prayer of the ninth hour
Vespers the evening Office
Compline end of the Office, evening prayer
For example, we frequently see the Pope conduct Vespers during his travels, and special presentations of that one of the eight parts of the Daily Office may be broadcast on TV coverage such as on the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN).
Speaking of EWTN, when I have been in Birmingham, Alabama I have attended the morning prayer (before Mass) and Vespers.
I mention this today to encourage Catholics to understand that laity were much more prayerful than they are today, to explain to other Christians that Catholic doctrine is far more prayerful than most of you realize, and to give a friendly wave to my Muslim readers, so they know another thing our faiths have in common (and that is one reason why I enjoyed hearing the call to prayer when I spent some time in Turkey back in 1995).
I hope you have found this interesting and also a gentle nudge toward a more prayerful mindset during the day ;-)
The principle way that Catholics pray is to attend the Holy Mass. The Divine Office, which is the name of the daily prayer schedule, is the second most important means of prayer. Observance of the Divine Office is binding upon the religious orders of the Church, many of whom attempt to pray at least part of the Divine Office each day. Here is the schedule and the traditional names.
Matins prayers of the night
Lauds the morning praises
Prime morning prayer
Terce prayer of the third hour
Sext prayer of the sixth hour
None prayer of the ninth hour
Vespers the evening Office
Compline end of the Office, evening prayer
For example, we frequently see the Pope conduct Vespers during his travels, and special presentations of that one of the eight parts of the Daily Office may be broadcast on TV coverage such as on the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN).
Speaking of EWTN, when I have been in Birmingham, Alabama I have attended the morning prayer (before Mass) and Vespers.
I mention this today to encourage Catholics to understand that laity were much more prayerful than they are today, to explain to other Christians that Catholic doctrine is far more prayerful than most of you realize, and to give a friendly wave to my Muslim readers, so they know another thing our faiths have in common (and that is one reason why I enjoyed hearing the call to prayer when I spent some time in Turkey back in 1995).
I hope you have found this interesting and also a gentle nudge toward a more prayerful mindset during the day ;-)
Friday, November 28, 2008
The prayer "Act of Charity"
Back in the 1950's and 1960's we Catholic children used to regularly pray in our personal devotions prayers called the "Acts" (one each for faith, hope, charity and contrition). Here is my "favorite," the Irish form of the "Act of Charity" from my 1962 Missal.
Act of Charity
O, my God, I love Thee with my whole heart and soul, and above all things, because Thou art infinitely good and perfect and most worthy of all my love; and, for Thy sake, I love my neighbor as myself. Mercifully grant, O my God, that having loved Thee on earth, I may love and enjoy Thee for ever in heaven.
Amen.
One could certainly add this to one's daily prayers and find it very spiritual refreshing. Often people do not know what to pray, and this prayer cannot be too highly recommended as it has the priorities perfectly aligned.
Act of Charity
O, my God, I love Thee with my whole heart and soul, and above all things, because Thou art infinitely good and perfect and most worthy of all my love; and, for Thy sake, I love my neighbor as myself. Mercifully grant, O my God, that having loved Thee on earth, I may love and enjoy Thee for ever in heaven.
Amen.
One could certainly add this to one's daily prayers and find it very spiritual refreshing. Often people do not know what to pray, and this prayer cannot be too highly recommended as it has the priorities perfectly aligned.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
I enjoy Billy Graham's column very much
Reverend Billy Graham has a daily column that the paper I buy most days carries and I enjoy it very much. It is called "My Answer" and each column answers one question from a reader. I really enjoy reading his answers and his linkages to scripture, and praise his pastoral wisdom.
In fact, I've started clipping each column and then inserting them in one of my Protestant bibles according to the scripture he cites in his answer. You might enjoy doing the same thing. It's yet another way that scripture and the Bible becomes alive in a real daily basis.
As a Catholic of course I might phrase and tweak a few little things in his answer differently, maybe five percent at most! *wink* But his great spirit of love for Jesus Christ and God, and his wisdom, compassion and common sense are wonderful and I fully endorse his answers.
In fact, I've started clipping each column and then inserting them in one of my Protestant bibles according to the scripture he cites in his answer. You might enjoy doing the same thing. It's yet another way that scripture and the Bible becomes alive in a real daily basis.
As a Catholic of course I might phrase and tweak a few little things in his answer differently, maybe five percent at most! *wink* But his great spirit of love for Jesus Christ and God, and his wisdom, compassion and common sense are wonderful and I fully endorse his answers.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Here is another prayer I have written
A Prayer for the Man or Woman in Modern Times
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help me to recognize the bread that you provide. Help me to learn how to ask only for what is good for me and only that which is pleasing to God. Help me to be like St. Peter, who stepped onto the water in belief of you, who in moment of fear had to grasp your hand. Help me to see others as you see them, and love them for your Name’s sake. Help me to know the One God who sent you and, like you, to always serve His will. Help me to only pick up a stone to be used to build a temple of truth to you, and never to harm the innocent. Help my ears to always hear you, the voice of the Good Shepherd. Help me to never block the light of others who seek you in the Kingdom of God. Help me to learn at first reflex to turn to you for guidance in times of trouble and fear. And help me to help others to find you, in your Name and to the greater glory of God. Amen.
***
Written July 24, 2008. Written with modern youth and their challenges in mind, but also for everyone who lives within the challenges of these modern times. My words, but inspired after reading how personally St. John explains in his Gospel some of the teachings and actions of Jesus.
Those of you who Photoshop or are otherwise talented, and are inclined to make a prayer card, a picture of Jesus reaching out for the wallowing Peter in the water would be great! :-)
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help me to recognize the bread that you provide. Help me to learn how to ask only for what is good for me and only that which is pleasing to God. Help me to be like St. Peter, who stepped onto the water in belief of you, who in moment of fear had to grasp your hand. Help me to see others as you see them, and love them for your Name’s sake. Help me to know the One God who sent you and, like you, to always serve His will. Help me to only pick up a stone to be used to build a temple of truth to you, and never to harm the innocent. Help my ears to always hear you, the voice of the Good Shepherd. Help me to never block the light of others who seek you in the Kingdom of God. Help me to learn at first reflex to turn to you for guidance in times of trouble and fear. And help me to help others to find you, in your Name and to the greater glory of God. Amen.
***
Written July 24, 2008. Written with modern youth and their challenges in mind, but also for everyone who lives within the challenges of these modern times. My words, but inspired after reading how personally St. John explains in his Gospel some of the teachings and actions of Jesus.
Those of you who Photoshop or are otherwise talented, and are inclined to make a prayer card, a picture of Jesus reaching out for the wallowing Peter in the water would be great! :-)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Spiritual direction: grace, prayer, purity after sin
I'm too tired to blog all night so I'm going to try to get back into a more normal sleep time pattern starting in about twenty minutes :-)
But first I wanted to share some thoughts that came up while I was discussing a book idea with a colleague.
Grace is a complicated topic, not because it is difficult, but because there are so many ways to be fruitful in grace. Grace is a gift from God and its best description is St. John's, who describes it as the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." In other words, grace is the presence of the Holy Spirit within a person, provided by God in the form of gifts. Gifts is not the same as talents, since obviously some of the most grace filled people who ever lived did "nothing" but pray, and didn't even have an education. I could write alot about these gifts but I would summarize them as being all related to the capability of "understanding God."
Now, while one cannot do anything to earn or obtain grace on one's own, one can "cultivate" grace by preparing yourself to receive it. God will fill the person who desires grace with grace, to their capacity. So if you prepare the space within you for the receipt of grace, God is able to send more grace according to his will and perception of your needs.
So what I want to share with you is that in this "achievement" oriented mindset of society, you might be surprised to see how easy it is to cultivate your inner space to prepare for grace. All you have to do is read scripturally sound material that promotes your understanding of God. So I am certainly not saying to read "history of religions" or other academic types of books for this grace cultivation. The way to cultivate grace is to "imprint" in your inner self continual exposure to the pure words of God, and words by those who have walked the same grace path as you. So reading the Bible is an obvious daily activity that promotes grace, even if it is just a small section, and even your favorite sections over and over. It's not an academic exercise, it's the continuing nearness to both God's words and the works of people who author prayers, devotionals, and sermons. For example, reading works by the saints, writings by the present or previous Pope, reading prayers and hymns, books by priests and other religious, and the sermons of the great doctors, founding fathers and others who preach the word of God. So there is a vast amount of prayerful material available that you can select from, including online.
I'll make some more specific suggestions from a reading list, especially if I am the one who has to write my book idea if I cannot persuade my colleague to do it (I'm trying to delegate!) :-) But for now I just wanted to put in front of you the idea that simply prayerful reading is an activity that cultivates grace, and is an easy action to take that can result in much fruitfulness and benefit.
As part of my continuing work at helping readers, especially my teenage and young adult audience, to develop better faith and reasoning skills, I want to jump a little bit onto a tangent in order to clarify a Church practice that has been greatly misunderstood. One of the things that the Catholic Church was attacked about at the time of the Reformation, several hundred years ago, was the "selling of indulgences." An indulgence is a forgiveness or remission of part of the personal punishment that may be due to a person due to previous sins. The Catholic Church believes, and has scriptural reference that supports its belief, that even if God accepts a confession of sin that there is a need to purify, through a commensurate penalty, the lasting effects of one's sins. This is because that even if one feels sorry and has the ability to make amends, it is rare that the effects of a given sin can ever be contained to not cause damage. And so the Catholic Church recognizes that there is a "purgatory" process after death that takes place before the individual is allowed into God's presence. (I've written about some of the scriptural support for this previously, in other posts on this blog). The Church developed an understanding, therefore, that prayer with the intention of being "directed toward" the effects and purification of one's own sin (and on behalf of others) can be performed as a way to remedy and reduce the amount of purgatory needed. That is called 'an indulgence.'
In order to help the faithful, most of whom were poor and simple people with no education, the Church tried to categorize the "amount" of purgatory someone might experience in terms of days and years. That may seem naive and quaint now, but it was a sincere effort to help people "manage" their own salvation. So a person might have a card with a prayer on it, or a prayer would be printed in the Missal, and the prayer might have a footnote saying something like (100 days). What that meant was that for each time that one said that prayer, they could hope for 100 days of their "purgatory penalty" to be removed. Of course no one can characterize the individual process by which a soul will be purified from sin before entering heaven in terms of activities or earthly time measures, but the Church fathers understood that sincerely, remorseful prayer has a real salvatory effectiveness on reducing one's stain of common everyday sin (we aren't talking about original sin). So this is the point I am making in this blog, except I'm talking about the "here and now." Prayer is a method for cultivating your inner self so that more grace from God can be received, AND prayer diminishes the stain of sin that every human has, even if that sin has been fully forgiven. So my point is to show that the Church throughout its 2000 year history has always understood that prayer is not just "the right thing to do because God expects it," but it is also of practical and real spiritual health benefit, not just for now when one is alive, but when one dies and seeks to be reunited with loved ones in the presence of God.
So just to finish the tangent about indulgences, and then wrap up with my point about cultivating grace for the here and now. Corrupt individuals and poor situations of leadership within the Catholic Church resulted in some religious actually "selling" indulgences. For a monetary donation these religious claimed to be able to grant a number of days or years of indulgence! This is outrageous and corrupt and of course everyone was right to be scandalized. However, the Reformation threw the baby out with the bathwater, as the old saying goes. When attacking the Catholic Church for indulgence selling, they lost track of the basic understanding that prayer does have desirable and remedial effect on one's purity which has been compromised by sin. This is because the age of reason was also dawning at the same time as the Reformation, and so the idea of 100 days per prayer seemed silly at the same time that the selling of indulgences was a scandal. But a huge misunderstanding resulted and this is one of the philosophical chasms between Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church. I'm going to make a generalization, but my point is to help you young people have the full outline of the problem and then fill in the details of understanding as you wish. Protestants left the Church carrying away a general disposition that 1) prayer is good because God expects it 2) you read the Bible and have study groups to better understand God, specifically through Christ and 3) there is no punishment or purification for sin that you are sorry for because "it's between you and God" and "Jesus paid the price."
However, Catholics continued with their understanding that they have maintained for two thousand years, which is 1) God expects prayer that is fulfilled via the Mass 2) Bible reading is good, and that's why there is 2-3 readings from the Bible each day in Mass 3) prayer is an essential activity in one's own purity and salvation, not just something "God expects," and 4) being forgiven of sin by God is not the same as being pure to enter heaven, especially if one is not able to contain and recompense for each instance of one's sin those who have been harmed. This is why the priest "prescribes" prayers after Confession (the sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation). The priest is ensuring that the penitent is at least doing THAT much prayer that is "directed toward" cleansing one's self of the stain of sin that has been committed, albeit forgiven. So while the Catholic Church stopped the scandalous and appalling sale of indulgence practice, and also dropped the attempts to "measure" amounts of potential indulgence, thankfully they did not lose sight of their doctrine about the real and salutatory effects of prayer.
So prayer, in the Catholic church doctrine and tradition, is much more than the valid functions of 1) worshipping God because he expects it and 2) your personal dialogue and communion with God. The Catholic Church recognizes a prescriptive, remedial, purification, and penance fulfilling power of prayer that is an essential activity as part of one's own cooperation with God in one's own salvation. This is why the Church knows that "at least" they are getting the person who comes to confession once a year to "do those five Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys" with the intention of atoning and purifying the stain of forgiven sin. Obviously one must be sincere and not just rattle the prayers off without having sorrow for the damage that one's forgiven sins have nonetheless done (damage to innocent parties and to one's own purity). But with even one's average level of belief and faith, prayer works in this purpose. Protestants are very generous in prayer, because they very much believe in the power of prayer as directed toward what we call "intentions," which is to support individuals or institutions in their time of need. So the children of the Reformation are a very prayerful people.
But the difference, so you can better understand and bind the wounds that have been made between the denominations and the Catholic Church, is that they are purposeful in their generosity of prayer, but do not have the same understanding of the other purpose of prayer that is a centerpiece of the Catholic Church's sacramental understanding of the Apostolic church of Jesus Christ, which is that of being a co-participant in one's own individual salvation and in the purification now and in the hereafter of the stains away from sin.
So the next time you have coffee with a detractor of the Catholic Church and they throw in your face that the Church "was corrupt and sold indulgences, and you are the fake church anyway," sigh, as I do, but do not be defensive. Generations of Protestants don't know the reasoning behind the continuity of the Catholic doctrine and tradition (and many poorly formed Catholics don't understand it either, but at least if they are Church attending they are still doing it, albeit minimally!) I want you readers, especially the young people who are seeking to better understand the fullness of situations, rather than have tradition knee jerk reactions, and those of you who seek to better understand not only God, but why the Catholic Church is sacramental in orientation, the way that it surely is, to understand the context of the misunderstanding. Protestants, in general, think that Catholics are somehow "insulting" Jesus by "not having faith that he paid for all our sins." They miss the point; that is original sin. Jesus didn't die on the cross so that people can swindle the bank they work for. Jesus didn't die on the cross so you can lie about your neighbor, or sell drugs. Even if you are "sorry" and "confess to God" personally for those sins, there is genuine damage that has been done to your neighborly community (society), the individuals (victims) and one's own soul. The Catholic Church understands that prayer is your "skin in the game" to "correct" the damage done by forgiven sin and to purify your soul in anticipation of salvation in God's presence.
Here's how it works, using an analogy. Jesus Christ died for all humanity and to remedy the effect of original sin. Therefore, Jesus reopened the door to heaven for all who believe in him. Jesus freed those who believed from the laws of the Old Covenant and brought the New Covenant. However, obviously the Ten Commandments and all of the admonitions of God remain valid regarding human behavior. So we know that Jesus Christ was not a "free pass to sin and it's all OK so long as you say the sinner's prayer and are truly sorry." Jesus consistently warned that the way to heaven is narrow and that temptation is everywhere. He even makes a point that one of his miracles required prayer and fasting in order to be efficacious (this was when the disciples could not cure someone and had to turn to Jesus to do it). Notice that Jesus himself needed the power of prayer and fasting to perform a specific type of miraculous cure. So prayer is continually demonstrated by Jesus to be more than worship but also a sacramental and healing device.
So, imagine that you swindled your bank, you were caught, you had to pay the money back, and you either went to prison or had a severe fine and probation. Imagine you are a Christian (obviously lapsed or very weak in the face of temptation) and so you tell God you are sorry and you mean it. In your heart you know you are forgiven. Is everything "OK" then? This seems to be the stance of non-Catholic Christians of non-sacramental denominations. But as far as the Catholic Church's understanding? Is everything "OK?" Not exactly!
The Catholic Church understands that you have no way of knowing that when you swindled your bank that in the trail of damage: several people lost their jobs and reputations, investors lost money that cannot be repaid, elderly may have had to cash in their pensions, the bank decided to shut down a department as a result, a young intern watched you and decided 'he could get away with it while you didn't and maybe he'd try that improved swindle at a different bank..." and so on and so on and so on. Sin is very rarely a "one victim" event. Crime may be, as someone steals money from a bank. But the sin of coveting and stealing has a ripple effect on people you do not even know, for only God sees all the effects of a sin. So you can be forgiven of having committed that sin, but you owe a debt due to that sin that is not "covered by Jesus dying on the cross," because it is the wrong that has been done to the many that you do not even know. This is why the Church teaches penance based on prayer. The prayer is not "punishment." The prayer is for the intentions of the damage that one's sin has done that one cannot remedy first hand. So if you are the swindler who then was a Catholic and repented, you would go to confession and receive a prayer penance. That prayer penance is applied by God to the benefit of purifying your soul from the stain of that sin's effect AND toward the unknowable victims of the sin. They are like the "collateral damage" to use a military term. You, in this example, meant only to steal the money, and you have no way of knowing about the intern who watched you and wants to now go forward modeling himself after you, even after you've regretted your sin! God "applies" all penance prayer that you do toward healing and recovering the collateral damage of the sin. This is why the Church has derived its understanding of the power of prayer to not only pray for one's own benefit, talk to God, pray for others, but also to offer up to God prayer for God to use to purify one's self and protect others from the ripple effect of sins you committed and now repent.
Nothing cheeses me off more than when people insult the Church by invalidating huge precious insights we have about our obligations to God and neighbor as being "corrupt" or "wrong" just because they don't understand the theology. So I don't mind the insult that "nah nah nah, YOUR Church used to sell indulgences!" I mind, though, the smugness of people who do not understand that they have an obligation to clean up and purify the effects of sin in their own soul and their neighbor's well being as a result of even regretted and "forgiven by God" sin. But hey, I do not question their faith or love of God, even though the children of the Reformation broke away from the tree trunk of the Church that Jesus Christ and the Apostles established. It's when they throw the first stone in our direction that I want to go, "Um, hey buddy, um, do you realize that you just don't get it?"
Anyway, I meant this to be a quick note about grace and its cultivation, but I realized as I typed this that I needed to plug the gap in understanding about why prayer and prayerful reading has a purposeful efficacy in several situations, beyond being for personal intentions or a form of worship. Prayer is an almost prescriptive activity in the Catholic Church because of the Church's many years of understanding based on scripture and tradition that greater purity can be restored through its sacramental, penance, and indulgence intentions.
As usual, I hope this helps in bridging misunderstandings, as information for those who want to learn more about the Catholic Church (for both ecumenical or for faith searching reasons), and to provide spiritual direction helping to better understand God's richness of relationship with humanity. God bless!
But first I wanted to share some thoughts that came up while I was discussing a book idea with a colleague.
Grace is a complicated topic, not because it is difficult, but because there are so many ways to be fruitful in grace. Grace is a gift from God and its best description is St. John's, who describes it as the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." In other words, grace is the presence of the Holy Spirit within a person, provided by God in the form of gifts. Gifts is not the same as talents, since obviously some of the most grace filled people who ever lived did "nothing" but pray, and didn't even have an education. I could write alot about these gifts but I would summarize them as being all related to the capability of "understanding God."
Now, while one cannot do anything to earn or obtain grace on one's own, one can "cultivate" grace by preparing yourself to receive it. God will fill the person who desires grace with grace, to their capacity. So if you prepare the space within you for the receipt of grace, God is able to send more grace according to his will and perception of your needs.
So what I want to share with you is that in this "achievement" oriented mindset of society, you might be surprised to see how easy it is to cultivate your inner space to prepare for grace. All you have to do is read scripturally sound material that promotes your understanding of God. So I am certainly not saying to read "history of religions" or other academic types of books for this grace cultivation. The way to cultivate grace is to "imprint" in your inner self continual exposure to the pure words of God, and words by those who have walked the same grace path as you. So reading the Bible is an obvious daily activity that promotes grace, even if it is just a small section, and even your favorite sections over and over. It's not an academic exercise, it's the continuing nearness to both God's words and the works of people who author prayers, devotionals, and sermons. For example, reading works by the saints, writings by the present or previous Pope, reading prayers and hymns, books by priests and other religious, and the sermons of the great doctors, founding fathers and others who preach the word of God. So there is a vast amount of prayerful material available that you can select from, including online.
I'll make some more specific suggestions from a reading list, especially if I am the one who has to write my book idea if I cannot persuade my colleague to do it (I'm trying to delegate!) :-) But for now I just wanted to put in front of you the idea that simply prayerful reading is an activity that cultivates grace, and is an easy action to take that can result in much fruitfulness and benefit.
As part of my continuing work at helping readers, especially my teenage and young adult audience, to develop better faith and reasoning skills, I want to jump a little bit onto a tangent in order to clarify a Church practice that has been greatly misunderstood. One of the things that the Catholic Church was attacked about at the time of the Reformation, several hundred years ago, was the "selling of indulgences." An indulgence is a forgiveness or remission of part of the personal punishment that may be due to a person due to previous sins. The Catholic Church believes, and has scriptural reference that supports its belief, that even if God accepts a confession of sin that there is a need to purify, through a commensurate penalty, the lasting effects of one's sins. This is because that even if one feels sorry and has the ability to make amends, it is rare that the effects of a given sin can ever be contained to not cause damage. And so the Catholic Church recognizes that there is a "purgatory" process after death that takes place before the individual is allowed into God's presence. (I've written about some of the scriptural support for this previously, in other posts on this blog). The Church developed an understanding, therefore, that prayer with the intention of being "directed toward" the effects and purification of one's own sin (and on behalf of others) can be performed as a way to remedy and reduce the amount of purgatory needed. That is called 'an indulgence.'
In order to help the faithful, most of whom were poor and simple people with no education, the Church tried to categorize the "amount" of purgatory someone might experience in terms of days and years. That may seem naive and quaint now, but it was a sincere effort to help people "manage" their own salvation. So a person might have a card with a prayer on it, or a prayer would be printed in the Missal, and the prayer might have a footnote saying something like (100 days). What that meant was that for each time that one said that prayer, they could hope for 100 days of their "purgatory penalty" to be removed. Of course no one can characterize the individual process by which a soul will be purified from sin before entering heaven in terms of activities or earthly time measures, but the Church fathers understood that sincerely, remorseful prayer has a real salvatory effectiveness on reducing one's stain of common everyday sin (we aren't talking about original sin). So this is the point I am making in this blog, except I'm talking about the "here and now." Prayer is a method for cultivating your inner self so that more grace from God can be received, AND prayer diminishes the stain of sin that every human has, even if that sin has been fully forgiven. So my point is to show that the Church throughout its 2000 year history has always understood that prayer is not just "the right thing to do because God expects it," but it is also of practical and real spiritual health benefit, not just for now when one is alive, but when one dies and seeks to be reunited with loved ones in the presence of God.
So just to finish the tangent about indulgences, and then wrap up with my point about cultivating grace for the here and now. Corrupt individuals and poor situations of leadership within the Catholic Church resulted in some religious actually "selling" indulgences. For a monetary donation these religious claimed to be able to grant a number of days or years of indulgence! This is outrageous and corrupt and of course everyone was right to be scandalized. However, the Reformation threw the baby out with the bathwater, as the old saying goes. When attacking the Catholic Church for indulgence selling, they lost track of the basic understanding that prayer does have desirable and remedial effect on one's purity which has been compromised by sin. This is because the age of reason was also dawning at the same time as the Reformation, and so the idea of 100 days per prayer seemed silly at the same time that the selling of indulgences was a scandal. But a huge misunderstanding resulted and this is one of the philosophical chasms between Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church. I'm going to make a generalization, but my point is to help you young people have the full outline of the problem and then fill in the details of understanding as you wish. Protestants left the Church carrying away a general disposition that 1) prayer is good because God expects it 2) you read the Bible and have study groups to better understand God, specifically through Christ and 3) there is no punishment or purification for sin that you are sorry for because "it's between you and God" and "Jesus paid the price."
However, Catholics continued with their understanding that they have maintained for two thousand years, which is 1) God expects prayer that is fulfilled via the Mass 2) Bible reading is good, and that's why there is 2-3 readings from the Bible each day in Mass 3) prayer is an essential activity in one's own purity and salvation, not just something "God expects," and 4) being forgiven of sin by God is not the same as being pure to enter heaven, especially if one is not able to contain and recompense for each instance of one's sin those who have been harmed. This is why the priest "prescribes" prayers after Confession (the sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation). The priest is ensuring that the penitent is at least doing THAT much prayer that is "directed toward" cleansing one's self of the stain of sin that has been committed, albeit forgiven. So while the Catholic Church stopped the scandalous and appalling sale of indulgence practice, and also dropped the attempts to "measure" amounts of potential indulgence, thankfully they did not lose sight of their doctrine about the real and salutatory effects of prayer.
So prayer, in the Catholic church doctrine and tradition, is much more than the valid functions of 1) worshipping God because he expects it and 2) your personal dialogue and communion with God. The Catholic Church recognizes a prescriptive, remedial, purification, and penance fulfilling power of prayer that is an essential activity as part of one's own cooperation with God in one's own salvation. This is why the Church knows that "at least" they are getting the person who comes to confession once a year to "do those five Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys" with the intention of atoning and purifying the stain of forgiven sin. Obviously one must be sincere and not just rattle the prayers off without having sorrow for the damage that one's forgiven sins have nonetheless done (damage to innocent parties and to one's own purity). But with even one's average level of belief and faith, prayer works in this purpose. Protestants are very generous in prayer, because they very much believe in the power of prayer as directed toward what we call "intentions," which is to support individuals or institutions in their time of need. So the children of the Reformation are a very prayerful people.
But the difference, so you can better understand and bind the wounds that have been made between the denominations and the Catholic Church, is that they are purposeful in their generosity of prayer, but do not have the same understanding of the other purpose of prayer that is a centerpiece of the Catholic Church's sacramental understanding of the Apostolic church of Jesus Christ, which is that of being a co-participant in one's own individual salvation and in the purification now and in the hereafter of the stains away from sin.
So the next time you have coffee with a detractor of the Catholic Church and they throw in your face that the Church "was corrupt and sold indulgences, and you are the fake church anyway," sigh, as I do, but do not be defensive. Generations of Protestants don't know the reasoning behind the continuity of the Catholic doctrine and tradition (and many poorly formed Catholics don't understand it either, but at least if they are Church attending they are still doing it, albeit minimally!) I want you readers, especially the young people who are seeking to better understand the fullness of situations, rather than have tradition knee jerk reactions, and those of you who seek to better understand not only God, but why the Catholic Church is sacramental in orientation, the way that it surely is, to understand the context of the misunderstanding. Protestants, in general, think that Catholics are somehow "insulting" Jesus by "not having faith that he paid for all our sins." They miss the point; that is original sin. Jesus didn't die on the cross so that people can swindle the bank they work for. Jesus didn't die on the cross so you can lie about your neighbor, or sell drugs. Even if you are "sorry" and "confess to God" personally for those sins, there is genuine damage that has been done to your neighborly community (society), the individuals (victims) and one's own soul. The Catholic Church understands that prayer is your "skin in the game" to "correct" the damage done by forgiven sin and to purify your soul in anticipation of salvation in God's presence.
Here's how it works, using an analogy. Jesus Christ died for all humanity and to remedy the effect of original sin. Therefore, Jesus reopened the door to heaven for all who believe in him. Jesus freed those who believed from the laws of the Old Covenant and brought the New Covenant. However, obviously the Ten Commandments and all of the admonitions of God remain valid regarding human behavior. So we know that Jesus Christ was not a "free pass to sin and it's all OK so long as you say the sinner's prayer and are truly sorry." Jesus consistently warned that the way to heaven is narrow and that temptation is everywhere. He even makes a point that one of his miracles required prayer and fasting in order to be efficacious (this was when the disciples could not cure someone and had to turn to Jesus to do it). Notice that Jesus himself needed the power of prayer and fasting to perform a specific type of miraculous cure. So prayer is continually demonstrated by Jesus to be more than worship but also a sacramental and healing device.
So, imagine that you swindled your bank, you were caught, you had to pay the money back, and you either went to prison or had a severe fine and probation. Imagine you are a Christian (obviously lapsed or very weak in the face of temptation) and so you tell God you are sorry and you mean it. In your heart you know you are forgiven. Is everything "OK" then? This seems to be the stance of non-Catholic Christians of non-sacramental denominations. But as far as the Catholic Church's understanding? Is everything "OK?" Not exactly!
The Catholic Church understands that you have no way of knowing that when you swindled your bank that in the trail of damage: several people lost their jobs and reputations, investors lost money that cannot be repaid, elderly may have had to cash in their pensions, the bank decided to shut down a department as a result, a young intern watched you and decided 'he could get away with it while you didn't and maybe he'd try that improved swindle at a different bank..." and so on and so on and so on. Sin is very rarely a "one victim" event. Crime may be, as someone steals money from a bank. But the sin of coveting and stealing has a ripple effect on people you do not even know, for only God sees all the effects of a sin. So you can be forgiven of having committed that sin, but you owe a debt due to that sin that is not "covered by Jesus dying on the cross," because it is the wrong that has been done to the many that you do not even know. This is why the Church teaches penance based on prayer. The prayer is not "punishment." The prayer is for the intentions of the damage that one's sin has done that one cannot remedy first hand. So if you are the swindler who then was a Catholic and repented, you would go to confession and receive a prayer penance. That prayer penance is applied by God to the benefit of purifying your soul from the stain of that sin's effect AND toward the unknowable victims of the sin. They are like the "collateral damage" to use a military term. You, in this example, meant only to steal the money, and you have no way of knowing about the intern who watched you and wants to now go forward modeling himself after you, even after you've regretted your sin! God "applies" all penance prayer that you do toward healing and recovering the collateral damage of the sin. This is why the Church has derived its understanding of the power of prayer to not only pray for one's own benefit, talk to God, pray for others, but also to offer up to God prayer for God to use to purify one's self and protect others from the ripple effect of sins you committed and now repent.
Nothing cheeses me off more than when people insult the Church by invalidating huge precious insights we have about our obligations to God and neighbor as being "corrupt" or "wrong" just because they don't understand the theology. So I don't mind the insult that "nah nah nah, YOUR Church used to sell indulgences!" I mind, though, the smugness of people who do not understand that they have an obligation to clean up and purify the effects of sin in their own soul and their neighbor's well being as a result of even regretted and "forgiven by God" sin. But hey, I do not question their faith or love of God, even though the children of the Reformation broke away from the tree trunk of the Church that Jesus Christ and the Apostles established. It's when they throw the first stone in our direction that I want to go, "Um, hey buddy, um, do you realize that you just don't get it?"
Anyway, I meant this to be a quick note about grace and its cultivation, but I realized as I typed this that I needed to plug the gap in understanding about why prayer and prayerful reading has a purposeful efficacy in several situations, beyond being for personal intentions or a form of worship. Prayer is an almost prescriptive activity in the Catholic Church because of the Church's many years of understanding based on scripture and tradition that greater purity can be restored through its sacramental, penance, and indulgence intentions.
As usual, I hope this helps in bridging misunderstandings, as information for those who want to learn more about the Catholic Church (for both ecumenical or for faith searching reasons), and to provide spiritual direction helping to better understand God's richness of relationship with humanity. God bless!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Keeping kids in church, synagogue and mosque
While on my drive this morning, admiring the full parking lots at some churches, I also started thinking about churches and synagogues that are much less full. We of course in the Catholic faith have had this problem for years. And it is not a news flash for me to confirm that much of the problem is the young people who fall away from attendance, if not actually fall away from the basic belief.
There are lots of reasons for this, and I don't plan to make this particular blog posting about all the reasons. I just was thinking about what happens when a family attends church, for example, with young children, and then the children grow up and start to resist going, or at least question it and fall away.
It is not productive or even accurate to have a conversation with them about their church attendance that is focused on salvation or other dire concerns. The whole thing about kids is that they are not supposed to be thinking about death, the end of times and so forth. They have their lives ahead of them, not behind them. (Don't even get me started about the cult crap where kids are raised thinking they have 'past lives' behind them already. I'm talking here about sane mainstream children and families in sane mainstream religions).
Children and teenagers have too much performance and danger stress placed upon them by society already. Pressuring your kids about the need to go to church or something bad might happen to them (either regarding their salvation or regarding future bad moral choices) is not the way to talk to your kids.
First, look at their timetables of activities. Homework and other school or non-school activities take away from peace of mind and true "free time" of kids. Everyone is trying to make over achieving kids. If they are too tired or weary to go to church, yet were raised as church goers, this is the first obvious thing to look at. What shifts in schedules can improve the use of time so that a child does not feel that church is a competing time and energy resource.
Second, start a dialogue with your child or teenager about their personal relationship with God. It's not just as simple as "accepting Jesus as their Savior." It's not like they sign a contract with Jesus and they are now "covered with God," and that church is part of that contract renewal each week! You ought to be teaching your children that they are in constant communion with God, and that God is their true guide through life.
It's easier for me to explain this in relationship to the Catholic Mass than Protestant and non-denominational praise and worship services, so bear with me while I mix metaphors and language from both church cultures.
Children need to understand that God is very hard for humans to hear on a personal basis. God is easily drowned out by the noise of the culture and everyday worries. People who teach scripture and Bible studies, for example, tend to over emphasize how easy God is to understand (it's all there in black and white). That is true, God's word is easy to understand because God's purpose is to make religion and belief in him as understandable to humans as possible. (That's one thing the Muslims have really right for them, as they recognize that their God wants to make it easy for them to worship, not complex and mysterious fraught with rules and strictures). So faiths that rely a lot on Bible study tend to neglect teaching children and teenagers to have a rich prayer life. Prayer is their means to have their personal conversation with God. You can use the obvious ubiquitous cell phone example.
God is like the person you can reach on your cell phone. God is always on the line, so God always hears what you are doing, even if you are not on the phone with him. So the one way listening is always "on." However, do not make your kids creeped out by this example. It's not like God is "watching" when they are in the bathroom, getting undressed, or doing something personal. Explain to them that it's like if they are in the room with sibling or college roommate and the other person turns the other way to give them visual privacy when they change their clothes, or have a personal phone conversation, etc. God is "always there" but God is not focused on the day to day details of a person's bodily functions or acts. So, to recap, tell your child that it is like they have their own cell phone connection with God, and that God is always "on the line" even if they are not actually making a call.
Church is where you learn the lingo that God speaks. Church is where you learn to understand what God is saying when you do pick up that phone and have a conversation with him. So it is like learning the texting abbrevations and the dialect of language that God uses to speak to you when you go to Church. Church ensures that you are learning how to listen to God, when he does speak to you, in a way you can understand what he is actually saying.
Explain that when they are little it is like they are given a toy phone to play with. Eventually they are given a phone that they can use for emergencies when they are out of sight of their parents. And then when they are older they get "big boy or big girl" phones with more features, and they have to learn how to use them. Their conversation with God is like that through their entire lives. Not because God's language changes, but because as they grow up the things they need to talk about to God, and listen to him in return, changes. Little kids have different concerns than big kids, teenagers from kids, young adults or college students from the rest, young single people from the rest, young couples from the rest, young families from the rest, and so forth throughout their lives. A fifteen year old does not need to text message God about his or her retirement plan, IRA or not? The things that each person needs the guidance from God regarding changes throughout their lives. And ongoing Church attendance keeps the person agile in "text" and "dialect" understanding so that they can hear God in return accurately when they do place the call.
This is one of my quarrels with "speaking in tongues" and "channeling the Holy Spirit" faiths. Much as they love God and I'm not one to criticize anyone who proclaims the authentic Jesus, as I pointed out in the scripture study example, confusing the rush of emotion with actual communication from the Holy Spirit is a serious hindering of authentic listening to God. It is like having big calluses on your feet and then wondering why they are no longer sensitive to the touch. Thinking that you are constantly screaming on speaker phone with the Holy Spirit drowns out the small and humble voice of God, and yes the Holy Spirit, when he actually does try to be heard. Thinking that the Holy Spirit just told you something about your neighbor's "bidness" is not hearing what God is saying. That's you getting caught up in having a big megaphone and listening to your own feedback.
So to wrap up, even though we could do a lot more with this analogy, explain to your children that Church is the way to continually "keep in the loop" of their personal dialogue with God, which will evolve during their lives, whether they see that clearly now at that stage in their lives, or not. Also encourage them to have even a minute of their life set aside to personal prayer and explain the broader purpose of prayer as I did here. Understand that a growing young adult may not find "just before bed" as easy a time for prayer as a child once did, for many reasons. Start to encourage your teenager to chose another time during the day for personal prayer and cultivate that before they join the work place or go to college. For example, you could teach your kids to set their alarm clock just one minute early each day and spend that minute saying the "Our Father," asking God to look over them during the day, and maybe a verse from Psalms. If you teach your child to do that while they are still at home, this is a glorious gift that anticipates that their lives will be changing and they can be flexible with their "God time."
I hope you find this helpful, and God bless all parents, and young people, who are making their way through these very difficult times.
There are lots of reasons for this, and I don't plan to make this particular blog posting about all the reasons. I just was thinking about what happens when a family attends church, for example, with young children, and then the children grow up and start to resist going, or at least question it and fall away.
It is not productive or even accurate to have a conversation with them about their church attendance that is focused on salvation or other dire concerns. The whole thing about kids is that they are not supposed to be thinking about death, the end of times and so forth. They have their lives ahead of them, not behind them. (Don't even get me started about the cult crap where kids are raised thinking they have 'past lives' behind them already. I'm talking here about sane mainstream children and families in sane mainstream religions).
Children and teenagers have too much performance and danger stress placed upon them by society already. Pressuring your kids about the need to go to church or something bad might happen to them (either regarding their salvation or regarding future bad moral choices) is not the way to talk to your kids.
First, look at their timetables of activities. Homework and other school or non-school activities take away from peace of mind and true "free time" of kids. Everyone is trying to make over achieving kids. If they are too tired or weary to go to church, yet were raised as church goers, this is the first obvious thing to look at. What shifts in schedules can improve the use of time so that a child does not feel that church is a competing time and energy resource.
Second, start a dialogue with your child or teenager about their personal relationship with God. It's not just as simple as "accepting Jesus as their Savior." It's not like they sign a contract with Jesus and they are now "covered with God," and that church is part of that contract renewal each week! You ought to be teaching your children that they are in constant communion with God, and that God is their true guide through life.
It's easier for me to explain this in relationship to the Catholic Mass than Protestant and non-denominational praise and worship services, so bear with me while I mix metaphors and language from both church cultures.
Children need to understand that God is very hard for humans to hear on a personal basis. God is easily drowned out by the noise of the culture and everyday worries. People who teach scripture and Bible studies, for example, tend to over emphasize how easy God is to understand (it's all there in black and white). That is true, God's word is easy to understand because God's purpose is to make religion and belief in him as understandable to humans as possible. (That's one thing the Muslims have really right for them, as they recognize that their God wants to make it easy for them to worship, not complex and mysterious fraught with rules and strictures). So faiths that rely a lot on Bible study tend to neglect teaching children and teenagers to have a rich prayer life. Prayer is their means to have their personal conversation with God. You can use the obvious ubiquitous cell phone example.
God is like the person you can reach on your cell phone. God is always on the line, so God always hears what you are doing, even if you are not on the phone with him. So the one way listening is always "on." However, do not make your kids creeped out by this example. It's not like God is "watching" when they are in the bathroom, getting undressed, or doing something personal. Explain to them that it's like if they are in the room with sibling or college roommate and the other person turns the other way to give them visual privacy when they change their clothes, or have a personal phone conversation, etc. God is "always there" but God is not focused on the day to day details of a person's bodily functions or acts. So, to recap, tell your child that it is like they have their own cell phone connection with God, and that God is always "on the line" even if they are not actually making a call.
Church is where you learn the lingo that God speaks. Church is where you learn to understand what God is saying when you do pick up that phone and have a conversation with him. So it is like learning the texting abbrevations and the dialect of language that God uses to speak to you when you go to Church. Church ensures that you are learning how to listen to God, when he does speak to you, in a way you can understand what he is actually saying.
Explain that when they are little it is like they are given a toy phone to play with. Eventually they are given a phone that they can use for emergencies when they are out of sight of their parents. And then when they are older they get "big boy or big girl" phones with more features, and they have to learn how to use them. Their conversation with God is like that through their entire lives. Not because God's language changes, but because as they grow up the things they need to talk about to God, and listen to him in return, changes. Little kids have different concerns than big kids, teenagers from kids, young adults or college students from the rest, young single people from the rest, young couples from the rest, young families from the rest, and so forth throughout their lives. A fifteen year old does not need to text message God about his or her retirement plan, IRA or not? The things that each person needs the guidance from God regarding changes throughout their lives. And ongoing Church attendance keeps the person agile in "text" and "dialect" understanding so that they can hear God in return accurately when they do place the call.
This is one of my quarrels with "speaking in tongues" and "channeling the Holy Spirit" faiths. Much as they love God and I'm not one to criticize anyone who proclaims the authentic Jesus, as I pointed out in the scripture study example, confusing the rush of emotion with actual communication from the Holy Spirit is a serious hindering of authentic listening to God. It is like having big calluses on your feet and then wondering why they are no longer sensitive to the touch. Thinking that you are constantly screaming on speaker phone with the Holy Spirit drowns out the small and humble voice of God, and yes the Holy Spirit, when he actually does try to be heard. Thinking that the Holy Spirit just told you something about your neighbor's "bidness" is not hearing what God is saying. That's you getting caught up in having a big megaphone and listening to your own feedback.
So explain to your kids that sure, there will be months or years that you think the sermon in Church has nothing to do with your life, and you wonder why you are going. To use the example, what if the preacher or priest is homilizing about "IRA retirement plans" while you are just thinking about getting good grades to pass your exam and how you are going to spend your summer vacation and what's on your IPOD. But if you stick with being once a week "immersed" in God's language, even if the topic is not 'cool' or 'relevant,' someday when that topic IS of vital importance to you, you will know the texting and know the dialect so you can actually hear what God is saying to you. Explain to your kids that college is an example of that first huge test. Just when they most need to hear what God is saying is when they tend to drop out of attending Church.
Back to the topic of teaching your children that there is a difference between going to Mass, praise or worship service, etc and having a personal prayer life with God. Explain that Church is like a conference call, where everyone is listening to God at the same time to different degrees, about topics that may not be your choosing, but at least you stay proficient in God's lingo. When a child or young adult prays, however, this is their personal phone call to God. Now, don't make them think that they must put things a certain way or God does not understand. That's not true. Tell them God is like the universal speech translator in Star Trek or something, ha. God understands everything that humans say, mean to say, want to say, intends to say. But prayer is like that text message or verbal phone call that your child places to God where the child actually wants to hear the response. It is the response that Church and other worship services of authentic mainstream churches teaches the child and young adult to comprehend. This is what prayer is in its purest form.
Now, the response may be, and for the most part is often the comforting presence of God. That's a subtle thing that is easily missed. Media has made so much of thunderbolts and constant frenetic action that unless God is an action figure zorching someone, kids today don't actually hear him answering their prayers. Kids may be misled (and it's entirely human and natural to do so) into thinking that prayer is either a duty to perform to God or something to do when you need something, and expect either a yes or a no. That is totally to miss the point of prayer and again the cell phone analogy is a perfect example to use to instruct your kids.
Ask your kids this. Out of a typical one hour chat fest with a friend, what percentage of their time is talking to their friend because they "have to" or because they "need something from their friend that will be answered with yes or no?" Your kid will quickly see that they are not chatting with their friends because they "have to" (obligatory prayer) or "need something" (petitionary prayer). Your kid gabs and texts endlessly in order to "hang out" with their crew. Well, a rich prayer life is when a part of your life, even if it is just before bed (night time prayers) or first thing in the morning, or whenever you can, you "hang out with and gab with God." Most of the time God is just going to be "hanging with you" saying "I know what you mean." But once in a while there will be a crucial reply. You might be pondering an important life change, for example. And if you were gabbing with your friend, your friend might go, "Whoa, yeah, but what about this and that problem with what you are saying?" In prayer, God might send a queasiness, or a question, or the Holy Spirit might warm your heart in a certain direction, just as that friend would in a cell phone chat. The thing is that God is very quiet and subtle, and like the foot calluses, if one is all loud in one direction but not keeping up with the subtle and "big picture" lingo of God through Church services, one could very easily miss hearing God's reply in prayer.
So to wrap up, even though we could do a lot more with this analogy, explain to your children that Church is the way to continually "keep in the loop" of their personal dialogue with God, which will evolve during their lives, whether they see that clearly now at that stage in their lives, or not. Also encourage them to have even a minute of their life set aside to personal prayer and explain the broader purpose of prayer as I did here. Understand that a growing young adult may not find "just before bed" as easy a time for prayer as a child once did, for many reasons. Start to encourage your teenager to chose another time during the day for personal prayer and cultivate that before they join the work place or go to college. For example, you could teach your kids to set their alarm clock just one minute early each day and spend that minute saying the "Our Father," asking God to look over them during the day, and maybe a verse from Psalms. If you teach your child to do that while they are still at home, this is a glorious gift that anticipates that their lives will be changing and they can be flexible with their "God time."
I hope you find this helpful, and God bless all parents, and young people, who are making their way through these very difficult times.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Advice for those rusty about praying
Most of the faithful, hopefully, know the "Our Father" and probably also the "Hail Mary" and the "Glory Be." You've probably also read that many people spend time at prayer, and perhaps wonder "what to pray" if you are just beginning to or seek to enrich your dialogue with God. Some of you buy prayer books, either Catholic or Protestant, for new sources of prayers. That is fine, since most of them are hopefully based on Biblical sources and are theologically sound.
Try to avoid prayer books that have "contemporary language" placed around prayer, where sometimes the authors actually rewrite prayers to be "modern." I've flipped the pages of some of them and find that they can be fronts for slippery and inaccurate dogma.
I have some suggestions for engaging in or restoring a more substantial prayer life with God. The first suggestion is to read part of one of the Psalms in the Bible as a prayer. After all, the 23rd Psalm is the prayer so many know as "The Lord Is My Shepherd (I Shall Not Want)." Those who wrote prayers often took their lines and inspiration directly from these Psalms (which are indeed prayers, ones that were meant to be sung). So if you are saying your nightly prayers, for example, and you want to do more than what many of us do, which is one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be, open the Bible and read part of one of the Psalms as a prayer.
The second suggestion is to read prayers that were written and said by others that have gone before. There is a wealth of Internet sources of original writings, homilies and prayers by saints, holy people, pious laymen and even the earliest Church fathers. For example, you can research a favorite saint and use one of their quotations as a prayer source for you. Better yet, click on a saint that you know nothing about, through a site such as http://www.catholic-forum.com/, and read several of them until you find an inspiring prayer source.
But be careful and read only prayers that are derived from their original sources. I've noticed that whenever certain saints are googled, in addition to reliable Catholic references you are also likely to get a few responses that are "this saint spoke to me on my trip to ...." and those should assuredly be avoided. Find sources for the saint's actual words and read them for prayer ideas, not modern machinations.
For example, here is a wonderful source. This web site has a list of prayers written by Popes.
http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/pope.htm
For example this prayer was written by Pope Innocent III.
http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/english3/p02553.htm
PRAYER FOR HELP AND MERCY
(By Pope Innocent III.)
Gracious Lord almighty, Jesus Christ,
let Thy sufferings aid us,
and defend us from all pain and grief,
all peril and misery,
all uncleanness of heart,
all sin,
all scandal and infamy,
from evil diseases
Or soul and body,
from sudden and unforeseen death,
and from all persecution of our foes visible and invisible.
For we know that in what day or hour we call to mind Thy Passion,
we shall be safe.
Therefore, relying on Thine infinite tenderness,
we beseech Thee,
O loving Saviour,
by Thy most benignant and sacred sufferings
to protect us with gracious aid,
and in continual tenderness to preserve us from all evil.
Amen.
Try to avoid prayer books that have "contemporary language" placed around prayer, where sometimes the authors actually rewrite prayers to be "modern." I've flipped the pages of some of them and find that they can be fronts for slippery and inaccurate dogma.
I have some suggestions for engaging in or restoring a more substantial prayer life with God. The first suggestion is to read part of one of the Psalms in the Bible as a prayer. After all, the 23rd Psalm is the prayer so many know as "The Lord Is My Shepherd (I Shall Not Want)." Those who wrote prayers often took their lines and inspiration directly from these Psalms (which are indeed prayers, ones that were meant to be sung). So if you are saying your nightly prayers, for example, and you want to do more than what many of us do, which is one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be, open the Bible and read part of one of the Psalms as a prayer.
The second suggestion is to read prayers that were written and said by others that have gone before. There is a wealth of Internet sources of original writings, homilies and prayers by saints, holy people, pious laymen and even the earliest Church fathers. For example, you can research a favorite saint and use one of their quotations as a prayer source for you. Better yet, click on a saint that you know nothing about, through a site such as http://www.catholic-forum.com/, and read several of them until you find an inspiring prayer source.
But be careful and read only prayers that are derived from their original sources. I've noticed that whenever certain saints are googled, in addition to reliable Catholic references you are also likely to get a few responses that are "this saint spoke to me on my trip to ...." and those should assuredly be avoided. Find sources for the saint's actual words and read them for prayer ideas, not modern machinations.
For example, here is a wonderful source. This web site has a list of prayers written by Popes.
http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/pope.htm
For example this prayer was written by Pope Innocent III.
http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/english3/p02553.htm
PRAYER FOR HELP AND MERCY
(By Pope Innocent III.)
Gracious Lord almighty, Jesus Christ,
let Thy sufferings aid us,
and defend us from all pain and grief,
all peril and misery,
all uncleanness of heart,
all sin,
all scandal and infamy,
from evil diseases
Or soul and body,
from sudden and unforeseen death,
and from all persecution of our foes visible and invisible.
For we know that in what day or hour we call to mind Thy Passion,
we shall be safe.
Therefore, relying on Thine infinite tenderness,
we beseech Thee,
O loving Saviour,
by Thy most benignant and sacred sufferings
to protect us with gracious aid,
and in continual tenderness to preserve us from all evil.
Amen.
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