Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Reading to Grow

One major way to grow in your Catholic faith is to read, ponder, and discuss articles by faithful Catholic authors. If you know where to look, you can find an abundance of these articles online. 

Below are just a few suggestions of websites to visit for some good Catholic reading that will help you cultivate your faith.

* The National Catholic Register is an online newspaper run by EWTN. Here you'll find articles addressing world and national news as well as blogs by authors like Mark Shea, Jimmy Akin, Simcha Fisher, Jennifer Fulwiler, and Matthew Archibold.

* Crisis Magazine bills itself as “A Voice for the Faithful Catholic Laity.” With sections on politics, the Church , art and culture, Catholic living, books and reading, and models of faithful Catholic living, Crisis provides a wide range of articles to make us think seriously about how we live our faith in the modern world.

* The Integrated Catholic Life also provides plenty of articles for study and reflection. This website focuses on spirituality and Catholic life. It contains a strong apologetics page, Scriptural meditations, Catholic quotations, sections geared specifically toward men, women, and young adults, and several interesting blogs (including one focused on fantasy literature).

* Catholic Culture provides helpful Catholic commentaries on world and national news as well as useful information about each day of the liturgical year. The site's Resource Center contains a Catholic Library and Dictionary, documents from the Fathers of the Church, a searchable Catechism, several interesting ebooks, and the writings of Father William Most (complete with full courses and books).

* The Catholic channel on the Patheos website offers Catholic news as well as blogs from Father Dwight Longenecker, Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, and Elizabeth Scalia.

* The Catholic Education Resource Center collects a wide range of pieces on controversial topics, culture, history, art, music, education, health, science, faith and life, prayer, marriage and family, religion, philosophy, and more. There are many thought-provoking articles from authors like Peter Kreeft, Tim Staples, and Father Robert Barron.

* The Imaginative Conservative, while not explicitly Catholic, contains a marvelous selection of articles about imagination, literature, culture, education, and politics. These articles tend to be longer and more scholarly, but they are well worth the extra effort.

These websites add new material daily, so there is always plenty to choose from. Try to start out by reading a couple articles a week, and don't forget to say a prayer before you begin, asking God to open your heart and your mind to what He wants to teach you. You'll learn a lot about about your Catholic faith, which will grow stronger in the process.

Happy reading!

Monday, May 18, 2015

Everyday Prayers: Pray without Ceasing

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul gives us a major challenge: “pray without ceasing” (5:17). It might seem impossible at first. We're all busy people after all. We give our attention to dozens of different things throughout the day. We have the obligation to work diligently and carefully without distractions that could affect the quality of our work or, at times, even risk our own lives and the lives of others. How, then, can St. Paul possibly require us to pray continually? 

There is a solution to this vexing question. In fact, there are several solutions, and we're going to explore of few of them in this post.

First, greet God first thing in the morning, offering Him your whole self and your whole day, all your thoughts, words, and actions, for His deepest intentions (especially the salvation of souls). If you do this every day and really mean it, your whole life actually becomes a prayer. 

Second, set a firm foundation of prayer by setting aside time everyday just to spend with God. Pray the Rosary; prayerfully read the Scriptures; recite your favorite prayers; write in a prayer journal. Try to put your whole heart and mind into your prayer and focus your whole attention on God, even if just for a few minutes. Over time, as prayer becomes more of a habit, expand your prayer time, either adding minutes to your daily prayer break or, better yet, adding more prayer breaks throughout the day.

Third, have a memorized storehouse of short prayers to say throughout the day. Whenever you pause from your duties for a moment, use that moment for prayer. Turn your attention to God and recite an Our Father, a Hail Mary, or a Glory Be. You can also tap into a wealth of the so-called ejaculatory prayers or aspirations that Catholics have been using for centuries. Here are a just a few:

* My God, I love You!
* Jesus, I trust in You!
* Jesus, Mary, Joseph, be my Salvation!
* All for Thee, dear Lord!
* Jesus, help me!
* Thou art omnipotent; make me a saint!
* May my only happiness be to please You, O Infinite Goodness!
* O God of love, give me love!
* God, come to my assistance; Lord, make haste to help me!
* My Jesus, have mercy!
* Comfort me, Mother of God!
* Holy Mary, my Advocate, pray for me!
* Mother of God, remember me!

You can find more of these little aspirations online at the White Lily of the Trinity website and in the Raccolta and other prayer books. Memorize a bunch of them, and make a habit of using them frequently during the day.

Fourth, listen to Christian music. Even if it's only playing in the background, good Christian music can lift you easily and often spontaneously into prayer. 

Fifth, before you begin any new task, take a moment and pray. Ask God to bless your task and guide your hands and mind as you perform it. Offer it to Him to use as He pleases. 

Sixth, practice the presence of God. God is always with us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. When we are in a state of grace, He dwells in our very souls. Remember Him. Develop the habit of turning your thoughts to Him often throughout the day, no matter what you are doing. Talk to Him about your work and leisure, your joys and sufferings, your triumphs and worries. He is, after all, your very best Friend. Treat Him like it.

St. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing.” Really, God is the One Who commands us to do this, for He inspired every part, every word, of the Bible. Our job, then, is to obey. 

Let us pray:

God, we want to obey Your words. We want to pray without ceasing. Inspire our hearts; turn our minds to You; help us to love You and to long to spend every moment of every day with You. Remind us always of Your constant, loving presence. Lord, teach us to pray. Amen.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Everyday Prayers: Morning Offering, Part 2

Let's continue our reflections on a common morning offering prayer that helps us surrender ourselves and our days to God.

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.

1. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart – Jesus knows best what the world needs, what our loved ones need, and what we ourselves need. By offering our prayers for His intentions, we are telling Him that we trust Him. We believe that He will order all things for our ultimate good. Jesus' Sacred Heart is the seat of His love, which burns like an unquenchable flame. The Catechism, quoting Pope Pius XII, says this about Jesus' Sacred Heart: Jesus “has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, 'is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that...love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings' without exception” (#478).

2. the salvation of souls – God wants every single person to be with Him in Heaven forever. He offers saving grace to everyone, but He does not force it on anyone. Therefore, we must pray for this powerful intention that fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus: the salvation of all souls.

3. reparation for sin – Sin is the worst thing that can ever happen because all sin, mortal or venial, is saying “no” to the all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise God. What's more, sin has consequences. When we sin, we get bogged down in spiritual mud. When we repent and confess our sins, God forgives us, but we are still covered in mud. We have to get cleaned up somehow. We have to repair the damage we have done by sin. After all, God is both perfectly merciful and perfectly just. Like a good parent, He makes His children clean up their messes. Father Robert Altier explains, “By uniting our prayers, works and sufferings to those of Jesus, we can actually make some reparation for our offenses against the justice of God. Because we are members of Christ, our offerings become part of the work of our Lord which was to make reparation for the sins of the whole world. Therefore, our offering not only makes reparation for our sins, but for the sins of others as well.” In other words, we cooperate with Jesus' love to scrub ourselves and others of the consequences of sin.

4. the union of all Christians – Just before He died, Jesus prayed to His Father that all His disciples, then and to come, may be one as He and the Father are one. His heart must ache at the divisions Christians have created among themselves out of human pride, ignorance, stubbornness, and hardheartedness. We lift up our prayers that all Christians may indeed someday be one just as Jesus always intended.

5. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops – As the successors of the apostles, bishops are specially chosen by Christ and ordained to be shepherds of the Christian people. Bishops pray for many things: for peace in the world, for their flocks, for those outside the Church, for the Church and her leaders. We join our prayers with those of the bishops, begging God to hear and answer them and us.

6. and of all Apostles of Prayer – Who are these Apostles of Prayer? Some people are called to the contemplative life, and they become monks and nuns devoted to prayer and sacrifice. They unite themselves to Jesus in a special way, and we stand in solidarity with them, joining our prayers to theirs, knowing that they pray for the whole world.

7. and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month – Every month, the Pope recommends prayer intentions to unite the prayers of the whole Church around a specific cause. The Holy Father's prayer intentions for May 2015 are as follows: “That, rejecting the culture of indifference, we may care for our neighbours who suffer, especially the sick and the poor” and “That Mary's intercession may help Christians in secularized cultures be ready to proclaim Jesus.” We should all make a point to know the Pope's intentions for each month and pray for them daily. They can be found on the EWTN website.

8. Amen – With this one little word, we declare a firm “yes” to everything we have just prayed. We once again offer ourselves and our lives to God, surrendering our thoughts, words, actions, joys, and sufferings to Him and joining our prayers with the intentions of Jesus' Sacred Heart and the prayers of the whole Church.

Let us pray:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.

Source: “Why is Reparation So Important?” by Father Robert Altier at http://www.courageouspriest.com/father-robert-altier-reparation-important

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Everyday Prayers: Morning Offering, Part 1

There really is only one good way to start the day, and that is by offering it to God along with everything we are and everything we do, think, and say. A morning offering prayer helps us focus on God from the first moments of a new day, immerse ourselves in His love, and step out on the path of practicing His presence.

There are many different morning offering prayers, some formal and some spontaneous, but the following prayer is particularly good for covering all the bases of a morning offering:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.

1. O Jesus – We direct our offering to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As both God and Man, He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and yet so very close to us. He knows all our pleasures and difficulties, all our hopes and fears, all our virtues and vices. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He longs for us to give ourselves entirely to Him. Our morning offering helps us do just that.

2. through the Immaculate Heart of Mary – Mary is both our Mother and our Mediatrix. She lovingly accepts all our prayers, strengthens them by adding prayers of her own, and presents them to her divine Son. Mary is especially good at this because of her Immaculate Heart. Mary's heart is totally pure, for she was conceived without original sin (i.e., with the divine presence already dwelling in her soul), and she never once committed any personal sin to weaken or destroy her relationship with God. As the Immaculate Mother of Jesus, she is closer to Him than any other human being, and she loves to meet Him constantly with our prayers in her hands.

3. I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day – Here we offer God everything we have and everything we are. We offer Him our prayers, directing them all to Him in love, whether they are spoken, thought, felt, or even performed (actions can, after all, be prayers, too). We offer Him our works, all that we do throughout the day, little things and big things, actions that are very important and actions that seem insignificant. They can all have spiritual meaning when we offer them to God. We offer Him our joys, those moments when wonderful things happen or when we are simply happy to be alive. We offer Him our sufferings, for these too have immense value even though they are painful and difficult to understand. When presented to God in loving trust, all of our words, actions, prayers, thoughts, emotions, and trials are raised to a higher level, a spiritual level, and can be effective in helping to spread and apply God's grace to ourselves and others through a process theologians call subjective redemption.

4. in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world – In humility, we are well aware of how small we are and how small all our actions and thoughts and words are in the great scheme of things. This is why we join our little offerings with the greatest offering, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Yes, the Mass truly is a sacrifice. It is a re-presentation of Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross. Jesus died once for all on the Cross to save us from our sins and open the gates of Heaven for us, but that sacrifice, having been accomplished by Someone divine as well as human, now stands outside of time. It can be and is made present for us on the altar at every single Mass throughout all time and in all places that we may share in that sacrifice, offer our sacrifices along with it, and have its great redemptive graces applied to our lives.

We will continue our reflections on this morning offering prayer in the next post, but in the meantime, let's get in the habit of presenting ourselves and our whole day to God every morning with this prayer or something similar. Again, let us pray:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.