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Lord, teach us to pray….

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Photo Credit: Essam Saad on Flickr (Creative Commons License)

“Lord, teach us to pray…” -John 11:1

Since I don’t remember going through it myself, it has been a fascinating exercise observing my children as they learn how to speak.  Each of them begins with no clue whatsoever where to start – so they do the only thing they know how to do: they cry.  Eventually those cries become sounds that represent something – usually, their best imitation of the sound they think represents their needs.  The sounds become words, and once the words become sentences: look out, because many of us don’t stop communicating once we get started!

As I write this, my fourth child is making a great effort to copy the sounds he hears the rest of us saying in a desperate effort to make his wishes known to us.  Sometimes these sounds make no sense at all – so he repeats them, louder and louder in hopes that we will figure it out… and when he gets through to us, the joy he feels is palpable.  Eventually, he’ll find his words – and his voice – and he’ll be able to talk and listen as well as anyone else (and I look forward to that day – I still have no idea what he means 95% of the time.)

Learning to pray is not that much unlike learning to talk.  At first, it may feel like trying to communicate with God is beyond our capacity.  So we cry out to Him – usually in a moment of need.  But if crying for what we want is all that we do, we may find that the ‘relationship’ part of being close to God is lacking – so we seek for words.  Our first words in prayer are usually those copied from others – the Lord’s prayer, Hail Mary, or even the lyrics of a particularly moving hymn or song.  These borrowed words are always with us – and are often helpful for getting the conversation started.  However, to grow in prayer means that we need to regularly move beyond the words of others and find our own voice – conversing with God using our own words (and listening to His reply.)

For many of us, however, the idea of conversing with God is a long ways off, and you might be unsure on where to start.  I’m going to spend some time breaking open the words of several traditional Catholic prayers – to help get you started and to help you find more meaning in some of our rote prayers.  One of the resources I’m going to use for this series is a book by one of my favorite Catholic authors, Amy Welborn, “The Words we Pray.”  If you want to read it yourself, you’ll find that Amy goes much deeper into these prayers than I can on a blog – and several prayers I likely won’t get to.

So as you seek to deepen your own life of prayer – to find your own words (and learn to listen to His) – I pray that this series will be a blessing to you.  (And don’t forget to pray for me!)

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The Greatest Rescue Mission of All Time

Scene from Disney’s “Frozen” (2013)

 When Frozen came out last winter, I was a little late to get to see it (I didn’t actually watch the movie all the way through until about 6 months after it’s release.  For a father of two little girls, this may be a serious  sin!)  I was duly impressed, and I can understand why so many compared the quality of what they had in Frozen to The Lion King – both movies do an exceptional job at moving their audiences.  Both also grab onto core themes from our Christian faith. While The Lion King retells the story of Moses (both are princes who flee to the desert, fearing the punishment they are owed for the death of another – and their return is inspired by an encounter with their Father’s), Frozen, grabs onto the story of salvation history: the story we celebrate over Easter weekend.

[Read more…] about The Greatest Rescue Mission of All Time

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C4 (Growing in Prayer)

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As long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with prayer.  Not because I find any particular method difficult -I’ve loved doing various forms of prayer: praise and worship, lectio divina, the rosary, adoration, the liturgy of the hours – but because I struggle to make time to pray on a regular basis.  I’m inconsistently faithful to prayer – and this is something I want to change.  So Jen purchased a book for me called The Better Part by Fr. John Bartunek – in hopes of helping me to become more faithful (and more consistent) in my prayer.

The results after almost 6 weeks?  I’ve been more faithful to my prayer, but I’ve still got a long way to go.  What I’ve found in this book is a simple and beautiful structure of prayer that helps me to better pray with scripture.  And with the 2015 Lenten “Time to Pray” series around the corner, it’s the format I intend to use for the daily prayers posted on this site.  It uses a four step structure (drawing in large part from both Ignatian & Carmelite tradition) – a structure I like to call “C4 Prayer.”  These make up what Fr. Bartunek identifies as key elements of a heart to heart conversation with God – which is the purpose of praying in the first place.

C-1: Concentrate

Step 1 involves turning away from your exterior concerns and turning towards God.  It means finding a time and place (a consistent one, if you can make that happen) that you are going to set aside for God.  Here, you shut the door on the outside world – literally, perhaps, but figuratively for sure: shutting down music and putting your phone into silent or even airplane mode.  Once you’ve carved this space out, there are a few simple steps that follow:

  1. Recognize God’s presence: notice that He is truly there, whether it be in your heart, beside you, all around you, or some other image that helps refresh your awareness of His presence with you.
  2. Listen up, and remember that God has something He wants to say to you TODAY, and that during this time He wants to do something in your soul.
  3. Focus, and recognize that you need to hear what He has to say to you… recognize that your are dependent on God who created you and who has redeemed you in your brokenness.
  4. Renew in your heart a desire to hear God’s words.

 

C-2: Consider

Take some spiritual text (preferably scripture) and read through it slowly, twice.  As you go through it, make a note of what God is saying to you here and now in your life.  You’re not looking for some new insight or new truth, just something that you need to hear in this moment of your life.  Fr. Bartunek emphasizes that we need to be seeking for whispers as we read – and I like to make a note each time something jumps out at me (either by highlighting it or writing it down somewhere.)  Be patient here, and don’t get discouraged – this will take some practice.  Often some sort of commentary or reflection (like what will be offered in the “Time to Pray” series) will be helpful.

 

C-3: Converse

Having noted some particular item or flower to consider, respond to it.  Use word of praise, or sorrow (contrition), or gratitude.  Ask things of God – it may be to live up to what you are considering in step 2, and this response may also lead you back to your passage for some further consideration – this is ok!  The key here is to work at letting down the guard of your heart so God’s word can penetrate, regenerate, and inspire you in the depths of who you are.

 

C-4: Commit

Having concentrated, and placed yourself in the presence of God, having considered some passage of His word, and having conversed with Him in response to this, you now come to the point where the rubber meets the road: you need to put your meditation into action.  Renew your commitment to live as one of Jesus’ disciples; and consider whether the days meditation leads you to commit (or re-commit) yourself to some act of charity, of penance, to take on a spiritual program, or whether it’s some dimension of what’s going to take place in this day.  Ultimately, the key here is to bridge the content of your meditation into some concrete action.

Once you’re done, conclude with a prayer that reminds you of your commitment to Christ.  A prayer from Fr. Bartunek I recommend is as follows (though you can use any prayer – even a spontaneous prayer on the spot that expresses these sentiments):

You know how weak I am, Lord, but you also know how much I want to follow You.  You have planted that desire in my heart.  I am yours, Lord.  Wherever I go, and whatever happens, I belong to You.  I never want to be separated from You.  As hard as it is, I want to do Your will, because You are my God, my creator, and my redeemer, my Father and my faithful friend.  Thy will be done in my life today, Lord, Thy Kingdom come.

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When Words Run Out (Starting the Conversation)

Source: Aleteia.org
Source: Aleteia.org

How do I Pray when the Words Run Out?

(A reflection by Deacon Pat Hessel)

We are told that it is good to pray each day for at least five minutes in the morning and at least five minutes at night. We need to pray every day because our relationship with God is a “work in progress” that can always get better. Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to say to God when we pray. We can say prayers like the Hail Mary and the Our Father. There are prayer books that give us different prayers for each day. We can read the Bible. There are really lots of possibilities.

Prayer should bring us closer to God. Prayer should help us to be better people. Sometimes reading or reciting prayers brings us closer to God and helps us to be better people, but sometimes we need something less structured – more free-flowing – to connect our lives with God.

When the words run out, you may want to think about (pray about, meditate on) some of the questions listed below. The questions are not meant to make you feel good or bad, proud or inadequate – they are meant to help you become a better person and connect you more strongly with God (remember, it’s a work in progress). [Read more…] about When Words Run Out (Starting the Conversation)

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We Pray

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Photo Credit: Jonathan Mueller on Flickr (Creative Commons)

I recently spent an extended weekend in Kananaskis Country, surrounded by the beauty of the Rocky Mountains – while being challenged by a Cajun “Faith horticulturist” (that’s honestly what he calls himself) named Mike Patin.  While I’ve heard him before, I was a rookie attendee at an event called SPICE (Sharing Purpose in Catholic Education) – a four day retreat for Catholic Teachers & support staff like myself – which is put on by the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association.  Overall, it’s an experience I’m still digesting –  but I certainly came home with some food for thought about the way I serve young people in our schools… things I will be adjusting and changing moving forward in my work as a chaplain and youth minister.

One of the highlights of my weekend was the presence of two wonderful people – Archbishop Richard Smith (my bishop) and Fr. Michael Schumacher (a former classmate of mine).  His grace and Fr. Mike celebrated Mass at 7am on Friday and Saturday for those souls willing to deprive themselves of a bit of sleep – all of it in room 2106.  Fr. Mike also took time on both of those afternoons to hear confessions… something I heard several people mention as a highlight for them.  All of this happened at the Delta Lodge in Kananaskis, in room 2106. [Read more…] about We Pray