Mike Landry: Catholic speaker, writer, & music minister in Alberta, Canada HomepageMike Landry: Catholic speaker, writer, & music minister in Alberta, Canada

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Living in the Word of God: Start Reading the Bible

Inspired by Archbishop Richard Smith’s pastoral letter, Living in the Word of God, I’ve recently been encouraging students and adults alike to spend more time reading their Bibles.  I believe we would all benefit by making a commitment to read at least one chapter from the Bible every day, and this post is a resource to help people do just that.

Here’s three simple tips to help you get started:

1. Obviously, if you want to read the Bible,you need a Bible.  The Catholic Youth Bible is a great print edition for students, while I personally use the Didache Bible at home.  If you prefer to work from your devices, Olive Tree has an excellent app that works across all platforms.  NOTE:  If you’re buying or downloading a Bible, keep an eye on the edition – both to ensure you’re reading a good translation and that all the books are included.  Good Catholic translations include the New American Bible (NAB), The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), the Revised Standard Version (RSV), or the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) – which is the edition we use for readings at Sunday Mass in Canada.

2. If you’re going to read the Bible, it helps to know where to start reading.  While there are many Bible Reading plans (the Great Adventure Bible Study is one of my favorites), the easiest thing to do is to read the New Testament first.  If you read one chapter per day, this will take you 9-10 months.  (Reading at this pace would mean about 4 years of reading 1 chapter per day to get through all of the Bible.)  Reading the New Testament first will help you understand the Old Testament, as many events in the Old Testament make much more sense if you know where you’re headed.  I also have a handy checklist to keep track of what you’ve read, chapter by chapter:

I’ve also found Dr. Scott Hahn’s book, A Father Who Keeps His Promises to be a very valuable tool in understanding what it is that I’m reading.

3.  Finally, there is great value in learning to pray your way through the Bible, rather than just reading your way through it.  There’s a simple process for praying with Scripture called Lectio Divina.  Good books to help you with this include Pathway to Our Hearts by Cardinal Thomas Collins and The Better Part by Fr. John Bartunek.  I’ve also got a small handout based on the work of Cardinal Collins & Fr. Bartunek which you are more than welcome to use:

Know that I am praying for you as you begin, begin again, or continue this journey of living in the Word of God!

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Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

Photo credit: Johan & Natasja on Flickr (used under Creative Commons copyright license)
Photo credit: Johan & Natasja on Flickr (used under Creative Commons copyright license)

Liturgically speaking, Holy Saturday is the quietest day of the year – the time between Jesus’ death, and his resurrection which takes place at the Easter Vigil, technically Easter Sunday. Holy Saturday has always seemed to be such a quiet day in the midst of a very busy week – especially when I try to put myself into the shoes of the apostles, who would have distinctly felt the emptiness and loneliness of Jesus’ death most profoundly.  The following is the text of an ancient homily from Holy Saturday as found in the Liturgy of the Hours – and is one of the most beautiful explanations I’ve found for the silence of this day:

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

[Read more…] about Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

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An OGRE To help you grow closer to God

The Following represents my talk notes from the closing keynote talk at the Prince George Diocesan Youth Conference on April 22nd, 2018

As we come to the end of our time together, I want to encourage you with some words from St. Padre Pio:

In the spiritual life one must always go on pushing ahead and never go backwards; if not, the same thing happens as to a boat which when it loses headway gets blown backwards with the wind.

The first thing I would challenge you to do is to go home with your eyes wide open to your surroundings. Does the music you listen to, shows you watch, and the people you interact with on social media push you ahead and deepen your relationship with God… or are they pulling you away?

  • The alcoholic who is serious about recovery stays away from the bar (and pours out any more beer he has been keeping in the house). The drug addict often has to leave town.  The porn addict doesn’t just clear his browser history, he installs accountability software on his computer, cell phone, and he looks through his DVD collection to see if there’s anything that would lead him into the near occasion of sin.
  • As you arrive home tonight, keep your eyes open this week for those things you might need to change, those things which are pulling you away or acting as an anchor to keep you from the life that Jesus wants for you. BE HONEST.
  • If you really trust Him, you’re not worried that what you give up will outweigh what you get: there is no promise in this world that can match up to the promises of God.

Most of that is about not going backwards.  How do you PUSH AHEAD in your spiritual life?  My solution is that I want to give you an OGRE.  This OGRE represents four tips that will help you pray at multiple times per day–to walk the path of renewal and cooperate with the Spirit of God in you who is always working to push you away from death and towards life.

The ‘O’: Make a Morning Offering

I remember visiting my high school girlfriend’s family and seeing in big letters on the wall in her brother’s room “MAKE A MORNING OFFERING.”  I never really understood what it meant until a few years later, at Bible School when one of our instructors told us to do the same.

It really is quite simple: by making an offering of your whole day (good, bad, and ugly) to God at the very start of your day, you do what we did last night – bringing Him with you and remembering He is with you in all circumstances and at all times.  This is in direct opposition to what we do by our sin, which is to separate ourselves from Him (as we saw yesterday morning) and ultimately to exclude Him from our lives.

There are formal prayers you can use:

My God, I adore You, and I love You with all my heart. I thank you for having created me, made me a Christian, and preserved me this night. I offer You the actions of this day. Grant that all of them may be in accordance with Your holy Will and for Your greater glory. Protect me from sin and from all evil. Let Your grace be always with me and with all my dear ones. Amen.

 Making an offering of your day is a simple way to start on the right foot – before you even set foot on the floor to get out of bed.  If you don’t know what to say, google a morning prayer, but feel free to simply offer Him your day in your own words. We learn prayer the same way we learn to talk: imitating words and sounds before finding our own. The point is to offer it ALL to the God who loves you and gave you that day in the first place.

The ‘G’: Say Grace

A couple years ago, a group of youth from my parish decided to try and pray Grace before lunch while at school for a whole week.  On Sunday night, it seemed to them to be a fantastic idea… but on Monday at 11:30, it was much more intimidating.

My youth minister used to say that every time we pray in public, it is a small humiliation – an act of love – for the God who was completely humiliated for us. What does this do? Makes us just a little more like Him.  Saying Grace before our meals helps us to recognize the presence of God in our day (and from whom we get all we have.)

While it may seem like a trivial thing, saying Grace three times a day means you are stopping to pray three times a day… which is also a very good thing.

The ‘R’: Read Your Bible (and not just the easy parts!)

When he was Archbishop of Edmonton, Cardinal Thomas Collins used to carry a small, pocket sized, red Bible in his suit coat pocket.  He took every opportuinty he could to remind us that Bibles are meant to be red (read.)

For most people who make a New Year’s resolution to read the Bible, it’s sometime in February or March that they give up (having come upon Leviticus’ commandments not to sleep with animals or your sister, they are understandably disturbed). But it’s all inspired, God speaks to us in all of it, and you need to make sure it stays red/read.  And by that, I mean daily.

There are a ton of reading guides out there.  If you enter it into Google, you’ll find a few good ones.  The App store on the iPhone and Google Play both contain many as well – check with your youth minister or priest to help find a good one. Try and find out what readings your church will be reflecting on next Sunday and read those ahead of time (easier to do in some faith traditions than others).

One simple way I would recommend that will allow you to read the New Testament in 4-5 months:

a) read a chapter in the morning starting in Matthew, and going through the 4 Gospels Acts of the Apostles, and the Letter to the Romans) – 133 total chapters

b) read a chapter in the evening (starting with the 1st letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, then going through all the letters and the book of Revelation.) – 126 total chapters

You could also just read one chapter a day – this would allow you to get through the New Testament in 9-10 months (depending on how faithful you are to your reading.)

(If you want to try and get through the whole Bible, feel free to use this handy Bible Reading Checklist to keep track of your progress.)

The point, though, whatever plan or guide you go with is to read it.  EVERY DAY.  Allow God to speak to you through it, discover yourself in it, and have your faith deepened by it.

The ‘E’: Make an examination of Conscience

One traditional form of prayer in our Church involves ending your day with a brief examination of conscience, taking an honest look at the day and the ways in which you did or did not respond to God’s grace that day.

There is great wisdom in this practice, because it not only allows you an opportunity to see the patterns of sin in your life… but also to look for opportunities to do something about it in the next day.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be the formal examination of conscience we did yesterday afternoon. (You can find that on the second page of this document.)  It could also be something as simple as (SLIDE 11) asking yourself how you did at loving God & loving your neighbor today.

The point is to make the space, to check your heart, and to ask God’s grace to do better tomorrow.

If you take on this “OGRE” – begin your day by offering it to God, stop three times to say grace, and end it by reflecting on how you’ve chosen life (and death) that day, you’ll be praying six times a day and allowing the breath of the Holy Spirit to breathe you forward.

Remember that Jesus has promised “I am with you always” – on your best day, your worst day and everything in between.  He has been around since the beginning of time – ad he was there for your specific origin story.  He was there when you found yourself drawn to the “distant country” – and when you were ready to make your return home again.  He was there in every moment you have ever felt afraid.  He was there on the Cross to restore your relationship with Him (and others).

He loves you.  I am praying for you.

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Praying for Edmonton….


Many of you may have seen or heard about the suspected terror attack in Edmonton last night which sent five to hospital – including a member of the Edmonton Police Service.

There are many reminders that will be repeated over the next few days as we process these happenings in our own community including the fact that we are so, so fortunate to have such courageous and professional men and women serving in the EPS & RCMP, looking out for our good each day.  We’ll also be reminded that the actions of an individual or group do not reflect on the beliefs of an entire religion or culture.

Equally important to those reminders are reminders particular to our faith: that in face of such senseless violence (and ultimately in the face of all suffering) we have recourse both to hope and to prayer.

When it comes to hope, I’ll lean on the words of a spiritual giant.   On September 12, 2001, St. John Paul II set aside his usual Wednesday catechesis to address the 9/11 attacks on the USA.  A few lines from that talk seem particularly appropriate today:

“How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ’s word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it.” 

Additionally, we are called – in imitation of Christ Himself – to respond to hatred and terror with prayer.  From the Cross Jesus prayed for his accusers & executioners: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  With that in mind, I offer the following as a prayer you might use to pray for Edmonton (adapted from http://www.christiananswers.net/pray.html):

God of faithfulness,

As we come to you to pray for the victims of the recent attack on our community, we ask for your help for ourselves and for others:

We ask for your grace to center our minds and settle our hearts.

We ask for your hope to sustain our passion for justice and our will to be peacemakers.

We ask for your wisdom to help us recognize your presence dwelling within us and within every being you have made.

We ask for your courage to live as children of light, hope and love, putting away all darkness, fear and hatred.

Take from us all longing for vengeance, and fill us with compassion for victims of violence throughout the world.

Give us a love that is not withheld even from our enemies.

Be with those members of the Edmonton Police Service and the RCMP who work each day on our behalf for our protection.  Grant that our leaders may act justly in response to this situation.

As we pray, help us to truly believe not only in Your abiding presence, but also in the power of prayer to move mountains.

Pull us from the grasp of violence and guide our steps in Your way of peace.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

 

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Teach us to pray: Glory be…

Photo Credit: Matthias Kabel (Wikimedia Commons)
Photo Credit: Matthias Kabel (Wikimedia Commons)

It’s not a very long prayer – but chances are, if you’ve ever been at a Catholic event like sacramental preparation, youth ministry gathering, or any other parish meeting – you’ve prayed the Glory be:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

You may also have come across another translation of this prayer – most commonly found in the Liturgy of the Hours:

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

Amy Welborn says that this prayer is the summary “of everything our prayer has been (or should have been) about,“ a prayer which “points us in the right direction and attaches us to the divine and the eternal.“  This is high praise for one of the shortest prayers in our tradition – a prayer we don’t say at Mass – but do use at the conclusion of each decade of the Rosary and many times during the Liturgy of the Hours.  It also tends to show up at the conclusion of many gatherings – particularly if someone forgot to prepare something or if we might be running short on time.

Although the Glory be is brief, it’s a rich prayer both because of what it is – and what it reminds us. [Read more…] about Teach us to pray: Glory be…