Category: Prayer

School in Winter

Prayer / Teaching

Prayer for Teachers and Students Returning to School After Christmas Break

Heavenly Father, Thank you for the blessings of this Christmas Break. Since last we gathered in this classroom, we celebrated the birth of your Son, we rang in a brand new year, and we watched the magi give their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As we meet in school again, help us celebrate your Son’s presence in every moment of every day; inspire us to use this new year to draw closer to you; and grant us the desire to give our most precious gifts to those...

A New Day

Prayer

A Prayer for False Starts

God, I meant to start over yesterday. It was a new year and everything. I even made a list. What happened? Old habits die hard, I guess. Thank you for another day and another chance to start over. You are the giver of second chances, and third, and fourth, and fifth. That’s a very good thing, because I have a feeling I’m going to need them. Help me to be a giver of second chances, and third, and fourth, and fifth, to those who need them. Amen.

Rosary

Prayer

Feeling Out of Sorts? This Might Help

When life starts to weigh me down and feels off-center, I find that what helps me most is returning to contemplating the life of Jesus. But sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about all the different events in his life, and I get paralyzed deciding where to begin reading the gospels. When that happens, I often simply pick up a rosary and begin praying the mysteries of Jesus’ life. The rosary is simple. The rosary is peaceful. The rosary is soothing. The rosary puts me in touch with Jesus....

Company of Voices by George Guiver

Prayer / Spirituality

“We Treat God Like a Cow” – On Maturity in Prayer

I was reading George Guiver’s Company of Voices: Daily Prayer and the People of God, when I came across this challenging paragraph: However much the modern Church says it believes in prayer, it so often behaves as if it has failed to surrender to God. The word “surrender” is shorthand for Jesus’ image of bride and bridegroom, and the total self-giving which is necessary in their coming together. Allowing God to be at the center is something we all fail to do. We fail to wait utterly on...

Bill Cosby

Homily / Prayer

Bill Cosby and Prayer: Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s readings deal with prayer, and as I’ve been following the events of World Youth Day this past week, I came across a video by one of my favorite authors, Jesuit Fr. Jim Martin, editor-at-large for America Magazine on the topic of prayer. The U.S. Bishops asked Fr. Martin to make a few short videos to show to the pilgrims at World Youth Day this past week, and one of them happened to be about prayer. In this video, Fr. Martin says that whenever he gives a talk...

Prayer is like a child crying

Prayer / Spirituality

Like a Child Crying Tearfully for Its Mother: St. John Chrysostom on Prayer

This morning’s second reading from the Office of Readings is a beautiful meditation on prayer by St. John Chrysostom. It’s easy to forget that prayer is an orientation of the heart more than a specific act in time, but St. John reminds us that authentic prayer colors every moment of every day: Prayer and converse with God is a supreme good: it is a partnership and union with God. As the eyes of the body are enlightened when they see light, so our spirit, when it is intent...

Jesus Washing Feet

Deacons and Diaconate / Family / Prayer / Spirituality

Ordination Day Prayer

Lovely God, All that I know of service I learned From your true servants in my life: A mom who always puts her family first; A dad who sacrifices his life for his children’s; Siblings who celebrate life in the midst of suffering; A wife who tirelessly gives flesh and bone daily; Children who trust that we know what we’re doing; Friends who keep in touch over years and miles; Colleagues in education who work to build your kingdom; Students who leap to volunteer at a moment’s notice....

St. Teresa of Avila

Prayer / Spirituality

St. Teresa of Avila’s Prayer for Peace of Soul

This resonated with me today: O Jesus! Who knows how much in Holy Scripture refers to peace of soul? Since, O my God, you have seen how important this peace is to us, incite Christians to strive to gain it. In your mercy do not deprive those on whom you have bestowed it, for until you have given them true peace and brought them to where it is unending, they must ever live in fear. As quoted in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in...

Thomas Merton

Prayer / Spirituality

Thomas Merton on the Divine Office

I came across this moving testimony to the of the Liturgy of the Hours in Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain: Presently [my brother] said: “What’s that package you’ve got under your arm? Buy some books?” “Yes.” When he had unlocked the car, I ripped the paper off the package, and took out the cardboard box containing the set of four books, bound in black leather, marked in gold. I handed him one of the volumes. It was sleek and smelled new. The pages were edged in...

Our Father

Prayer / Spirituality / Theology

Notes and Resources on the Lord’s Prayer

Last night’s RCIA presentation on the Lord’s Prayer went better than I could have ever imagined.  It’s amazing how much the Holy Spirit can do with our own imperfect efforts. For those that are interested, here are some of the quotes I used in preparing for the talk: Run through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do not think you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer. (St. Augustine) The Lord’s Prayer is the most...

Catholic Education / Prayer / Teaching / Technology

Using Technology to Get Teens to Pray

How can we use cell phones, mp3 players and social networks as tools to get kids into prayer?  That was the question I addressed yesterday in my presentation at our annual diocesan inservice for Catholic teachers. I began with a quote from Jean-Pierre de Caussade: Today God still speaks to us as he used to speak to our ancestors at a time when there were neither spiritual directors nor any systems of spirituality…Religious devotion had not become a science crammed with precepts and detailed instructions.  Nowadays, no doubt,...