Category: Prayer

Introduction the Devout Life

Prayer

St. Francis de Sales Video Meditation

St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life is one of my favorite spiritual classics.  If you’re looking for a good read this Lent, I highly recommend it, especially the ten meditations St. Francis provides.  At one time, I thought I would try adapting those ten meditations for today’s junior high students (age 10-15).  I even had the thought to turn them into videos for the iPod generation.  I’ve since had to put that idea on hold indefinitely, but here’s the first video I made, for what...

Return of the Prodigal Son

Prayer / Spirituality

A Prayer for the Beginning of Lent

O my all-merciful God and Lord, Jesus Christ, full of pity: Through Your great love You came down and became incarnate in order to save everyone. O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace! If You save anyone because of their works, that would not be grace but only reward of duty, but You are compassionate and full of mercy! You said, O my Christ, “Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die.” If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me,...

American Flag

Prayer / Spirituality

Veteran’s Day Prayer

I just received this Veteran’s Day Prayer in an email from Autom and thought it was worth sharing: Dear Heavenly Father, In every age, You call certain persons to defend the human family from oppression, tyranny, and evil. Since our founding as a nation “conceived in liberty,” countless American men and women have stepped forward to defend our country and many others from aggressors, and to liberate those held captive. Today we revere all our veterans: those who rest in honored glory, those who still suffer from the...

Rosary in hands

Prayer / Spirituality

The Perpetual Web Rosary

Pray the rosary with others around the world via the Perpetual Web Rosary from Catholics United for Life. When you visit the page, start praying the rosary wherever the last person left off, then click the rosary as you finish each prayer. Your prayers are added to the prayers of others.

Quiet Places with Jesus

Books and Reading / Prayer / Spirituality

The Best Thing I Read This Week

I found a real gem at the used book store yesterday: Quiet Places with Jesus by Rev. Isaias Powers, C.P. I’ve been looking for a prayer book to help me concentrate more on the person of Jesus as I pray. I tend to be a bit too intellectual when I meditate and I wanted something that would help tap my imagination. Fr. Powers wrote these guided meditations in the 1970s and they’re very much in the Jesuit tradition of using the imagination to help one pray. What I’ve...

World Prayers

Prayer / Spirituality

One in Our Desire for Faith: The World Prayer Project

Sometimes I forget the beauty of other faith traditions. Sometimes I get so narrow in the books I read, the places I visit, the web sites I search for, that I miss out on the presence of God in the wider world. The World Prayers Project is a collection of adorations, invocations and celebrations from different faiths and faith traditions. It displays humanity’s unceasing desire to respond to God’s call. As Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. The World Prayers Project shows how...

Road in the Mist

Prayer / Spirituality

A Prayer by Thomas Merton

One of my favorite spiritual writers is Thomas Merton, and one of my favorite prayers comes from his book Thoughts in Solitude: My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in...

Liturgy of the Hours

Books and Reading / Prayer / Spirituality

10 Catholic Devotionals

With the Easter season rapidly approaching, this is a great time to re-commit to daily prayer. Here is my top ten list of the best Catholic daily devotional books. Each of these books is designed to be used every day, and most of them are interwoven with the liturgical year. The Liturgy of the Hours: Also known as the Divine Office, this is more than simply a daily devotional; the Liturgy of the Hours is the public prayer of the Church, the official set of prayers for each...