Praying with children
Like all faith traditions, the Catholic Church has been losing its children to the secular world for the past 60 years. How would the world be different today if children, and parents, learned simple ways to pray?
Ezra’s atonement
Recently our mass readings included the passage of Ezra praying for God’s pardon on behalf of his people. It made me think how often I’ve prayed in remorse for my own offenses against God, and those of others, but not ours. It might seem a trivial distinction but those trivial details are usually the most important…
Blessed Sacrament Meditation
A tattered piece of paper is discovered in a dusty old attic. From this humble beginning, A Meditation Before the Blessed Sacrament grew in use around the world. With permission, it is reproduced here.
The road behind us informs the journey ahead
Throughout our life’s journey, we collect thorns. Yet like St. Paul, we are plagued by certain thorns that our Savior does not take away: why would God leave us with a thorn for all of our lives?
Penetrated by the Holy Spirit
To the blind without faith, it may seem like society and the world have gone to ‘hell in a handbasket’. But all power and strength belong to God alone. By becoming people of prayer, our lives and the world around us will be penetrated by the Holy Spirit…
Fixing messes
God doesn’t fix our messes, but He does fix our broken heart. Can I accept that?
Living as answered prayer
A podcast challenged me to rethink whether I am living as an answer to Jesus’ prayer for me in John 17…
At the foot of the cross
Jesus’ closest friends were The Twelve. Yet one betrayed Him, ten ran away when trouble came knocking on their proverbial door, and the only one who stayed with Him in His passion was His younger cousin John…
How to meditate
How often we commit to take on silent prayer only to then struggle with the ‘how to’ aspect of prayer—what should I do in prayer? Fr. John Roothaan, reformer and Superior General of the Jesuits in the early 1800’s, gives us a simple step-by-step approach to meditating on scripture.
Honoring Mystery
“Jesus never taught us how to deal with unanswered prayers because that was never meant to be our normal – it was never his experience, and it is not meant to be our experience, either.” (Jonna Schuster)