Category: Prayer

Invite the Spirit

Leave a comment

There are so many opportunities to make the choice to allow God into your life. Although faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26), works without the intention of doing it for the glory of God, are just as meaningless. Don’t get me wrong…it is wonderful to do good deeds – don’t stop doing them! Just start adding meaningful purpose. Slow down to be conscientious of why you are doing what you are doing. God’s voice can be heard in silence so give yourself the right to have a “time out” so you can “paws to pray.”

“Lord, I invite your Spirit to guide me into your way, into your love. I will try to follow you all the days of my life. Amen.“ (Live Like Francis, 2016)

Today, my wonderful love nugget (a.k.a. my dog Grace) has had such ants in her pants, it seems like she’s about to crawl out of her skin. We’ve gone to the dog park the last two days while the weather was cooler and she ran her tuchus off – so she should be tired, right? Nope. Boundless energy. But most of it, I must admit, is that I am super boring to live with and she is just too smart.

An impish gleam in Grace’s eye kept being shot in my direction, and her growly way of talking was saying, “Let’s go out!” Being the inside bum that I am, I begrudgingly followed her directions (I’m a well-trained person) and we went outside just in case she really needed to go to the bathroom.

After standing my ground about NOT going for a full walk, Grace walked back toward me and plopped straight down on her belly in the grass. Ugh! It was hot out! I have stuff to do! For a couple of minutes I stood there next to her feeling perturbed and waiting for her to get over it. But when she rested her head on her paw I knew we were in it for the long haul. I gave in and sat down on the grass, too.

Head Down

But you know what happened then as my dog was doing her best interpretation of a solar panel? The heat made me uncurl my anxious body and stretch out. I started to notice the breeze that kept it from feeling too hot. I got to see a family of goldfinches fly by, hear frogs singing in the pond, and have the wind blow my skirt up inappropriately which made me giggle as I tried to inconspicuously look around to see if any neighbors had been looking out their windows.

And I got to thinking – if it weren’t for my dog, I’d have missed a lot of nice days lately. What starts out as an annoying nagging to go out, always turns into a pleasant, relaxing time. What seems like a hardship, ends-up being a blessing. Go figure!

So take your “paws to pray” by appreciating the unexpected ways the Spirit can guide your day. Make the intentions of your deeds to be purposefully in service to God. Take time to  look for the blessings hidden hardships by making a choice to allow God to bring you closer to His love through everything you do.

Don’t Get Mad, Get Glad!

2 Comments

Some days I’m just so glad I have God. I know that statement should be that ALL days I’m glad to have God – believe me, I am – but some days (you know those kinds of days) the gladness is just that much more opaque. Situations that would have gotten me pretty depressed when I was younger, in the last couple of years, are now just reasons to remind me to think of the blessings I have and that everything will be okay.

Sometimes I find that the more people I’m around, the lonelier I feel. Maybe that’s just my introversion…I don’t really know. But I do know that other people do feel the same way so at least I’m not alone in my loneliness (however that works). It has something to do with not feeling like many people really know me I’m sure. I can count on one hand the number of people I feel like I can talk to, they listen, and they have empathy for what I tell them. They don’t just automatically tell me what to do, or explain how I SHOULD think or feel, or try to down-talk my concerns.

But when I start to dwell (which I am known to do occasionally – but I’m getting better!) on not having anyone to talk to, I now do a little mental forehead slap and say, “but GOD understands!” In my life I’ve looked into Buddhism and Hinduism and random other religions trying to find my niche but they all left me with the same loneliness. Then I came back around to try Christianity again (I’d been raised that way with religious education classes and all but it never hit home for me).

Now, with Christianity, you can’t ever feel alone. Especially if you’re Catholic and have the whole communion of Saints! A God who experienced what it’s like in a puny people body? Terrorized, persecuted, bullied, tortured, love, work, relationships…yeah, I think that God can empathize with what my simple little day is like! God “gets” it so much that we even were gifted the Holy Spirit to get through it all! I mean, how can you not love the Holy Spirit? Seriously, I think Pentecost should be a MUCH bigger celebration than it is. It’s sorta my favorite holiday. Too bad it’s always on a Sunday or else we should really be allowed to take the day off work for it and wear special hats 🙂

So “Paws to Pray” by acknowledging that through faith, we are never alone in our journeys. Never left to flounder without an anchor. God’s presence and unremitting love is with us always – even during our times of snotty grown-up teen angst, blooper moments, and all-out failures. Especially during those times.

I don’t get any kickbacks; this is just how my brain thinks:

Living Words

Leave a comment

A reading according to the Holy Gospel of John (17:20-26)

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“Holy Father, I pray not only for them,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”

Before you just read and run off (it’s so easy to do on a busy day), take your “paws to pray” on the second line of what Jesus said. He asked that God the Father not only pray for the people present with Him but for those who will hear those people’s words – that through their words, others would know Jesus.

Take a minute or two to meditate while listening to today’s Gospel. Really visualize situations you commonly encounter that you could consciously choose to use words that would have you embody Jesus for others. If we plan ahead of time, it is easier to know the best way to respond in some circumstances that are routine. And then through consistent practice, it becomes more than just a habit but, rather, a part of our character.

 

It’s an Expansively Small World Afterall

Leave a comment

I love how things are interconnected. That is part of what I love about learning and teaching – that there is a connection to be found between everything. The other day I wrote about how God’s love fills the holes of suffering much like gold mends broken pottery in the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Then, the following day, I happened to amble into our local Christian store and stumbled upon this mug:

I says, “He takes the broken pieces and makes them beautiful.” I thought, “What is this tom foolery? I was just philosophizing about that! What are the odds?” I like to take things as signs so I figured this was one such occasion. A friend of mine calls those “God winks” (hi, Jenny!) and I think that’s a pretty accurate description.

The verse on the mug is cited to be from Ecclesiastes 3:11 so being the expert in curiosity yet novice biblical scholar that I am, I had to go look it up.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

I can’t agree that is exactly what they had written on the mug, but I get how they paraphrased the way they did. However, the part of the verse that I really connected with is,  “He has also set eternity in the human heart.” I find that interesting because I think I’ve actually felt it before. Times that I have been communing with fellow parishioners in faith formation studies, or when I’m sharing Holy Communion with patients in the hospital, or discussing Catholicism with residents at at nursing home I have felt, in my chest, the “eternity” that was set there. Before having read this verse, I would have described it as feeling the expansion of the universe inside of me –  growing fullness for lack of a better description. And until I read Ecclesiastes 3:11, my healthy skepticism made me believe I was being goofy – but now it makes sense!

The most interesting part, though, is that I only feel it while in community with others. I can say that I’ve HOPED I would feel it as I study and read on my own but it just doesn’t happen. Now I’m realizing that it shouldn’t happen when I’m alone because community is what it’s all about!

“For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

So the next time you get that feeling of warm, fuzzy, glowing love in your chest when you look at your child or significant other or pet or whoever is special to you, know that you are getting a glimpse of eternity that God has set in your heart. And no matter how deep and expansive that feels, we can’t even fathom what God has designed through that little speck of Grace He placed in each of us.

 

Featured image: NASA astronaut photograph ISS022-E-6674

Miracle at Higher Grounds Cafe

2 Comments

Miracle at Higher Grounds Cafe, by Max Lucado with Candace Lee & Eric Newman

This book has angels in it. So it is automatically better than a book without angels. That being said, however, this is a pleasant fictional read with a Christian-based moral foundation. It touches on some topics that are very realistic and effect everyday modern life like divorce, parenting, and the obsession with social connectivity. It’s a light, quick read that, when I had my mother read it, she said, “Mention that it takes a little bit to get ‘into’ the plot but then you can’t put it down!”

read-more-live-higher-book-club-logo-v1

A God Among Humans?

1 Comment

“Suffering is redemptive in part because it definitively reveals to man that he is not in fact God, and it thereby opens the human person to receive the divine.”

-from Life Issues, Medical Choices

Whoo! This quote made my head do a mini explosion this morning when I opened my Franciscan Media Minute Meditation email. It was like a thousand proto-thoughts collided into a tiny epiphany. If you know the movie “The Matrix”  (1999) then you know when Neo is first learning how they load new information with a stick poked into his brain and so they start to teach him different ways to fight and he learns now to do it in, like, five seconds so he opens his eyes all freaked-out like he can hardly believe it would happen so fast, and he goes, “I know kung fu!” I had a, “I know kung fu!,” moment when I read that quote.

Oh, the striving to be God-like that so many people do! Perfectionist trying to attain something they never can have. Control freaks trying to take-over everything but themselves. Type-A personalities who never think anything is good enough. (No hate…I’m all of those things – they’re just examples.) What do all of those personality traits cause? When you really think about it – they cause suffering. Why? Because we aren’t God but we are trying to act like it.

God had to come down into a wimpy people body (Jesus) so that we would understand that even He would have suffering as a human due to its bodily earthly confines. And through that illustration of trust – even through the darkest of times – we are shown a path to a closer relationship with God by allowing the hole that suffering creates to be filled by the divine. In essence, the void that is created by all the taking away of self that happens through suffering creates an opening to be filled by God’s love. Yowza.

That just reminded me how the whole process it a little bit like the Japanese art of Kintsugi. It’s where they fix broken pottery with gold. Instead of trying to cover-up a crack, they accentuate it with something precious and beautiful. So it’s like WE are the pottery and we suffer (get cracks) but then those cracks become part of our beauty because they get filled with gold (God’s love) that would never have been put there unless there was brokenness (suffering) to begin with. Then, by the end of the whole process, we’re even fancier than how we started out! I like it. I like it a LOT.

So take your “paws to pray” today and visualize God filling your broken bits with His golden love. You can incorporate it into a breathing meditation: breathe out to a count of four and breathe in for a count of six as you visualize pulling golden light in through your nostrils. Pull the golden light deeper into your body each time you inhale and let it seep into those little cracks and crevices that life creates in you. Once you have let the gold settle into your body, then take a moment to thank God for His healing love that make you better than you ever were on your own.

Featured Image credit: Franciscan Media Minute Meditations

It Takes More Than Prayer

Leave a comment

This seems to be a theme to many discussions I’ve been having with different people lately. Of course, prayer is important – it has its purpose and place but we can’t stop there!

So many people use prayer as a way to remain passive or change the burden of action onto someone else – namely onto God. “God, fix it.” “God, show us a miracle.” “God, change their hearts.” It almost seems like a challenge for God to prove himself in a way that reminds me of Jesus’s 40 days in the dessert with the Devil (Matthew 4:5-7). I’m sure that isn’t the intent of the person making those petitions but, really, what are THEY willing to do in order to help?

The grace present inside all of us makes us, literally, the hands of God. The question shouldn’t be why God let something bad happen, it ought to be what could I have done to have kept it from happening? How can I help to remedy it now? What can I do in the future to make/keep things better? Hold the phone! Wait a tick! That takes effort on our part! And courage! And insight! And most importantly ACTION! Sometimes I think that when people say prayer doesn’t do anything, it is because they are praying for the wrong things.

We have these bodies to make the world a better place not just to look cute (though a lot of the world would try to make you think otherwise). Inaction makes us weak and unhealthy so that just proves that we are MADE for doing things! I know, we are technically doing things all the time (on the cellular level, I’m really quite busy!) but are we choosing to use our time and energy on the things that matter most?

How about the next time you “paws to pray” you ask God to receive the guidance for YOU to do something in the world? “God, inspire me to find the answer to the problem.” “God, give me the strength to follow through on the answer you lead me to.” “God, help me develop the patience to be an example of your love to this person so I can lead them in the right direction.” Prayers like that can change everything.

“Where I Am Right Now”

Leave a comment

“Where I am Right Now” by Jared Anderson

I absolutely love this song. Not only is it a toe-tappin’ tune, but it reminds me of one of my favorite sayings:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Teddy Roosevelt

Whenever I get too type-A and hard on myself, I remind myself of that quote so I can slow down all the “should” statements bouncing around in my head. Because how can you expect yourself to do more than what you can do? It doesn’t even make sense to think you can! But there are a lot of us that still try to do it on a daily basis.

So the line in the song that goes, “And the enemy tells that lie, That I’m missing out on a better life,” especially hits home for me because if I’m focused on things I can’t even do (the “should” nags), that dialogue definitely isn’t coming from God. Even the small things we do, as long as it is done with great love (paraphrased from Blessed Mother Theresa) are what God asks us to do…big and grandiose makes only for earthly rewards.

The next time that you find you are comparing yourself with the Jones’ take a moment to evaluate your true situation…some days you really can only function at 80% of your absolute best, and that’s okay because it is what where you are at that day. Just make sure that you recognize the difference between avoidance and self-preservation. We all need a break from running at our maximum from time-to-time, however, make sure to identify whether you are doing it to re-energize your mission of serving God or if it is to avoid being a servant of God. As with so many things about faith…it is the intention that is most important.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to be present as you listen to Jared Anderson’s song. Make your “paws to pray” for the day a self-evaluation of where you are right now.

 

From Novice to Bodybuilder

Leave a comment

A 40-Day Spiritual Workout for Catholics by Bob Rice (2013)

I facilitated an at-home spiritual retreat using this book with my church. We started January 1st as a New Year’s Resolution. It was a cute play-on-words since so many people’s New Year’s resolution is to workout for physical health, we were doing it to improve our spiritual health. And since any workout is difficult to maintain without a little motivation, having an accompanying online blog was a wonderful addition. We all really  supported each other to keep going for the whole 40 days as well as go more in-depth into the author’s reflections.

I honestly can’t say enough good things about this book! Bob Rice created such a thoughtful progression from day to day that he really did foster a deeper connection to the traditions of the Catholic faith. I kept having so many ah-ha, light bulb moments that it started to get humorous almost. One of the things that can be hard for a lot of people is to move their faith from their heads to their hearts. But, on Day 12, Mr. Rice provided such beautiful imagery of what our reception into Heaven would be like, it provoked very deep emotions for me. The next time I was at Communion, I had a much stronger connection to what I was taking part in. Others in my online group mentioned similar connections throughout.

So whether you are able to read this book as a group (which I HIGHLY recommend) or on your own, I suggest that your spiritual growth is worth the 40 days. I plan on doing another cycle through it, too – since there are always little details that you don’t necessarily pick-up on the first time through a book. Not-to-mention, you are always at a different stage of your spiritual journey, for messages to hit you from another direction. But that’s the fun part that makes religion “alive”!

read-more-live-higher-book-club-logo-v1