Tag: parenting

Praying is Fundamental

For the past 35 minutes or so, I have been staring at my last blog entry trying to decide what I wanted to write about next. I just wasn’t hitting on anything. I started worrying that maybe I wouldn’t stick with this blog; that I would get bored with it and let it lapse. Realizing that worry is not something we get from God, I forced myself to snap out of my self-important and futile fretting. I gave up trying think of a topic, and instead prayed for guidance. Now, my fingers are moving smoothly across the keys, and the spell of the vaunted blank page has been broken. We humans really can be mewling, faithless, ungrateful brats sometimes. Would you believe that I was actually surprised that my prayer was answered in such a tangible way? I don’t seem to be doing a very good job today applying the fundamentals. In this case, prayer and faith.

Anyone who has played organized sports, or has a child who has done so, knows that coaches stress the importance of fundamentals. When players lose a grasp on the fundamentals, they almost always experience a loss of results. I think the same thing is true about prayer. Take a step back and think about the ebb and flow of your daily life. How many times a day do you catch yourself burning a few useless minutes letting anxiety and stress wash over you? I know it happens to me. Those minutes could be spent in prayer. We need to avoid falling into the trap of believing that prayer is only for Sundays or times of extreme despair.

Recently, I saw an episode of “Priests and Deacons: Ministers of Mercy,” in which Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers and Father Brian Mullady related the story of a Church official tasked with counseling the priests of the Diocese who were considering putting aside their vocations and leaving the priesthood. This official always began his sessions with the same question: “When did you stop praying?” Priests are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day. That’s five times a day! That must be a very arduous duty for one who is the Pastor of a large parish. Why does the Church lay this extra burden on our already overworked Priests? I believe it is because the Church recognizes that the religious life is difficult, and that pitfalls are everywhere. Prayer is a direct conduit to perseverance.

There are two main reasons why people of faith don’t pray or stop praying. The first is hubris; they want to handle things on their own, or worse they don’t feel they deserve the benefits of prayer. The other is timidity. I often hear people say that they don’t know what to say when they pray. Some people believe they aren’t good at it. As in all things, Christ carries the burden for us here as well.

 “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. 30 Even all the hairs of your head are counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Mt 10:29-31)

God answers prayers:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Mt 7:7)

We certainly do know what to say. Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer/Our Father. It takes about ten seconds to recite.  (Mt 6:9-13), and it fits the bill perfectly:

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Mt 6:8)

If you are Catholic, you almost certainly have a Rosary somewhere, and the entire book of Psalms is a work containing prayers for all occasions.

Finally, try to pray for others as much or more as you pray for yourself. This is a good way we can express our love for Christ, for God, and for each other. A sense of Hope, a fullness of Faith, a self-awareness that leads to reconciliation, and an open receiving heart that feels fully the Love and Mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all begin with and are sustained through prayer.

May the Lord Bless us,
protect us from all evil,
and bring us to eternal life.
Amen.

 

Putting Apologetics in the Rear View Mirror

This is my second post. I want to use it to make some observations about apologetics. If you are not familiar with the term, here is the definition:

“Reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine.”

Back in 2003, as I was going through the process to enter the Roman Catholic church, I was all about apologetics. This is a common phenomenon amongst candidates and catechumens. One example is John Cardinal Newman, who even wrote a famous work on doctrine called Apologia. Deciding to become Catholic is a very complex decision, and it involves a long process. There are many doctrinal obstacles and prejudices to work through. This is especially true when it comes to people who were Baptized in other Christian traditions. Bishop Fulton Sheen famously said—and I’m paraphrasing—“if Catholics believed half of what people say they believe, I’d be a Protestant too!” My point is simply that people new to Holy Mother Church tend to get really jazzed about apologetics. Cradle Catholics; not so much. The long path home starts with an inkling that one cannot immediately explain. Inklings lead to questions, and questions lead to research, and research leads to apologetics. Maybe in a future post, I’ll share the story of the moment that I realized that I was Roman Catholic, and no longer one trying to decide. This initial love affair with apologetics is further fueled by the fact that one’s Protestant friends and family often feel that one has a.) lost his mind, and b.) is spitting on the family tradition. Love usually wins out in the end, but a good grasp of some arguments that can demonstrate a credible thought process do much toward smoothing ruffled feathers. It is, too, an exciting time. Here meeting a Mother for the first time (Our Lady); there meeting new Aunts and Uncles (The Saints and Doctors of the Church), and experiencing new Sacraments and new aspects of prayer and spirituality. It can be heady stuff. Now you know where I was.

I’m not there anymore.

I picked this topic for one of my early blogs, because I want to lay the groundwork for what I want this site to be. Or, better stated, what I don’t want it to become. If you think Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians are not really Christians, that’s your right. In fact, it is your sacred right. If you think the Pope is the Anti-Christ and the Holy See is the Whore of Babylon, that is your belief and I’m not going to change your mind. I’m also not going to argue with you. I’m not going to gird my loins and dive into a lake of apologia to try and get you to change your views or understand my spiritual road. I don’t have time. We don’t have time. Christianity is under attack. I don’t need to enumerate examples of that to anyone who is still reading this post. Frankly, I’m not at a place in my journey where I’m qualified to engage in that level of rhetorical Theology. With the limited time I have left, I am compelled to pray, to study, to (small ‘p’) preach, and to serve the community to the best of my ability with the humble talents Grace provides. My prayer is that this blog will become a small Apostolate. I will not allow it to be a forum for debate. I will gladly answer to the best of my ability any honest questions about doctrine, but I’m not going to stop my travels to bicker or try to defend the Church, which can after 2000 years, stick up for itself, thank you very much. I put apologetics in my rear view mirror, and I am focused on looking through the windshield toward the horizon. I eschew defense, and seek for deeper ways to love.

Pray for me.

Roads

I’m not sure how I got here. I am the son of a Lutheran Pastor. A child with a talent for public speaking at a young age who was almost certainly destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. For a very large portion of my life all “roads” pointed toward my one day becoming Pastor Paul. That was, it seems, not God’s plan after all. There was a period there of youthful anger. Those times followed by rampant ambition and some wild behavior. A stint in the United States Navy, which was a search for both adventure and travel, but also a search for purpose. I married a Roman Catholic, but that is not what put me here. Not directly, anyway. I’m not sure how I got here, but here I stand, and I can do no other. The oceans of water that have run under my bridge, the mountains of personal and shared struggle I’ve faced, and the deep paradoxes that have formed my spiritual self-identity have led me to a place where I strive in earnest, and not always successfully, to engage in formalized prayer twice a day. It is harder than one might imagine. I have a daughter who faces challenging medical issues. She needs transportation to many specialists. That’s time-consuming, but I don’t mind, because she is really an interesting and unique individual with a razor-sharp wit, and I love spending time with her. I have twin boys. They play different sports. I love watching them play sports, so I don’t mind the miles I log on the car or mini-van. Then there’s God. Now that is, indeed, a stark and halting sentence. The stress of the schedule, the constant worry about money and bills, the worry over the health and safety of parents and children, and the myriad other things that crash in on my consciousness, apparently do not fully meet the obligation of my vocation. I know many, many dads who live out a full and blessed vocation through their fatherhood. They are not just good men. They are great men. One day they will hear those most special words “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I admire many of them and would like to be more like them. Then there’s God. God says, “you don’t get to stop there.” Let me be clear. I don’t hear God’s voice in my mind. I sense or feel this message. I don’t deny that I very well could be a flawed filter. Remember, though, that I don’t know how I got here. I am called to begin discernment on if I will join the Tertiary Order of Saint Dominic. That requires many things. One of those things is morning and evening prayer every day for the rest of my life. The only way I’m going to pull that off is by doing Vespers in my vehicle; hence, the name of this blog. Stay tuned. I shall strive to give you food for thought, and amusement at my feebleness.