Having chosen by an act of will to be grateful for our many blessings and having chosen to pray for God to correct our emotions to bring them into line with the fact of our gratitude. We next should consider an appropriate response to this new attitude. What action should we take? I suggest we look at our blessings, note how we have enough, we have what we need, and can recognize how blessed we are in this. From here we should turn out eyes outward, to the news we hear and read, the Christian martyrs in Syria and surrounding … Continue reading
Category Archives: Prayer
Preparation for Spiritual Warfare takes many shapes. Confession, aka Sacrament of Reconciliation, is always a good place to begin, but another very good beginning is GRATITUDE. An act of will is a good way to begin with any virtue and can be chosen even in the face of uncooperative emotions. Feelings are not fact! It is not essential to FEEL a virtue to HAVE that virtue. I’m grateful as an axiom. Still, I wanted to feel the emotion of gratitude, not just the fact of it. Recently, we had a fire that cost a lot in lost equipment and there was … Continue reading
Scripture is clear that our enemies are not the people whom we see before us but the principalities and powers in the spiritual realm who are driving the evil being done by our obvious human enemies. History is full of endless rounds of futile violence that generally cycles back around years after it seems to have all been settled. WHY? Because of sin of course. We all KNOW this if we know anything about our faith, but it is so basic, so obvious, that most of us give it no thought at all. Yet, that sin is the hook that … Continue reading
Christians alive today are part of the Church Militant. The secular world thinks of violence when they think of militant things. But the secular world is limited in its thoughts to the would of the visible and material. Church Militant is all about spiritual warfare. Spiritual Warfare is about prayer and growing in heroic virtue. I speak of course of the vocational goal of becoming a SAINT. So I see darkness rising, what am I to do? As a Christian, I step up my prayers. I make an effort to pray more diligently for the leaders of our Church, for … Continue reading
“Right now I have a sense of growing evil that has me both a little shaken and increasingly combative. I am taking some steps in my own life in the face of what I see on the horizon. I suggest that you do to. As part of that preparation… GO TO CONFESSION.”– Fr. Z’s Blog I’ve been feeling this for a number of years now, growing stronger over time. At first, it would only be short waves of evil, easily over-looked, but in the past year the sense has been intense and almost over-whelming. I’ve stepped up my efforts with … Continue reading
The Rosary is the most amazingly versatile prayer ever. Yesterday I prayed the Glorious mysteries twice, once on my own after Reconciliation and once with the congregation before Mass, so this lovely morning I did not wish to repeat the same set of Mysteries yet again. So I chose the Luminous Mysteries and made my focus on each those Sacraments and sacramentals reflected in them and how grateful I am that the Sacraments were given to us through the Church. Baptism of the Lord I cannot pray this mystery without thinking about how odd it used to seem that Jesus, … Continue reading
Who among Catholics is not familiar with this beautiful devotion? Who has not prayed at least some small part of it? If you prefer the traditional 15 mysteries, pray them! If you love the inclusion of the Luminous Mysteries, bring them in and do them! What is important, is to pray. The Rosary is for me a deeply meaningful meditation on the Gospels. So I follow the schema of Saint John Paul the Great and pray the Glorious Mysteries on Sundays and Wednesdays, the Joyful Mysteries on Mondays and Saturdays, the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the Luminous … Continue reading