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    LET IT aLL sTART hERE                                                        
 For Catholics who care...

Intercessory Pray:  I will pray for you.  Will you pray for me? 

4/21/2015

10 Comments

 

"I'm not a praying minstrel”.

Those were the words of a 93 year old Italian-Catholic friend and fellow parishioner.  I was taken aback!


I wondered:  This man is one of the most generous supporters of our church?  A man whose last "outing" in his old life...was to go to Mass? …And he doesn't pray?  Who else would he be but a praying minstrel if he truly believed in his Catholic faith?  I am afraid that too many of us settle for the religious “tag” of “Catholic,” and too few of us regularly exercise its privilege.

While visiting this man in a nursing home, the topic of how we converse with God came up. I wanted to talk about his prayer life and he wanted to change the subject.  I don't change subjects readily when I want my way and I suggested that he spend some of his time in prayer – rather than sitting, hour upon hour, feeling alone.  I think all of these elders of the Catholic faith who live in such facilities should consider banding together, in teams, to pray – collectively - for our world (A world that is a yardstick away from being the next Sodom and Gomorrah).  This world has become one that our older generation can’t even recognize anymore; a world that they will be departing from before most of the rest of us. What better use of their time? 


I believe that if Catholic senior citizens were to recognize the powers they possess - from a lifetime of being in a relationship with God – and if they would own them, they just might be able to pray this world well.  But, alas, that is a whole other topic.


"I'm not a praying minstrel!" he reiterated the next time I visited. I asked if he wanted to pray the rosary with me.  He frowned, and pushed my suggestion aside with his thick, arthritic hands; strong hands that had tended to the needs of hundreds of cows on his family's dairy farm for two-thirds of a century.  Hands that knew hard work, but hands that never fished; hands that never held the hand of his own offspring. These were hands that rarely found themselves woven together in prayer.  Or so he said....

Jesus' disciples only asked Him to teach them one thing - how to pray.  I once read:  "A learned behavior is easier caught than taught."   Jesus understood, and prayed as an example to his followers.  Pastor Rick Ezell writes this about Jesus’ prayer life:

       1) Jesus believed that prayer works.
       2)  Praying did not make Jesus passive.
       3)  Jesus prayed alone.
       4)  Jesus prayed in community.
       5)  Jesus prayed before meals.
       6)  Jesus offered thanks.
       7)  Jesus prayed before making important decisions.
       8)  Jesus prayed for his disciples.

My visit yesterday to the nursing home was a sad one.  My "would-be" praying minstrel's health has taken a serious turn for the worse.  I held his hand to comfort him as he wept at his own predicament.  I struggled to find something meaningful to say, or do.  Then, it became clear that solace cannot be offered to an aged, stricken, solitary man with a box of chocolate, a bouquet of flowers, or in the promise of future outings once good health returns. None of that matters. 


So, I said this:  "I love you, and I need you to pray for me.  Will you do that?  Will you pray for me?  I could use some help."  I asked him this three times. He agreed. Now, let’s see what happens.

 



10 Comments
jackie white
4/21/2015 08:13:40 am

Yes, Evelyn I will pray for you if you pray for me. I have been praying for all the people on your parish prayer line as well as all the people on mine and I do this daily. Usually praying the rosary daily is for them.

In the hospital the other day as I was ministering to the people of my parish, I used the elevator as I do frequently. I got on and everybody needed something different as to where they were going. Finally it was mine and just as the door was about to close four young girls entered together looking sad. I asked them if they were seeing a family member. The spokesperson for the group said yes, my mon. Her lung collapsed and she he has asthma besides. She is very sick. We were all getting out together on the 3rd floor. The Spirit moved me to say to them would you like to pray together before you go to see your mom? They all answered yes. Outside of the elevator door we had a temporary chapel. We all held hands and the Holy Spirit prayed aloud through me. They all hugged me after and all went to see their mom. Had I taken myself to another location at that time because the elevator was mine for quite a while I would not have had the opportunity to pray with them for their mom. What a blessing and a gift from the Christ.

Reply
Jenny HPraults-Marin
4/22/2015 04:36:39 am

Prayer has helped me through some tough times in my life, just knowing that I can talk to Jesus whenever I need him is a true Blessing. I hope others find the comfort that a prayer can bring to a worried, confused, or upset mind. Sending prayers everyday for you and all God's children.

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Evelyn Augusto link
4/22/2015 07:37:50 am

Nice!

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Holly Augi
4/23/2015 10:21:43 am

Today is April 23, two weeks ago was on Facebook checking everyone's info, came across the question:
Why Do You Go To Church?
I didn't have to think to hard about the answer, but found myself thinking about the question all the time. I wanted to answer but found myself afraid to write on a public broad. So here I am,because one of the things about going to church has help me to get over it.

When I realized what was going to Church about I was a young girl. I was taught by the Nuns, ' This is God's Home" be respectful,(admiration,honorable) we wore veils and gloves. We were quite(a time of silence,soundless,homely) When I entered Church I remember feeling at peace with myself. I will admit I also talked to myself. But I was home, In God's House. I was safe, there was no harm, I was protected. I never felt threatened by danger. There was no judging. You learned sadness, you learned happiness, all the basic feelings we feel in LIFE. So going to Church is going Home. Where there is peace and quite, sadness and love. It can be busy with joyful happenings. Or it's just you and Him. I Love visiting God in his house. Being in is Home.

Today when you enter someone's home you take your shoes off, you respect there belongings, you speck when spoken to and you enjoy there company for what ever reason you ere there.

Home: intimate, unornamented, familiar,modest,internal,unpretenious,Plan & Simple.

Reply
Elisha Minsal
4/24/2015 08:58:26 am

I have noticed a lack of prayer life in the older generations.Makes me sad,they should be leading us and instead they seem to lag behind.My mom thankfully is the exact opposite she is learning to use her time to pray more.She is disabled and at first of course she was very down.But is learning that she can use her time for the Lord.

Reply
jackie white
4/24/2015 09:28:21 am

Elisha,
Sorry you are finding the seniors not praying where you live, my parish is very much alive with praying seniors. Our prayer line is made up of all age groups of pray-ers and the seniors are not lagging behind. I will pray for the seniors in your area so they will join the ranks of the Giant Pray-ers in the blogger's parish.

Reply
Father Michael
5/5/2015 02:57:36 am

First I'd like to take a moment to thank Evelyn for the time, effort, and inspiration she pours into keeping this blog a wonderful instrument of faith sharing, and of keeping our Catholic hearts, minds, and spirits engaged, challenged and nourished.

It is indeed suprising that such a faithful person would seem so anti-prayer, especially since prayer, both personal and communal, is the fundamental way we relate to God at all. It is not possible to be in relationship to God without prayer.

That said, prayer is not necessarily something that comes naturally to everyone. It's true God plants the seed of desire, a deep yearning to know and love Him, in the recesses of our very being, but it might not be clear how, in concrete ways, to respond to Him, or to even recognize and name what that yearning inside really is.

It is therefore incumbent on us, for whom prayer has evolved into as essential element of our being, to teach others how to pray, to encourage them to persevere through the distractions and dryness, to affirm that it is valuable to God always, even when He seems to be ignorant or indifferent to our efforts, which is often.

Perhaps the best way to form praying minstrels among us is to share with them how we pray ourselves. I get the initial reluctance you might be feeling at this suggestion ... prayer is personal and intimate and sharing exactly how we engage the Lord makes us vulnerable. And yet to take on vulnerability for the sake of helping someone else to pray, which is to know and love God more fully, is a concrete way of laying down our lives for a friend ... and that is what we, who purport to be faithful Christian people, are supposed to be all about.

Perhpaps as part of our New Evangelization, we should start a prayer group for our seniors ... they're already living in community - why not help them become a community of prayer?

Reply
jackie white
5/5/2015 07:14:05 am

Father Michael,
I would like to thank Evelyn, also. It has been great sharing my faith and reading the faith journey of other people who take the time to join in. I give Evelyn credit for not giving up on this. There is so much food for thought in what she initiates. I don't know why more people don't participate. What can we do to make that happen? I have one suggestion of my own. Give up one TV program per day to spend time enjoying the blog and replying. Thank you, Evelyn.


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Evelyn Augusto link
5/5/2015 08:18:02 am

I'm smiling at you Jackie. And I'm working on a new essay inspired by Fr. Michael's comments. Thank you both. I am in good company.

Evelyn Augusto link
5/8/2015 04:26:07 am

"The yearning inside" around prayer and spending time discovering the various ways I can find Him and feel His presence has become something like learning about an unrealized talent. Once I recognized I could do it... I felt His grace-- that is peaceful and joyful simultaneously. Now, I think about taking brief pilgrimages within my day ALL of the time. And you know what? Because I've practiced and practiced and I'm finally good at this, I find I want to do it again and again... just like anything else I enjoy doing. Always, I can't wait for the next opportunity to go off to seek Him. Yet my life seems always too busy to do the work I need to do to get back to Him As often as I'd like. That is something I never felt before. Anyway, that has been my journey around and through prayer. Your response was thought provoking Fr. Michael. Thank you. I wish more of my readers would initiate a dialogue. What are they afraid of?

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