• Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Homilies
  • Novenas
  • PRAYER WALL
  • Saint Of The Day

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

It's getting late...have you talked to God today?

3/1/2015

18 Comments

 
I live in New York State.  There’s a mountain here in Stamford that rises up along Route 10 just beyond the old ski hill, Deer Run.  It’s not the highest peak around, but I feel as though it is.  There is a wind twisted hawthorn that stands sentinel at the acme of this mountain, and I imagine it had been left behind by a sentimental logger who fancied himself “The Giver” and bestowed on the town…The Tree of Life.    It can be seen for miles in every direction.  I watch it throughout the seasons:  On sunny days and rainy days…on windy days and the hottest of days. It never disappoints: it is always there.  It is reliable. I
can go there to pray.

I mention the mountain with it's tree because today I felt compelled to go up there, and use it as a podium at the top of the world to announce:  There is no preferred positioning where God is concerned!  It doesn’t work that way.

LetItAllStartHere has given me some unexpected notoriety in the prayer circuit.  I have become the go-to-girl, acting as a representative for those who feel that they may be less favored by the Divine.  Let me explain:

In just the past few days, requests have come in for me to pray hard for a man living on borrowed time, whom I have never met.  He needs a new heart.  And, then, someone I did know-- someone who I heard openly curse God-- asked that I pray for a homeless man with “developmental disabilities” who had been featured on Facebook.  I was to pray that his family would claim him as their own.  By some strange twist of fate, they had managed to “misplace” him, and he had slept in cardboard boxes and had been eating gifts of Chinese take-out for the last three years!  And, then there was a young man who was haunted by a past that he could not face.  I was asked to pray that he receive courage and peace.  

Certainly, it is not unusual for a Catholic community to pray for one another. It is like a trust fund of which we are benefactors:  I will pray for you… you will pray for me. We will collect the prayers we’ve banked.
And yet, what I do find unusual is that non-practicing Catholics as well as non-believers are requesting these prayers.  They are suddenly aware that prayer is needed…that God is needed, and they are not exactly shy to tell me they need assistance.  But why won’t they do the asking themselves?   I find it odd that they seem to have a problem with Catholicism, and yet they have no trouble asking a Catholic to intercede on their behalf.  What is going on?  I wonder what the Holy Spirit is up to.

But, I want to make this perfectly clear:  I am happy to do it!  If I can pray a man well, if I can comfort the lost by ensuring that God cares what is happening to them…well, then, I am doing the work Christ asks that we do.   However, I would be even more delighted if I could get these folks to take the reins themselves.  I would just like to point out this one thing:  God prefers your prayers to mine.  Jesus, Himself, declared: "… that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  (Luke 15:7) That is your invitation to talk to God.   Call Him, or text Him yourself!  You don’t need a surrogate to do the work.  

A few years ago, I felt like a failure in my prayer life.  I didn’t think I was doing it right.  I wasn’t being heard.  I felt that I was just not good at it. I wasn’t getting anywhere.  I went to a priest and asked him to intercede for me.  That priest told me:  He said, “There are no gold stars when you pray.  There is no right way to do it.”  He advised me to practice and be patient.  Gave me some tips, told me to sit in front of the Tabernacle.  He emphasized that I needed to keep working at it…stick with it…and don’t give up.  At the time, I felt as if my life depended on getting it right.   So I prayed as often as I could, never imagining that I would one day become “messenger” for so many people who needed to send a dispatch to God.  

18 Comments
Charlene Caramore
3/1/2015 10:19:09 pm

Evelyn, God has called you to do a wonderful work through this blog, through your prayers and through your life. He has given you such a wonderful gift. Thank you so much for all that you do and all that you share with us. It seems odd to me and I think to others who pray a great deal that some people just feel as though they can't do it. We had our first Book Talk on Matthew Kelly's Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic the other week and for the most part it was the same cast of characters who usually come to the Adult Ed sessions but I was so pleased to find a young man who has never before come to anything but Mass. He was so grateful for the book because it gave him an outline of how to pray. Before that, he just didn't know how to do it. Maybe people just need a little explanation--prayer is talking to God. We talk to people all of the time. Talk to God as if you were talking to your father, your mother, your brother, your best friend because he is all of those. The whole thing about prayer is developing that relationship. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this blog but I'd like to hear from others about how they encourage the people around them to make that first step in establishing a Love-Relationship with God. The more we share with each other, the more we can give this gift to others. And that's evangelization. Many blessings!

Reply
evelyn link
3/2/2015 12:59:39 am

You wrote: "Maybe people just need a little explanation...." Charlene, I know that if more time was spent "explaining" what the history of our salvation along with "the genius of being Catholic" meant (as Matthew Kelly told us in The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic) more people would find their way to or back to The Father who, as Fr. Michael so often tells us: "has loved us into being". Too many people have the wrong information...Catholicism has become...in very real and bizzarre way...an urban legend. I am thrilled about the young man whohas found himself in your book club. Wonderful. I real victory of sorts! Tell him that I said: Don't stop learning about the "genius of being Catholic". It's all so magic and mystical, and beautiful. And ask him to visit with us here.

Reply
evelyn link
3/4/2015 01:21:48 am

I had one more idea that I wanted to share with you about how crucial it is that the vaguely curious...be it a "non-believer" or a person who suffers the calamity of being a "beige Catholic", must learn all they can about Jesus' Mission, the history of our Salvation and the "Genius of being Catholic". Again, I believe that the reason why we are decreasing in numbers, losing Catholics to other belief systems is due to their simply not knowing enough about the Faith that they have inherited. Venerable Fulton J. Sheehan was noted as saying: There are not a hundred people who truly hate God today. But there are millions who hate what they wrongly believe God to be. Many people within and beyond the Church, hold warped views about God, so when they disbelieve or drift from God, they're usually rejecting a distortion. (Learn more about this in Catholicism: The New Evangelization)

Fran
3/2/2015 08:04:03 am

Lord, Let everything I do this day and in this season of Lent come from you, be inspired by you.
I long to be closer to you. Help me to remember that nothing is important in my life unless it glorifies you in s ome way. It's so easy to be caught up in the day to day of my life and keep saying "tomorrow I will spend more time in prayer" but now my longing meets your love and I want to do it now.
Help me to rely on you for help. The prayer asks you that I reach perfection.Please Lord remind me that " perfection" isn't the crazy
"successful" way I try to live my life, but a perfection of my most
authentic, real self. My "perfection " might be holding my many flaws
In my open hands, asking you to help me accept them. Heal me Lord and help me to find in the darkness of my life. Let me reach out in this darkness and feel your hand and love there to guide me.
Amen



Reply
evelyn link
3/2/2015 10:24:54 am

Thank you Fran. This will be my part of my evening prayer. What else do you have for us?

Reply
jackie white
3/2/2015 05:44:38 pm

Fran,

Thank you for your heartfelt prayer. May the Christ draw you closer and closer to Himself each day as you journey on your pilgrim way.

Reply
jackie White
3/3/2015 06:43:40 am

Evelyn,

Thank you for sharing your prayer style with us; one on one with God, in nature and in intercessory prayer for others. Great job, woman.

Thinking about what I would like to share today. What is coming to mind are two things: the 5 days I spent in centering prayer and some other retreats. I will pause and ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten me. Pause....

Heading toward the time I spend in retreat.
Can't give what you ain't got.
The car can't run on empty.

My true spiritual life began August 17, 2008.
Since that time I have been blessed with a yearly silent retreat of 7 days and a once in my life time 30 day silent retreat 2011.

Most of them were Ignatian...that is Jesuit ...St. Ignatius Loyola.
Old and New Testament...use of God's gift of the imagination and Finding God in All Things. These were all directed. A meeting of 45 minutes daily with the retreat director to send you on your way for the day.

Other than Ignatian, I found myself in Thomas Merton territory, monkdom. Yes, trappist monasteries where I would join the monks in all their prayer times of the chanting of the Office of the Hours or also known as Divine Office. The rest of the day is free to spend time in nature or in chapel with intimate time with my best friend.

These holy times apart from worldly concerns give God plenty of opportunities to speak in the silence of the heart. If we ask for the grace to hear what He is saying, it changes everything for us.

I walk my pilgrim journey with a great spiritual director, a holy man of God, who has been helping me on the path to perfection and holiness.

My goal for the years I have remaining on this earth is :

To know Jesus more intimately in times of quiet prayer
To love Jesus more intensely with all my heart
To follow Jesus more closely wherever He may lead me
To serve Jesus more generously in ministry

My call is to be a contemplative in action.
Lord, thank you for the call. I say YES.


Reply
Charlene Caramore
3/4/2015 12:06:01 am

Jackie, I'm fascinated with what you said about the silent retreats. I too feel the call to become more contemplative and I'm searching for ways that God will help me on this path. . . or whatever path is His Holy Will. Where did you go on the 7 day retreat? I didn't even know that women would be allowed to join the Trappists in their prayers. I have a lot to learn. Also how did you find your spiritual director? I had one long ago but we parted over theological differences. Thank you so much for your insights.

Reply
evelyn link
3/3/2015 11:58:35 pm

Jackie you are getting better and better at this "blogging thing". Bravo! It was great to have a chance to read your description of what one might find when one goes on retreat, be it Ignatian or at a Trappist monastery. I am a huge fan of Thomas Merton. In my old life, when I toyed with the question of being reincarnated...coming back as someone else...when I played that little game...I wanted a chance at being Henry Miller! Now, after I have recognized what is True and how God is at work in my life, I want to be Thomas Merton for a day. He, like St. Paul...like St. Augustine...like many of us sinners had lived a life I can relate to and his journey from sinner to saint heralds hope into my heart.
From Jeremiah 24: 7..."I will give them a heart to understand that I am Yahweh, and they shall be my people and I will their God when they return to me with all their heart."

Reply
jackie white
3/4/2015 06:06:58 am

Charlene,

When I looked for a director almost 7 years ago, the pastor of my parish said he would try to find a retired priest for me. Well he never did and this great priest after emailing him about a problem I had said that he would try it out with me for 3 months and if it did not work for one of us, we would not continue. It is almost 7 years later and it has worked. That is not a normal way to find a director though I am very blessed that it was my way.

Usually speaking to your pastor is a good way.
Contacting the diocesan office for a list of directors in your area. That could be a priest, deacon, religious, lay person who has gone through the training to be a director.

As far as the retreat with the trappist monks, I made mine at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, MA.

Does that help, Charlene?

Reply
Charlene Caramore
3/5/2015 03:38:45 am

Yes, thank you, Fran. I have spoken to my priest about this and he mentioned a woman who recently moved to our area that was a spiritual director for years in the city. I have made an initial contact with her but never followed up on it yet. Your message has inspired me that I should get going. I'd love to do a silent retreat sometime. I once did a 3 day combined with a fast but my spiritual director of the time yelled at me and said I wasn't ready. She wouldn't even have done one because it opens you to such spiritual attacks. So I sort of got a mixed message there. I'll have to pray about it. I just finished Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain and was so impressed with this man. I want to read more of his. Any suggestions or favorites?

Reply
jackie white
3/4/2015 06:14:31 am

Evelyn,

Yes, Thomas Merton has a past and so do I . Apparently you do, too. that is why we relate to him so well. If you ask the Pope who he is. His answer is that he is a sinner. We are in good company. He is also a Jesuit......and certainly a holy man of God.

Reply
Fran
3/5/2015 01:23:39 am

Thomas Merton would be 100 this year, He was a great writer like you Evelyn. He taught lititure in St Bonavenature Oleane New York.
and grammar at Columbia. He was originally going to be a Franciscan, but because of his past this didn't happen. So being a Franciscan I have no bragging rights, our loss. He was a Trappist
He lived a very Holy life and a penatent one. If you haven't read
"Seven Story Mountain" you may enjoy it. It is his autobiography.

Reply
evelyn link
3/5/2015 02:31:00 am

What a great compliment. Thank you Fran!

Reply
Fran
3/5/2015 07:02:46 am

thinking about the request for prayers that was asked of you had me thinking of these people and there pain. The request for prayers for the deveolmently disabled, person homeless and without his families support I found very disturbing. I worked for 27 years for persons devolmently disabled and I loved them. I am now on the board of directors for them. I also have two great nephews develomptly disabled. I don't know this person, but I will pray for him and if he is near by I'll be his friend. The person with a past that he is haunted by I will pray for also, forgiving yourself is very hard and I think impossible sometimes.
To be asked to pray for someone by a non believer or a non practicing Catholic, may be the work of The Holy Spirit, it may be the start of them "coming home" They may feel so far away from God that they feel He will not listen to them, so they ask someone they feel has the " in" The problem is with themselves. They have found they need God, in the past they may have thought they were doing fine without God, not knowing they needed God for every breath they took. Sometimes a person needs to hit bottom to climb to the top. St Paul knew that.

Reply
jackie white
3/5/2015 07:36:18 am

Evelyn, Fran and Charlene,

I agree about the need for people to ask others to pray for them. Either they think that their life, the way it is being lived is not such that God will listen to them or they see the goodness shining through the person they are requesting to pray for them. Whatever the reason, your are called to connect to God for them.

When the time is right for them to pray they will do that for themselves.

There were no practicing Catholics in the family I moved into when I married my second husband, Ed. I, myself reluctantly went to Mass on Sunday. After Ed died and a year after that did I begin to feel moved by the Spirit to change my ways and converse with God. It took awhile but one of my daughters who also had quite a life, decided to move in the right direction and then became very active in the church. My other daughter after 30 years came home to the church. We are all praying for the 12 grandchildren and their spouses as well as all of the 8 great grandchildren to move in the right direction. I constantly pray for all of them. The greats don't have a chance if their parents don't care about the faith.

What I notice about all of them, they see how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me and whenever they buy me something it is a cross, or some religious item because they know how much it means to me. Maybe at one point in time they will accept grace and move forward.

I am in the winter of my life and I would love to see something good happen to them before God calls me to Himself.

May God's Will be done.

Reply
Janet Wenner
3/8/2015 09:56:37 am

re. paragraphs 5 & 6: Don't you love it when you wonder what the Spirit is up to? Just the greatest. And don't forget: It is only common sense to ask the person perceived as a more powerful prayer warrior to pray for us; part of their (your) prayer can be that God will strengthen that person's prayer life. Not that any of us ever gets to the point where we don't need each other's prayers!

Reply
Janet Wenner
3/8/2015 09:42:19 am

it's= it is (contraction)
its= possessive pronoun

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    Topics of
    Interest 

    All
    Man
    Thomas Merton
    Woman

    WWW.STANTHONYGIFT.COM
    Read more of Fr. Michael's thoughts about Ash Wednesday on The Homily Page  (Click on three bars upper left corner of blog home page)







  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Homilies
  • Novenas
  • PRAYER WALL
  • Saint Of The Day