PRAYER ... a call to God!

 

Psalm  84:3:    My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

 

When my heart cries out to God, I'm praying well.   However, distractions can subtly pull my thoughts elsewhere, and then the quality of my prayer suffers.   To be more attentive in prayer,  I sometimes imagine I am going to call God on the phone.   Before dialing, I need to determine why I'm calling.  Maybe I want to express my love,  offer thanks,  or say I'm sorry.   Perhaps I'm requesting strength or guidance.   Then I must be spiritually alert and clearly express my thoughts to God. 

 

When I am easily distracted,  hesitant, or half asleep,  that is a sign this call to God will not be very meaningful.   If my house were ablaze,  I know my call to the fire department would not be halfhearted or distracted.   I would vigorously plead for help.  The psalmist  (84:3) encourages us to come to prayer with this same purpose and cry out our thoughts to the living God.

 

(This reflection is by Fr. James McKarns and appears on November 28th in the LIVING FAITH daily Catholic devotional.)

 

THANKSGIVING WISH

2014 Thanksgiving  Dinner at Assumption Abbey

 

As we come to the end of THANKSGIVING DAY,  let us again wish you a BLESSED THANKSGIVING;   let GRATITUDE reign in your hearts;   let the EUCHARIST always be a prayer of thanksgiving for you;   let THANK YOU be always a ready part of your daily conversations.   THANK YOU for being a part of our lives.

 

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

When we think of THANKSGIVING DAY,  we think of turkey,  or lots of food, usually with family and friends, marathon football games,  and increasingly for many of us,  shopping,  but let's not forget what is at the center of our day;  for your prayerful reflection something we may not remember of the origins of this day:

 

On October 3,  1863,  in the middle of our nation's Civil War,  President Abraham Lincoln gave this national holiday as a day to GIVE THANKS for our abundance that is from God:

 

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven;  we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity;  we have grown ...  as no other nation has ever grown.   But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined ... that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace,  too proud to pray to the God that made us."

 

As we celebrate THANKSGIVING today,  however we celebrate it,  let us remember always to GIVE THANKS TO GOD  for all the graces and blessings and gifts we have so richly received from God's generous and loving care for each and all of us.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from the Ava Franciscans

 

 

PRAYER: Beginning with Gratitude

 

BRINGING THANKS INTO YOUR PRAYER:

 

This reflection is written by  Fr. James Martin, SJ and appears in the November issue of GIVE US THIS DAY missalette,  p.  7.

 

Finding your prayer dry?   Having a tough time seeing God in your daily life?   Struggling with despair?  Then begin with gratitude, the easiest way to jump-start your spiritual life.

 

One of the most popular ways to pray is St. Ignatius Loyola's "examination of conscience," in which you review the day to discover signs of God's activity.   And, surprisingly for a man of his times,  St. Ignatius begins the prayer not with a catalogue of one's sins but with gratitude.  Why?  Well, left to our own devices, we tend to focus on the negatives in life.   Many of us are also inveterate problem solvers.  Thus, when we look back on our day we automatically focus on what went wrong, on what needs to be fixed.    Some of this is part of our emotional hardwiring, the vestige of the prehistoric mind:  the caveman or cavewoman most likely to survive was the one most alert to danger.  But concentrating on our problems can mean we overlook our blessings.

 

What if you don't feel that you have much to be grateful for?  In that case, try looking at smaller, everyday blessings.   The taste of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  A crazy joke that lightened your day.   An unexpected phone call from a friend.  Or look at more long-term blessings:  a roof over your head, food on the table,  a job.   To be grateful, all you need to do is recall the blessing, savor it, and tell God that you're thankful.  As Meister Eckhart wrote: "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you,  that will be enough." 

 

 

 

LIVING IN THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER

PRAYING ALWAYS

 

"Jesus told his disciples a parable abut the necessity for them to pray always without become weary."  (Luke 18:1)   

 

This Gospel, with the story of the persistent widow,  appeared as the daily reading for Saturday, November 15th.   As one might suspect, it prompted many useful thoughts in various commentaries on the daily readings;  here are several:

 

To "pray always" means that we live in the spirit of prayer, which is not difficult.  A thousand things every day can remind us to offer short but meaningful prayers of thanksgiving.  In the quiet of our heart, we can adore our God and express sorrow for our failures.   We are able to seek guidance and strength to face our daily challenges.   Such meaningful communications keep us in touch with our loving Creator.   in the midst of the busyness of life,  I feel drawn to quiet places where silence establishes a good connection to hear the whispering voice of God.    (Fr. James McKarns writing for the LIVING WITH CHRIST missalette.)

 

This parable of the widow seems to imply that God has to be nagged repeatedly to answer our prayer.  I recoil from this notion of prayer and of God.  I was very grateful at a Bible study when the presenter offered a different interpretation.  She said the persistence in prayer is not about God, but about us.

 

Instead of repeatedly worrying, one keeps turning to God,  transforming worry into prayer.  By "the necessity to pray always without becoming weary,"  Jesus meant that we are to pray always so that we do not become overcome with weariness.  By repeatedly entrusting our concern into God's hands,  we will not lose heart.  In a recent time of great crisis,  this kind of repeated prayer helped me greatly to hang on to the truth that I was not alone.  The prayer was a lifeline to trust.    (Patricia Livingston writing in the LIVING FAITH, daily Catholic devotional.)

 

God invites us to pray insistently not because he is unaware of our needs or because he is not listening to us.  On the contrary,  he is always listening and he knows everything about us lovingly.  On our daily journey, especially in times of difficulty, in the battle against the evil that is outside and within us,  the Lord is not far away, he is by our side ... God is our ally, faith in him in our strength and prayer is the expression of this faith. 

 

Pray always, but not in order to convince the Lord by a dint of words!   He knows our needs better than we do!   Indeed,  persevering prayer is the expression of faith in a God who calls us to fight with him every day and at every moment in order to conquer evil with good.    (Pope Francis, speaking at the Angelus, on October 20, 2013  -- referenced in the GIVE US THIS DAY missalette.)

 

 

 

THE POWER OF PRAYER

PRAYER'S  POWER

If you wish to keep focus in life

PRAY

If you want to find the depth in God's commandments

PRAY

If you want to discover the far reaches of the mysteries of God

PRAY

If you want to keep your heart open and wise and loving

PRAY

If you want to know your brother's and sister's and others' needs and yearnings

PRAY

If you want to reverence the richness of creation

PRAY

If you want to choose life over death and evils

PRAY

If you want to know the good in life that God has in mind for you

PRAY

If you want to receive the balm of forgiveness and freedom from sin

PRAY

If you want to know and live God's wisdom

PRAY

If you want to avoid anger and the ways of violence

PRAY

If you wish to know God as a friend on a daily basis

PRAY

 

-- written by a Franciscan friar at Ava Prayer Fraternity --