DISTRACTIONS AND PRAYER

(a fallen tree down on one of the many walking paths)

 

PRAYER REFLECTION FROM YOUR PRAYER FRATERNITY

 

It is difficult to love and to be loved as one would like.  It is painful to realize that there are whole areas in the life of  the human mind that will never be revealed.  Every person, one day or another, becomes aware of one's poverty as a creature.  And since this experience is a crushing one, the natural temptation is therefore distractions, or, diversions.  There is an "impatience with one's limitations," a natural temptation that urges us to flee before such limitations.  We experience a fear in coming face to face with them, and this fear arises again and again inside us.  Distractions, therefore, appear as the opposite of prayer, a refusal of our real condition, an evasion of it in favor of illusion, dream, mirage (recall one's pursuit of different kinds of drunkenness:  evasion by the flesh, art, sports, etc.)

 

However, the first moment of true prayer occurs in the experience and awareness of one's limitations.  We do not know what our real needs are, and we must learn them all over again each day.  In this sense, prayer has the value of pedagogy, it is the great pedagogy of God.  While evasion and distractions draw us away from the road to real happiness, prayer brings us back to what is most authentic in one's quest for happiness.  "The truth will set you free."  Prayer makes us free;  it preserves what is most fragile and most precious in us:  the integrity of our desire, that desire which, in final analysis, is nothing but the need for God.  This is what prayer preserves in us, and must teach us every day, this need for God, which is the distinctive, most profound trait that separates one from the animals.  The human person is the only being who turns to God to obtain what is lacking for one's own fulfillment.

 

(by  Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P.)

 

 

FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS - 2011

TRANSITUS & FEASTDAY GREETINGS

 

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS!

 

The friar community here at Our Lady of the Angels held its annual TRANSITUS service on the evening of October 3rd, prayerfully and gratefully remembering the life and the death of St. Francis.   Across the world, on the evening before the feast of St. Francis which is October 4th, Franciscans -- friars and sisters and lay Franciscans -- along with friends, gather to retell the last years and hours of St. Francis' life.  In every language and custom imaginable, the story is retold.  It's a wonderful annual service which prepares us to celebrate the feast the next day.

 

Here at the Prayer Fraternity, the Trappist monks from Assumption Abbey, the hermits from Nazareth Hermitage and other local friends are invited to join in this special memorial service.  Twenty plus friends joined our community in the celebration both in the chapel and in the social that followed.    

 

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS TO ALL OF YOU!

 

 

CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT is well received

 

September 26-30 saw 6 friars from the provinces of St. John the Baptist and Sacred Heart join the core community at the Interprovincial Prayer Fraternity in Ava, Mo for a contemplative retreat.

 

Fr. Ray Gunzel, sP was the presenter and developed for the 10 friars the theme of contemplative prayer as a 'journey from the center of the self to the Center of the Divine'.

 

He spoke of prayer as a lifting of the mind and heart to God and that the end of all prayer is a surrender to be taken into God as we are, as God knows us and accepts us (loves us) in the present moment.

 

Two of the pillars for contemplative prayer, and for the retreat, are 'solitude', the sanctuary that protects and nourishes our prayer and 'silence', the wellspring of living water from which our prayer flows.

 

Fr. Ray developed the biblical foundations of prayer, discovering in the creation events of Genesis the seed of our inner life of prayer as well as the foundation for an understanding of sin. He reflected on the writings of St. Paul, the life of Mary, and the Gospels, esp. the Gospel of John, as source materials to understand contemplation. He spoke of the radical Jesus who is the new Adam, a new creation, modeling for us a way of living in the world and relating to other persons.

 

      "Jesus must be taken seriously in all his actions, his way of living and acting. Jesus stands radically against         conventional values and perceptions of right and wrong. He calls us to follow him and take a stand against the false perceptions, the unredeemed values that seduce and imprison the hearts and minds of man and woman."

 

He spoke of a new Pentecost and how the community of believers is the Body of Christ through time. To genuinely commit ourselves to the Eucharist, we are called to relinquish our culturally given identity and take on a new persona that represents a transformed heart that rejects and indicts the unredeemed values and beliefs embedded in our culture.

 

Afternoon sessions were structured to be "Contemplative Sits' introducing us to centering prayer and contemplative walks. Evening sessions provided an opportunity for those interested to engage Fr. Ray with questions that flowed from the day or our own life experiences.

OUR SOAP MAKER ATTENDS LOCAL CRAFT SHOW

On Saturday, September 24th, Br. Joe was invited to be part of a new venture for the city of Ava, MO -- their first annual Fall Festival.  Pictured above is Br. Joe and his display and several interested persons.  Br. Joe indicated that his soap was quite an interest, both in the 'how it's made' as well as the finished product.