If a friend came to you asking for your prayers, would you respond: “Why do you need me? Pray to God directly yourself!” Of course not. Christians have always recognized the value of multiplying one’s prayers with those of others. In fact, Christ...
There was once a movie called Shadow of the Hawk, in which a young couple and their Indian guide were hurrying up a mountainside, fleeing from evil people seeking to kill them. Because the Indian guide knew the mountain so well, he would be able to...
I love the Psalms of Lent, especially Psalm 137. Known as the “Psalm of Exile” or “By the Waters of Babylon,” this psalm comes from the 6th century BC. This was the time of the Babylonian exile; the Jews are lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem...
One of the recurrent themes in the Diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska is certainly prayer. But what is prayer? How can we define it? To begin with, prayer is a personal conversation with God. It implies two persons, the one who talks and the one who...
So, they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day. (John 1:39) That must have been the best time of their whole life, the time spent “hanging out” with Jesus. This is the ideal picture of discipleship which the Gospel...
Sitting in my brother’s kitchen a while back, he asked me “is there a right way to pray?” Before I could answer, he said, “no there isn’t.” “It’s all good,” as a friend of my wife’s would say. CCD theology at its best. I am glad my brother gave me...
In his apostolic letter concerning the call to holiness in today’s world, Gaudete et Exultate, written by Pope Francis on March 19, 2018, one is fascinated by the fact that the phrase our lives is found some nineteen times. This fact...
If a family member or friend were to come to a believing Christian requesting his prayers, would he say, “Go pray directly to God. You don’t need me.”? Of course not! In charity, he would readily agree, and take to his knees! While we certainly...
