There Are No Cons

I struggle with spontaneous prayer, which as a former Protestant this is a bit difficult to admit; however, I have always been fond of talking to God. Then when I started on the road to Catholicism, the first structured prayer that I learned was the ‘Our Father’. It was odd to me. It seemed dry—I did not see the beauty in what I was saying. I did not realize that the ‘Our Father’ was the way that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Now, the ‘Our Father’ springs to my lips easily, while I’m working and I struggle with people and projects; while I’m running and struggle to keep going; while I’m cleaning and thankful for all that God has blessed me with; while I try to fall asleep to still my mind on the peace of God. I have not abandoned spontaneous prayer. In fact, often times I couple the two together.

Lessons on Powerful Prayer from St. Scholastica

There is a story of two twins, St. Scholastica (whose feast day is today) and St. Benedict of Nursia. St. Scholastica being a nun and St. Benedict a monk, they would customarily see each other once a year, during which time the two of them would pray and sing praises together and discuss heavenly matters.

One year, St. Scholastica asked her brother to stay the night with her so that they could continue their discussions and prayer, but the brother was very devout and would not stay a single night outside of the monastery. This distressed her, so she immediately folded her hands and laid her head on them, praying hard to the Lord. As she looked up to heaven, lightning flashed across the once clear sky and as the tears fell from her face, great rain droplets pounded on the roof of the house. The storm that the Lord granted on behalf of Scholastica was so great, that neither Benedict nor the monks with him dared to set foot outside.

Media Review: LibriVox

I love to read. Or at least I used to, before I started my job, as it pretty well taps me out and I haven’t enjoyed reading a good book in a while. This does not mean however that I do not enjoy good books anymore. Enter: Librivox. Founded in 2005, LibriVox is an online library of free audio books. How is it possible? Volunteers read books that are in the public domain then submit the recordings back to LibriVox and LibriVox makes them available either through direct download on the website or through iTunes. Currently, LibriVox has 4560 books in its domain.

Learn All About Prayer From Jesus

Now that we have covered the high level of what prayer is, who can pray, and why, when and where we should pray, one major question remains. How do we pray? It seems like such a simple thing—just talk to God—and yet I feel no shame in asking this question as it is the very question that the disciples of Jesus asked of him.

In the book of Mathew, when the disciples ask of Jesus how to pray, Jesus gives them the prayer of Our Father. The disciples were faithful Jews. They were taught at a young age how to pray, with formal and memorized prayers, in synagogues and the temple, and by the priests. Yet something they saw in the way Jesus prayed prompted them to ask him to teach them.

The Underestimated Holy Spirit

I don’t know about you, but I know something about me… I underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit. My first step towards Christianity as a Protestant was my belief in Jesus. I was still not quite right with God, but I was headed in the right direction. At that time, I believed that God was a very unkind God (the Old Testament was my proof—He wasn’t very nice to his chosen people. I know now that they had it coming to them as they just refused to listen) and the Holy Spirit was just this odd, third entity that I recognized as important, but less important than both God and Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is not at all less important in the Trinity, nor should he be any less respected. I could be totally off base here, but I think that as Protestants and Catholics (perhaps the majority of Christian believers), we put more emphasis on Jesus and on God and tend to remember the Holy Spirit as an afterthought. However, we must remember that the Holy Spirit does not come third to the Father and the Son, but is the third person of God.

Status Update

Well, I’m not nearly as far into the post series on prayer as I would like to be, due to my work load at my job being extensive in January and so I disappeared for most of the month.  This is okay, I will just continue the same post series until Lent begins on February 22.   Time moves so quickly now, sometimes its hard to keep up with it all.  It is already February and the word ‘Lent’ is showing up in my posts.

Media Review: CHSS Ministry & eBible

Another Word for Heaven

I must confess—I am a resource junky.  My profession as an engineer has fed this addiction, as there is nothing better to an engineer than a great resource.  In fact, an engineer is only as useful as his (or her ) resources.  Being a believer in the unseen (three cheers for God and electrons!), I search for all the  books, web pages, audio files, PDF’s and blogs out there that accurately explains and describes the truth.  

The Five W’s of Prayer: Part 2

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This is a continuation of the series of posts on prayer, in particular The Five W’s of Prayer: Part 1.  See also the introductory post, In His Holy Name. “Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response … Continue reading →

The Angelic Doctor: St. Thomas Aquinas

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A Student’s Prayer By St. Thomas Aquinas Creator of all things, True source of light and wisdom, Origin of all being, Graciously let a ray of your light penetrate The darkness of my understanding. Take from me the double darkness In which I have been … Continue reading →

FAQ on HHS Mandate

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has released a FAQ on the HHS Mandate for Contraception/Sterilization Coverage being enforced on the public.  This two page FAQ is very informative and imparts information that I think is missing from … Continue reading →