Tag Archives: prayer

Praying with Mary and Ann

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Western Wall, Jerusalem

A novena preparing for the  Feast of Saints Ann and Joachim, the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus, July 26 began on July 17, reminding us of the role parents and grandparents play in raising children.  Some years ago I visited the ancient temple ruins in Jerusalem where  Jewish women were fervently praying with their daughters before the temple’s western wall.

Ann and her daughter Mary must have prayed here too.

Temple

The picture above, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is a model of the temple from Jesus’ time. Tradition says Ann and Joachim, parents of Mary, were closely associated with the temple and may have lived nearby.  An ancient church honoring St. Ann stands today near the Pool of Bethesda, near the temple. There, a paralyzed man was healed by Jesus. (John 5, 1-18) That’s the church in the ruins below.

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Church of St. Ann, Jerusalem

A statue of Ann and her daughter Mary is in the Jerusalem church. Ann is teaching her daughter at her side.

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What is she teaching her? Some statues show her teaching Mary the scriptures, but I’ve seen a statue, like the one below, showing Ann teaching her the ABCs and numbers. That’s what parents and grandparents do, isn’t it? They teach children life’s basics: how to live and how to pray.

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Cathedral, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Still true today. We put the little statue below of the two of them under our chapel altar for the novena. Parents and grandparents, the next generation is at your side. Ann and Joachim pray for us; show us the way.

A Harvest Nearby: Matthew 9:38

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In our readings this 14th week of the year from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus calls for laborers for a harvest: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” He gathers twelve disciples following that call.

When we think of laborers in the vineyard today, we might think of priests and religious. More priests and religious are certainly needed for the harvest in our church.

But they’re not the only laborers needed for God’s great harvest. What about laborers for places where priests or religious will never be? And what about the harvest itself, where does that happen?

I’m sure at one time or another you have overheard people at a restaurant or on a bus or at some gathering discussing religion. “What do you think of the pope?” “Do you think there’s life after death?” “Do you think Jesus is really God?” Often the questions go unanswered or wrongly answered because there’s no laborer there to speak the truth.

The harvest is waiting in a lot of places..

Jesus spoke about the laborers for the harvest as he moved from town to town in Galilee and saw  “troubled and abandoned” crowds, Matthew’s gospel says. We need to ask for laborers among crowds like those of today. Maybe we need to recognize there’s a harvest not far from where we are, “troubled and abandoned,” at a table nearby.

Praying in Jesus Christ

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Farewell Discourse of Jesus. Duccio

“I pray for them,” Jesus says in John’s gospel as he looks at his disciples in the supper room and also at us who are his own today. We’re so conscious how poorly we pray. We need to remember Jesus is praying for us and in us. 

Is it possible to speak to God, we ask ourselves? We’re so easily distracted, so weak in faith, so bound to life as it is. How can we approach God in prayer?

“Let the Son who lives in our hearts, be also on our lips,” St. Cyprian says in his commentary on the Our Father. Jesus joins our weak and stumbling prayers to his own. He prays in and for us and assures us we will be welcomed and heard.

“I pray for them,” Jesus said in the supper room. He prayed for his disciples there in the supper room. When they left they entered the Garden of Gethsemani where they fell asleep, forgetful of everything. A stone’s throw away, Jesus prayed. His prayer was not only for himself but for them as well.

“I pray for them,’ Jesus says in our liturgical prayers. We speak to God the Father “through Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.”

Whenever we pray, whether with others in public prayer or praying alone, he enters our prayer. “Let us pray with confidence to the Father in the words our Savior gave us,” we say as we begin the Our Father at Mass.

Our confidence in prayer comes, not from our own wisdom, or holiness or faith, but from Jesus who says “I pray for them.”


We Seek Your Face, O Lord

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Here’s St. Anselm, who sees himself a “little man” seeking God:

“Little man, rise up! Flee your preoccupations for a little while. Hide yourself for a time from your turbulent thoughts. Cast aside, now, your heavy responsibilities and put off your burdensome business. Make a little space free for God; and rest for a little time in him.

Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts. Keep only thought of God, and thoughts that can aid you in seeking him. Close your door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek.

And come you now, O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how it may seek you, where and how it may find you.

Lord, if you are not here, where shall I seek ? If you are everywhere, why do I not see you here? Yes, you dwell in unapproachable light. But where is unapproachable light, or how shall I come to it? Or who shall lead me to that light and into it, that I may see you in it? Again, by what signs, under what form, shall I seek you? I have never seen you, O Lord, my God; I do not know your face.

What, O most high Lord, shall this man do, an exile far from you? What shall your servant do, anxious in his love of you, and cast out far from your presence? He is breathless with desire to see you, and your face is too far from him. He longs to come to you, and your dwelling-place is inaccessible. He is eager to find you, but does not know where. He desires to seek you, and does not know your face.

Lord, you are my God, and you are my Lord, and never have I seen you. You have made me and renewed me, you have given me all the good things that I have, and I have not yet met you. I was created to see you, and I have not yet done the thing for which I was made.”

Saturday, 3rd Week of Lent

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Readings
In Luke’s gospel Jesus often sides with people living in complicated situations they find hard, almost impossible to get out of – tax collectors, prostitutes, widows, sinners like the prodigal son. They call out for God’s mercy, and Jesus shows them mercy.

A number of tax collectors appear in the gospels. There’s the tax collector in Luke’s account today, there’s Zachaeus the chief tax collector in Jericho. There’s also Mathew, the tax collector in Caphernaum, whom Jesus asked to follow him. There’s no evidence that Jesus asked all Matthew’s friends– also tax collectors– to leave their posts and give up the dirty profession they’re engaged in.

The chief tax collector Zachaeus promised a substantial gift to the poor after receiving Jesus into his house, but again there is no evidence he gave up his job as chief tax collector in Jericho. Nor did any of the tax collectors under him.

There’s no evidence the tax collector in the parable today from Luke’s gospel did so either. Still, God’s mercy was at work in them all.

We’re reading from Hosea these last two days, the prophet whose wife left him. If I read him right, as Hosea calls out to Israel to come back to God, he’s also calling out to his wife to come back. He seems aware she may not think it possible to come back, so he keeps inviting her. Come back to me. It’s mercy calling out.

The tax collector praying in the back of the temple from Luke’s Gospel, (Luke 18, 9-14) stays at a distance, eyes down; he says only a few words:“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” He recognizes his distance from God and calls for mercy.

The Pharisee’s prayer is so different, so full of himself. He sees no need for mercy. There’s nothing in him that needs redemption. He seems to ask only for applause and approval.

The tax collector asks only for mercy. His prayer is heard so shouldn’t we make it our own? Tax-collectors,  widows and sinners stand closest to where all humanity stands. We all need God’s mercy. We come to God empty-handed.
“O God come to my assistance. O Lord make haste to help me.”

Call for God’s mercy, St. Paul of the Cross often counseled: “I wish you to remain in your horrible nothingness, knowing that you have nothing, can do nothing and know nothing. God doesn’t do anything for those who wish to be something; but one who is aware of his nothingness in truth, is ready. ‘If anyone thinks himself to be something, he deceives himself,’ said the Apostle, whose name I bear unworthily. (St. Paul of the Cross, Letter 1033)

“O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Following Jesus Christ in Lent

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Lent always begins with two stories from the gospel. On the 1st Sunday of Lent we follow Jesus Christ after his baptism into the desert where he’s tempted by Satan for forty days.

The 2nd Sunday of Lent we follow him up the mountain where he reveals his glory to his disciples. His transfiguration.

This year we listen to these two stories from the Gospel of Matthew.

The two stories are highly symbolic. Jesus is the new Adam. The first Adam was banished from Paradise to a desert land. Jesus, the new Adam, enters that desert to lead humanity back to Paradise. He breaks the hold of Satan, who tempted the first Adam in the garden.

When Jesus goes up the mountain with his disciples and is transfigured before them he shows them the glory they will share through his resurrection after his death on the mountain of Calvary.

Lent is a time when we “grow in understanding” of these mysteries of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. (Collect, 1st Sunday of Lent)

On the 2nd Sunday of Lent we follow him up the mountain where he reveals the glory that awaits us. Lent is a time of revelation, the prayer that begins this season says. Jesus reveals his glory to us as well as to the disciples who accompanied him then.

Now is a time to  “grow in understanding”of the Paschal Mystery. We know so little of the mystery we celebrate. The riches are “hidden in Christ” and not immediately obvious. We must pursue them humbly, dig for the treasures hidden in the field, find Jesus Christ in the desert world we live in.

This is not just an intellectual effort either. By “worthy conduct”, good deeds, patient love for others, we uncover the “riches hidden in Christ”.

All our efforts mean little, though, unless the Almighty God grant it, “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect, 2nd Sunday of Lent)

The Transfiguration of Jesus is a strongly visual mystery. Jesus is revealed in  glory on the mountain. Yet, we are told to “listen” to God’s beloved Son. His words we hear within will give us the spiritual eyes we need to behold his glory. 

What about our eyes that long to see? The stories of Abraham who is told to search the starry skies and look at the land he has been given tell us the treasures of the natural world can nourish our  desire to see more, namely, the glory revealed in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Now we listen, then we shall see.

What am I going to do for Lent?

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Lent begins  Ash Wednesday. What am I going to do for Lent? The supper table is a good place for asking that question , It represents life that’s closest to us here and now. Lent is about renewing ourselves as we are here and now. The people across the table where we live, or work or go to school with are a good start.

A scripture reading early on in Lent says: “Don’t turn your back on your own.”  Have we turned our backs on those closest to us? Let’s start with paying attention to them. Lent is a time for renewing ourselves where we are, in real life and real time, with those who are “our own.”.

The Ash Wednesday scriptures say: pray, fast and give alms. Let’s pray with the church during Lent. The scriptures for each day are a good place to start. Here’s where you can find the Lenten scriptures. www.usccb.org

See what’s going on in the churches nearby. Pray with others. We don’t pray with others enough.

Fasting takes many forms. Lent is a good time to fast from our own hard opinions of others. Too many people seem to be spoiling for a fight these days.

Can I give something to someone, maybe my time or attention. Can I give to some good cause?

Let’s keep before our eyes the terrible sufferings going on in our world today, but let’s see them in the light of the great mystery we celebrate: the death and resurrection of Jesus. Keep his Passion in mind. He gives us new hope.

Let’s not forget something else, though. What’s God does during Lent. That’s important. Lent is a time of God’s grace, an “acceptable time” when God pours out grace for us and the world we live in. The great sign of God’s limitless love is the Passion of his Son, a wondrous love beyond all others.

The Prayer of Jesus in the Garden

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Mount Olives 3


The Feast of Jesus Praying in the Garden is another feast St. Paul of the Cross placed at the beginning of the lenten season,. Lent is a season for prayer, fasting and almsgiving, but notice prayer is the first.

All the gospels tell us Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. Matthew says he taught them to pray on a mountain–a traditional place to draw close to God. It was the prayer we call the “Our Father” . (Matthew 6, 9-13)

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray “in a certain place”, on the plain, in the midst of daily life. (Luke 11, 2-4) Jesus prayed daily through life. The prayer he taught is more basic than the prayer found in Matthew’s Gospel..

“When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11,2-4)

Mark, Matthew and Luke recall Jesus praying in the garden before his passion; his disciples do not join him, but fall asleep.  

They sleep because the flesh is weak, Mark says.

They’ sleep because they can’t keep their eyes open, Matthew says.

They sleep because of grief, Luke says.

Stay awake and pray, Jesus tells them. Prayer brings you through times of testing and temptation. We’re are like the disciples, our flesh is weak, our spiritual eyes are weak, we can be overwhelmed by grief.

Facing weakness as he faces death, Jesus doesn’t wave it away in stoic resignation or look to his own power. “Not my will, but your will be done,” he says. Facing the consequences of his mission, the limits of human power, the “form of a slave,” he depends on his Father for the strength he needs.

In the garden Jesus teaches us how to face life’s trials. He kneels on the ground and humbly looks beyond himself to his Father, “Abba”, who hears him. He falls to the ground, trusting his Father’s strength and not his own. Troubled and distressed, for an hour’s time he simply pleads for help. . 

“He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.” Luke says. Then, an angel comes to strengthen him. The cup of suffering isn’t taken away; he will drink from it, but it will not crush him. God will raise him up.

He teaches us to pray as he did and promises to be with us in our trials.

This feast calls us to pray with Christ. It also tells us to pray with the church. Lent is a time to enter into the church’s praye, to enter its feasts, to use its devotions.

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Feasts for Tired Believers

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Central Italy, 1800s

The Passionists celebrate two feasts immediately before Ash Wednesday. The Solemn Commemoration of the Passion of Jesus Christ on the Friday before Ash Wednesday. The Prayer of Jesus in the Garden on Tuesday before that day.

Both feasts are inspired by our missionary founder, St. Paul of the Cross, (1694-1775). He spent many years announcing the graces of lent in the villages and towns of the Tuscan Maremma in Italy..

It was a challenging task. The Tuscan Maremma was then a place where graces seemed gone. It was the poorest, most troubled part of Italy in Paul’s day, an area in Central Italy facing the Mediterranean Sea, almost 2,000 square miles– roughly the size of Long Island and New York City together. Only gradually, towards the end of the 1700s, after his death, did it begin inching towards recovery.

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Now Tuscanny is a popular tourist destination. Then it was an unhealthily mix of hills and swamplands. Malaria was widespread, roads often impassible, dangerous because of bandits. Farmlands were abandoned; beggars everywhere. The people in isolated villages and hill towns suspected outsiders.

Paul and his companions preached there for many years. Every year it was the same; it never seemed to change. You need other eyes and another kind of heart to work in a world like that and not get tired.

And so as they packed their bags for their lenten journey into the Tuscan Maremma they had to remind themselves what was there before them: the mystery of the Passion of Christ. They needed to pray so they wouldn’t forget. That’s what Jesus did before the mystery of his Passion.

It’s still so today, isn’t it? These two feasts are for all kinds of tired believers, who face the world where things don’t seem to change. We need another way of seeing things and another kind of heart to journey on..

If you want to pray these feasts with the Passionists, go here.

Welcome to Lent

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