Month: August, 2009Q: What tips would you offer to a person seeking to maintain the presence of God throughout the work day?
A: First, take a look at the treatment we gave this issue in the post on “Prayer – Practicing his Presence.” But since the observations we made there apply to every vocation and life-stage (parent, student, professional, home-maker…), addressing the work place specifically could be worthwhile. I would offer three tips. Get Creative First, do something creative to have your work space reflect the liturgical seasons. You probably already see this happening in the decoration of your parish. The colors of vestments, banners, and altar clothes changes with the liturgy. White, gold, red, purple, rose, green – each liturgical color is associated with a season, or with a particular type of feast-day. This visual variation is a powerful took for stimulating our awareness of the story of salvation, of which each one of us is an integral part. You don’t have to put colored veils all over your corporate cubicle, but it will help you to give a liturgical rhythm to the personalized décor you have there. Avoid Run-On Sentences Second, punctuate your work day with short breaks for prayer. When you launch into your work, make a prayer in which you offer all the work you are going to do today to God. You can do this in your own words, or simply by making the sign of the cross as you sit down at your desk or take up your shovel, or by using a prayer that you like for this purpose (I like St Francis’ prayer, for example). Then, throughout the day, step away from your work for a moment or two now and again, in order to renew your intention, or to pray for someone on your heart, or simply to tell Jesus how much you want to love him and how much you need his grace. Again, you can use your own words, or use a prayer that you like. This is like taking a spiritual coffee break. Psychologists recommend that we take a break from engaging tasks at least every two hours. So, in general, one break in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at lunch make for a healthy work rhythm. If you can add a conscious prayer in each of these little breaks, you will find it much easier and more natural to stay connected to the Holy Spirit during the work day. At the end of your work day, when you are closing up shop, renew your spiritual offering – hand over to the Lord the work that you have done that day, turning it in to him, spiritually speaking, the same way that you would turn in a report to your boss, or check out at the time clock. Sometimes the challenge of finding a way to do this without being too obvious or intrusive towards your coworkers is itself a powerful tool for reminding you that God is present and active in your soul and interested in your work. Your Secret Weapon Third, live the Lord’s Day well. This is counterintuitive – the Lord’s Day is not supposed to be a work day, so what does it have to do with helping us practice God’s presence in the work place? Everything. If the highpoint of our week is the Sunday Mass, where each one of us gathers with all of our brothers and sisters in the faith in order to worship our Creator and Redeemer through the sacramental economy that Jesus has given to his Church, then our work week all of a sudden takes on supernatural meaning. During the week, as we put our talents to work in building up society and improving the world around us (the main purpose of human work), it is easy to forget that if our friendship with God is healthy, that activity has the same kind of redeeming value as Christ’s activity in the workshop at Nazareth. By working, we are obeying God’s commandment that we fill and subdue the world. By working, we are exercising our human prerogative of being co-creators with the Lord, stewards and gardeners of creation, releasing and developing the raw and hidden potential of the world around us. Whether you are a scientist, a brick-layer, or an accountant, your profession contributes to our God-given task of cultivating – bringing culture to – the world. But we can only give this meaning to our activity insofar as we are united to Jesus Christ, who rebuilt the bridge between God and the human race. And who do we unite our work to Christ’s work? How do our feeble and flawed human efforts get swept up into Christ’s redemption? Through the Sunday liturgy. Ants work extremely hard; but they don’t celebrate the Lord’s Day. Their work has no redeeming value. When we live our work week towards the Sunday liturgy, all our work, however humble it may be, does take on redeeming value. This is expressed in the liturgy through the rite of the offertory. Sometimes when we put our donation in the basket we think we are doing God a favor. But actually, from a liturgical standpoint, that is the moment in which we are taking all the work we have done during the previous week and linking it, intentionally, with the work Christ did for us through his passion, death, and resurrection, which will be celebrated and re-presented during the Mass. Through the Mass, therefore, all the activities and personal encounters we have been part of during the previous week come into contact with God’s saving grace and are swept up into God’s redemption of the world. When we live the Lord’s Day well, this awareness takes deeper and deeper root in our minds, and, as you can imagine, gradually comes to impact how we practice God’s presence throughout the rest of the week. For this same reason, trying to go to Mass at some point during the week is also a powerful ally in our efforts to practice God’s presence in the workplace. Those are a few tips. Try them out, and let us know how they help. I would also invite any of our readers who have other proven tips to share them – if something helps you come closer to Christ, chances are it could also help someone else. Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC Please join us in reaching thousands for Christ with authentic Catholic spirituality! Would you consider a donation? No gift is too small. God’s Desire for You
“I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer;” God earnestly desired to be with his disciples. He had no need to be with them, yet, in his great love, he still had a deep and compelling desire to be with them. He has that same desire to be with you. The next time you pray, sit or kneel silently before him – put yourself in the seat of one of the disciples – you are after all, one of his disciples. See him speaking to you. Hear him say to you – using your own name – “_________ I earnestly desire to commune with you, to be with you, to speak to you, to know you and have you know me.” The God of love is calling your name. Take a moment to stop and listen – you wont regret it. Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him In Christ, Dan Please join us in reaching thousands for Christ with authentic Catholic spirituality! Would you consider a donation? No gift is too small. Prayer of Saint Francis
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; For it is in giving that we receive; How can I teach my children to pray?
A: Thank you for sharing this brief testimony, which reminds all of us that we live in a fallen world, but that God’s grace is active and powerful in redeeming that world. I can’t help whispering a “thank you” to our Lord for bringing your son back to a path of hope. It is not an easy path, but it is a good one. Keep praying for your son! Your questions is a good one. How do we teach other people to pray, especially our children? In general, it is easier to do when the children are younger, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible when they are older. If your children are mature adults living on their own, the best way would probably be to invite them to parish activities where prayer would be happening, or to recommend some books on prayer – though they may not respond as generously as you would like to these invitations. In any case, I will offer three suggestions, which, I hope, can be adjusted to children of any age. The Acorn Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree By far, the most important factor in teaching your children to pray is your own example. By far. By far. Let me say it again: by far. This is common sense, but it is also supported by an abundant and still-accumulating amount of psychological research. The most influential factor in children’s development, even through and out of adolescence, is parental example. This is how we are made: to learn behavior from our parents. This is why the cultural attack on the natural structure family life is so threatening to our society. But I digress. If you pray regularly, and your children know this and see this, they will find it much easier to weave prayer into their own lives, and, what is even more important in the long run, to consider prayer an essential part of being human. This doesn’t mean that you should pray in order to be seen by your children. That can smack of Pharisaical hypocrisy. But it does mean that if you don’t have a regular, heartfelt, maturing life of prayer, it will be extremely difficult for you to teach your children to pray. Along the same lines, your children need to see that your relationship with God affects positively your daily life. This doesn’t mean that they expect you to be perfect – even saints lose their tempers, fall into bad moods, and sometimes say the wrong thing. Certainly, as we grow spiritually and come closer to Christ, that will happen less frequently and less violently. But in the meantime, the way we show that our religion matters, that our prayer life is relevant, is by recovering quickly and humbly from our temper tantrums and self-pity parties. Apologize, make reparation if necessary, brush yourself off (spiritually speaking), and get back in the saddle. This example of humility and confidence in God is powerful, and it will build trust with your children. The Relevance of Jesus The mere fact that you pray, and that your prayer impacts your life (helping you gradually grow in virtue and wisdom), is the first and most essential way to teach your children to pray. But it doesn’t stop there. This example has to teach them not only the importance of prayer, but the method of prayer. Prayer is more than saying prayers. Prayer is a way of living out a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Your children need to see in you a living friendship with Jesus Christ. One effective way for you to model this for your children is by praying for them, out loud, in your own words. If your children are young, you can do this while you put them to bed. After you tuck them in, you can sit on the bedside with your hand on them, and ask God to bless them, guide them, and protect them. This teaches your children that God is not an abstract force that has to be propitiated by going to Church or rifling through the Rosary, but that he is a real person, caring and present, with whom we can speak about what matters to us. Another way to teach them that prayer is a living relationship with God is by going off to pray at moments of tension or conflict. Cut off the heated argument (if it’s getting heated it’s not going to do any good anyway) and let your children know that you feel a need to go and pray about this. The message? God is relevant, present, active in your life. The Domestic Church Finally, don’t be afraid to establish family traditions with regards to prayer. Pray together as a family on a regular basis. Even if your children are older, and you have never had these kinds of traditions, start them and invite your children to join in them. They don’t have to be complicated, but if you pray together, you are teaching your children to pray. Grace before meals, a short prayer when you start a trip or go out the door, prayers before bed or morning prayers – why not do these together, as a family, involving everyone? Every Catholic family is called to be a domestic church, an outpost of Christ’s Kingdom. By praying together as a family, you raise this awareness. Some families create a prayer room or prayer corner where they pray together, replete with candles, holy images, and even a small altar. Special prayer intentions for family members, relatives, or upcoming events can even be writing down and placed on the family altar… These kinds of traditions may strike us as exaggerated, but think about it for a minute: are they? Only if the normal thing in life is to exclude God from our daily lives – and the fact that practices such as these disorient us at first glance shows that our secularized society has contaminated our world view. Again, the point isn’t to turn every Catholic household into a monastery. Rather, the point is to make prayer as normal a family activity as eating – after all, it is as necessary for our soul’s health as food is for our body’s. It may not be immediately clear how you can apply these ideas to your particular family situation. But don’t worry. God wants your son to learn how to pray even more than you do. He is already at work in your son’s heart. Whatever effort you make, however clumsy or small it may appear to you, will be turned to eternally good use by the Lord. Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC Please join us in reaching thousands for Christ with authentic Catholic spirituality! Would you consider a donation? No gift is too small. I am a convert and am struggling with the idea of praying to Mary, can you help? Part III
A: We have already looked briefly at the source of Mary’s greatness and the power of her presence. Now we are ready to look at the two other ways she exercises her spiritual motherhood in our lives: her example of holiness and her prayerful intercession on our behalf. Mary Shows Us the Way The popes and the most revered spiritual writers throughout the centuries have all emphasized Mary’s example above every other aspect of Marian devotion. She, the first Christian, is also the model Christian. Throughout the Gospels, she is very discrete. She never tries to steal the spotlight from her son and Lord, yet her own role cannot be ignored. As she serves and follows Jesus, she shows us, with great simplicity, how to do the same. When the Archangel Gabriel brings the message of the Annunciation, she shows us the beauty and force of virtues like humility, obedience, and trust in God. When she speeds off to help her elderly cousin Elizabeth with her pregnancy and birth, and when she saves the wedding at Cana from social disaster, she shows us what true, self-forgetful, creative charity really looks like. With the words of the Magnificat, she shows us what it really means for a creature to love and praise her Creator. As she gathers with the frightened Apostles in the Upper Room, waiting for the Holy Spirit, she embodies the virtue of prayer and love for the Church. Perhaps most eloquently of all, as she stands at the foot of the cross and accompanies Jesus to the bitter end of his passion, she reveals the true countenance of faith, courage, patience, and perseverance. It is easy to list her exemplary virtues. But to benefit from them, we have to do more than read the list. We have to meditate on her words and example, giving them space to resonate in our hearts. Like tiger cubs, we have to watch our Mother vanquish our spiritual enemies so as to learn how to do the same. I recently received an email from a friend who described a painful situation. A relative had committed suicide, causing shockwaves throughout the large extended family. My friend made a beautiful comment on the challenge of dealing with that, a comment which impressed me deeply: “I can’t imagine Mary’s Agony of the loss of Jesus. Jesus gives way beyond my comprehension. There is so much to learn and I only feel I am skimming the surface. I pray to do his will.” In the midst of that suffering and pain, it was Mary’s example that shone like a bright moon on a cold, dark night, giving hope and strength. Mary is not invoked by Catholics as “Star of the Sea” for nothing. Mary Prays for Us Besides her presence and her example, we also need to learn to depend on her intercession. The “pray for us, O Holy Mother of God” that we recite in the Hail Mary is the model of a child’s confident plea. We should expect great things from the mother of our Lord, who is also our mother in the order of grace. It is no coincidence that in the game of Chess as played in the Western world, the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. According to most Chess historians, the game originated in India, and was popularized in Persia and Arabia before coming into Europe through Muslim Spain in the Middle Ages. In the Indian version, the Queen piece could only move one square, and in fact it was not named Queen at all – it was called the Mantri, or minister. But as the game took on its modern form in Catholic Europe, the piece next to the King became more powerful and was renamed the Queen. At the same time, the magnificent medieval cathedrals were being constructed, often named in honor of “Our Lady” (Notre Dame), the Blessed Virgin. The concept of a good and powerful Queen who would look after her subjects’ needs in the King’s court was tightly entwined with the longstanding role that Mary had played in the Church (the earliest recorded extra-biblical Christian prayer is a prayer asking for protection from the Blessed Virgin Mary, the sub tuum presidium). When Jesus was dying on the cross, he entrusted John, the representative of the whole future Church, to Mary’s care. And ever since then, Christians have leaned, happily and fruitfully, on Mary’s intercession. In a recent discourse, Pope Benedict XVI recalled this intercessory role when he commented on the life of St. Germanus of Constantinople. In the eighth century, that city, which had been the capital of the Christian Roman Empire since 325 AD, was under siege by Muslim armies. The siege lasted an entire year, and only the holy Patriarch was able to convince the emperor to keep up his resistance. Every day during the siege, St. Germanus led a religious procession along the battlements all along the city walls. In the procession, the faithful prayed and sang, carrying in honor a relic of the True Cross (the cross on which Jesus was crucified) and an image of the Mary, the Mother of God. “In fact,” Pope Benedict explained, “Constantinople was liberated from the besiegement. The adversaries decided to permanently let go of the idea of establishing their capital in the city that was the symbol of the Christian empire, and the appreciation for divine help was extremely great among the people” (Wednesday Catechesis, 29 April 2009). This is only one of countless examples of the power of Mary’s intercession on our behalf. Her presence, her example, her intercession – these are the three pillars of Marian devotion, the three ways in which she wants to have a role in our spiritual growth. In our next post, we’ll get practical and list a few ways to let her do that. Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC |
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Q: Dear Father John, What tips would you offer to a person seeking to maintain the presence of God throughout the work day?
For years, though I had been a committed Christian and enjoyed what many call a truly personal relationship with Christ, I had not really internalized the thought that God desired me. That he wants and longs for a relationship with me. The idea seemed odd that the great God of our universe would have any sense of personal longing for a relationship with any human, let alone one as broken as me. The breakthrough came when I was meditating on Luke 22:15. He was speaking to the disciples at the last supper – he was preparing for his own death by communing with them. He said to them,
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Q: Dear Father John, I have prayed for days and months for my son, who, thanks be to God, has finally begun rehabilitation from his drug addiction. I feel that many of my prayers have been answered, but I now feel a burden on my heart to teach him to pray. How can I do that?
