Category: Book RecommendationsHow can I get a copy of Navigating the Interior Life?Q: Dear Dan, is your book available to buy now? If not, when are you aiming to release it?
Please let others know of this opportunity through email, facebook and twitter. As well, and thank you in advance for your support of the work of Catholic Spiritual Direction! Yours in Christ – Marta How I memorized my favorite prayer in sixty secondsHere’s a great post from Jennifer Fulwiler over at NCRegister.com. I second her recommendation of Dr. Vost’s book Memorize the Faith! (and Most Anything Else): Using the Methods of the Great Catholic Medieval Memory Masters. We also had Jennifer on a recent segment of Register Radio where we covered this book and a few others that are well worth reading. You can catch that podcast here. How I memorized my favorite prayer in sixty secondsby Jennifer Fulwiler I recently made a commitment to say the Morning Offering every day. I’d been having trouble making time for longer prayer sessions, so I figured that the least I could do would be to start each morning with that short prayer, which says simply: O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. It seemed like an easy enough resolution. What’s so hard about saying a few lines of prayer? Yet I found that I often wasn’t doing it, the main problem being that I kept losing my sheet of paper that had the Morning Offering printed on it. Of course I wasn’t bound by those particular words, and would just speak to God from my heart (as I always did in prayer anyway) on the days that I couldn’t find it. But it was frustrating because the particular words of that prayer helped me articulate concepts I had trouble expressing on my own, especially before my morning cup of coffee. Also, it was always inspiring to know that, by saying the Morning Offering, I was joining thousands of people across the world who were speaking those exact same words to God that day. I’d been trying to memorize the prayer for a few days, but I wasn’t having much luck. Then I remembered Dr. Kevin Vost’s book Memorize the Faith! (and Most Anything Else). I’ve mentioned before how much I love this book. Using the simple exercises Dr. Vost lays out in the chapters, I had memorized the Stations of the Cross and all the Mysteries of the Rosary in a matter of hours; yet I’d never tried to apply the techniques outside of the examples in the book. I decided to give it a shot with the Morning Offering. The memorization method that Dr. Vost uses was originally perfected by St. Thomas Aquinas, and involves creating detailed visuals anchored to a specific place. So, for example, if you need to remember to get eggs, jelly and orange juice at the store, you wouldn’t just visualize those three things in isolation; rather, you would picture them in different places in a specific room. You might imagine that you walk into a sparse room with white walls. When you first walk in, you look down to see that there’s a broken egg on the floor; to the left there is a window, and you see that someone has smeared jelly all across it; straight ahead, there is a coffee table with a glass of orange juice on it. (The visuals are supposed to be somewhat outlandish to make them easier to remember…although what I just described is a perfectly plausible scene at my house.) Anyway, here’s the visual I created to get the Morning Offering in my brain: O Jesus… I walk up to a plain suburban house. Jesus is standing on the front porch, opening the door for me. Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary… Standing just inside the doorway is the Blessed Mother, who has her hands over her heart. I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day… Behind the Blessed Mother are four people. From left to right: A nun looking heavenward, her hands clasped in prayer (“prayers”); a man wearing a hardhat, hammering something into the floor (“works”); someone jumping up and down in glee, throwing confetti into the air (“joys”); St. John of the Cross, appearing weak and in pain (“sufferings”). For all the intentions of your Sacred Heart… I walk past the group of people to see a closed door. On the door there is a large painting of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world… I open the door. To my surprise, it leads to a large auditorium, and there is a Mass going on in here, with people from all over the world in attendance. In reparation for my sins… I happen to have walked in during the Penitential Act of the Mass, and strike my chest three times as I think about my sins. For the intentions of all my relatives and friends… I look up to the front of the room, and recognize a bunch of friends and family member sitting in the front pew. And in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Over to the left there is a balcony that looks down onto the auditorium. I look over and see Pope Benedict sitting up there, smiling and watching the Mass. That’s it! I went over these visuals about three times, and in less than a minute I had the prayer memorized. Granted, some of the pictures are a little silly, but that makes them easier to remember. When I first started saying the prayer using this memorization technique, the visuals were slightly distracting; I was spending almost as much mental energy remembering the cues as I was putting my heart into the prayer. But as the days went on I found that the visuals faded into the background, and the words rolled off my lips more and more easily. I wasn’t asked to promote Dr. Vost’s book; I’m recommending that everyone read it only because it’s been so helpful to me. I’ve gone on to use this memorization method for everything from store lists to to-do lists to facts and figures, but my favorite use is still for committing prayers and Bible verses to memory. It’s been nothing short of life-changing to have a way to quickly and easily commit to words of the Church to memory, so that they’re on the tip of my tongue whenever I need them. How to deepen your relationship with Christ this Lenten seasonPrayer can be a great consolation to us. It is often the means of God’s grace to strengthen, encourage, and guide us. It is also hard work and requires a strong commitment to persevere. This doesn’t mean that it should be a straining exercise. Still, when we choose to pray we are thereby rejecting other things that might be pleasurable to us. For instance, I know one very busy business man who, though he is a “night person” by disposition, gets up at 3:30 AM every morning to pray. He is driven by a deep passion to know and live his life for Christ. Still, he doesn’t enjoy the challenges related to getting up this early. St. John of the cross is often criticized for his negative emphasis on denying self. However, this is a matter of perspective. The man I am speaking of does deny his own desire to sleep more, to sometimes have more energy and acuity during the day. But, as he denies himself he is also choosing something very good. Because of the graces God has provided in response, he experiences a great deal of joy and peace in the midst of challenging physical and work related circumstances. His wife would also give testimony to the significant changes that have come in his life because of his commitment to Christ and Christ’s generous response. What I am getting at here is to propose an initiation or a deepening of your daily prayer life for lent (and beyond). This will involve sacrifice, but it will also bring great graces. If you are up for the challenge our readers have already weighed in on the best resources for this in their responses to our post Tattered Titles. I would like to highlight two of those resources: The first is Fr. John Bartunek’s The Better Part – A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer. This really is an exceptional work. If you have The second is, Divine Intimacy – Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. If you wanted to double up in your efforts to dig deeper in lent, use The Better Part to deepen your morning prayer, and Divine Intimacy to fulfill a new or existing commitment of daily spiritual reading and reflection. Both of these books are a bit on the costly side. However, you can also see this as a sacrifice (Fr. John’s book would cost you about the same as 10 visits to Starbucks, and Fr. Gabriel’s about 15). Both of these works provide for daily insights, perspective, and conversation with Christ – which is the goal of all authentic meditation and spiritual reading. Christ has great treasures waiting for you this Lenten season. Why not give up some time and treasure, and give more to God? It will and should be a challenge but you won’t regret the decision. PS: For those of you who are fans of these works, it would be great to hear from you about how they have helped you in your spiritual growth. Oh, one more thing – please share this post on Facebook and Twitter so you can bless your friends with this idea – particularly those of you who already know the great treasures that lie in store for those who take up the challenge! Faith at WorkDear Friends, The following interview is from a friend that I made at my recent appearance on EWTN’s Journey Home program. Kevin Lowry’s book Faith and Work is a great read and has a few interesting points to make with respect to the kind of thing we discuss here at Catholic Spiritual Direction. Kevin agreed to provide us with a bit more insight into his motivation and perspective on living out our faith in the workplace. Enjoy! Q: What motivated you to write your book Faith at Work? In some ways, it was more “who” than “what.” My dad was a big influence. When I was a kid, he was a Presbyterian minister with a Ph.D. in business. He spent time in academia, the ministry, and as an entrepreneur – he and my uncle owned a technology firm b With challenge comes opportunity, and I became convinced that in practical terms, the opportunities for spiritual growth in the workplace were even more significant. Living the Christian virtues in the workplace is a powerful concept – if we could all do it just a little bit better, it would cause a revolution of holiness. When we seek to sanctify our work, people benefit – both ourselves and others – and the Holy Spirit can use our successes and failures to accomplish what I like to call an “infinite multiplier effect.” In a practical sense, living our faith in the workplace can also increase our job satisfaction, enhance effectiveness, improve workplace relationships and teamwork… the benefits are incredible. Q: In the chapter on “Get Me off of this Roller Coaster” you mention the value of a “plan of life” and how it can help us to integrate faith, family, and work. Can you tell us a bit about this idea? Yes, this is one that I never seem to perfect, but continue to strive towards. A “plan of life” can sound a little daunting, but it’s really a process of prioritizing certain practices and incorporating them into our everyday routines. It’s not meant to be overly structured, but rather to ensure that we keep our lives Christ-centered, saying “yes” to His plan every step of the way. So things like quiet prayer in the morning, frequent reception of the Eucharist and penance, scripture or other spiritual reading, the rosary, etc. Just as with any relationship, an investment of time is absolutely necessary. From a practical standpoint, our lives are dynamic, often with many ups and downs each day. There are joys, troubles, minor annoyances, successes, and major tragedies – all going on simultaneously. To think we can function in our various roles with no overlap is just plain silly. When Kathi and I had our seventh child, he had major medical problems that eventually caused me to make a career change. It had nothing to do with what was going on at the office. Instead, God used the situation to speak to us, and to challenge us to re-assess our priorities. Ordering our lives around God helps us to put our faith in Him completely, and to trust Him regardless of where life is headed next. Q: How is this idea working now in your own life? What does it look like for you on a daily, monthly, or even yearly basis? Here’s an excerpt from the book on that topic:
The most important part of my day is prayer, whether I feel like it or not. I must admit that I’m struggling a bit with my physical exercise (running) right now, and not putting in the kind of mileage I should. However, I’m a huge fan of the rosary, and making it to daily Mass whenever possible. During my conversion process, I used to drag poor Kathi and our infant children out of Mass early (before communion, which I couldn’t yet receive) because I had such a strong desire for the Eucharist. Twenty years later, this is still huge. I’m also a fan of the sacrament of reconciliation. I believe it’s important to have written goals, so I tend to do this personally from a number of different perspectives – spiritual, family, health, financial, career, etc. Nothing elaborate, just simple, practical stuff. “Write the book already” was one from last year. This type of ongoing planning and prioritizing really works. Q: One of the key principals to acquiring prudence or wisdom is to seek counsel from others. You reflect a bit on this idea in Chapter 10 on the topic of mentors and spiritual direction. Can you talk a bit about why we need spiritual direction and how it can benefit us as we seek to lead our families (current and future) and grow in grace? In my experience, spiritual direction is essential to growth, since it provides objectivity. In addition, it’s great for peace of mind! Left to our own devices, we’re way too prone to fickle emotions or outside influences that may or may not be helpful. One of my weaknesses is the tendency to over-think certain decisions, and sometimes this can result in “analysis paralysis.” I’ve gotten better, but it still happens sometimes. Spiritual direction can break this kind of circular thinking. Spiritual directors know our strengths and weaknesses, understand our struggles, and have some distance between themselves and the situations in which we find ourselves embroiled. Besides all that, to the extent that they’re properly trained and faithful, they also become tremendous conduits of grace. My spiritual director is Fr. Ray Ryland, a former Episcopalian minister who is also the Chaplain for CHNI. He has been a gift beyond price to me for many years. In addition to spiritual direction, wise counsel can often be had from mentors or others who can be much more familiar with the nuances of certain situations and therefore bring another useful perspective. It’s important to be careful in selecting these types of confidants, obviously, and we need to respect proper authority and channels within organizations. I tell a story in the book about a trusted colleague with a Human Resources background who really helped me through a difficult situation involving the termination of several employees. It was excruciating, but his counsel was invaluable. Q: Where can folks find your book? Anywhere where books are sold. Signed copies are available at http://gratefulconvert.com/ with free shipping, or you can visit your local Catholic bookstore, www.osv.com or www.amazon.com. Thanks Dan, I hope this book helps encourage people to find greater purpose in their work, and for organizations to become ever more faithful and effective!
More About Kevin: Kevin Lowry is a writer and speaker on topics including faith, work, finances, and conversion. He spent twenty years in secular financial and executive-management roles, and currently serves as chief operating officer of The Coming Home Network International. Kevin and his wife Kathi are converts to the Catholic faith and have eight children. Kevin blogs at gratefulconvert.com and recently wrote a fantastic book called Faith at Work: Finding Purpose Beyond the Paycheck. Prayer Primer: Igniting a Fire Within – Book RecommendationPrayer Primer : Igniting a Fire Within – by Thomas DuBay
Regardless of who you are, if you are beginning or reigniting your prayer quest – this book should be the first book you pick up. Click here to learn more. |
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