Praying for Priests

Priests are pretty awesome. I am just going to say that right now.  Holy men devoting their lives to serving God and ministering to his people. (Like me!)  They have sacrificed their lives to further the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, and they have a special place in my heart. (If there are any priests reading this right now... You are amazing, and thank you so much for your sacrifices that you make for us.)

I pray for other people all the time; but up until recently, it had never really crossed my mind to pray for priests. I had been praying for those considering the priesthood, and for new vocations, but I had never really thought to pray for the current priests. I don't know why, it wasn't that the thought never came to me, I had heard about it before, but it was something I had never really done. I guess I thought they were all holy or something, and didn't need my prayers.  But thinking about it now, I realize that they are some of the people that need my prayers the most!  Sure, they might seem 'holier' then me, but they are still human. They still struggle, they sometimes stumble, they need our support.

With anyone who tries to further the Kingdom of God, priests are constently under attack by the devil who gives them temptations, and doubts. They need the prayers and support of those around them.  So much emphasis is put on praying for new vocations to the priesthood, which is all well and good, but let us not forget about the priests that are currently giving their lives to God and to us, day in and day out. I've gotten to the habit of when I go to mass, right away before mass starts I thank God for the priest that is presiding that day, and then offer up a short prayer for that priest's intentions.

I was searching one day and I came across this beautiful prayer/poem. I think it's very fitting to this blog post, so I am going to close with it:

A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

By the late John J Cardinal Carberry

Keep them; I pray Thee, dearest Lord.

Keep them, for they are Thine 

The priests whose lives burn out before

Thy consecrated shrine.

Keep them, for they are in the world,

Though from the world apart.

When earthly pleasures tempt, allure --

Shelter them in Thy heart.

Keep them and comfort them in hours

Of loneliness and pain,

When all their life of sacrifice

For souls seems but in vain.

Keep them and  remember, Lord,

they have no one but Thee.

Yet, they have only human hearts,

With human frailty.

Keep them as spotless as the Host,

That daily they caress;

Their every thought and word and deed,

Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.

God Bless,

Catherine

The Prodigal Son

God is wonderful. He truly is. One of my favorite passages in Scripture is the story of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-32.) The son asked the father to give him his share of the estate, and the father does. Along with giving the son his share of the estate, the Father also gives the son free will to do whatever he pleases with the money. The son then proceeds to leave his father, and squander away all the money that he has been given. Imagine how hurt the Father must be that the son has left him! Yet the father does not go after the son. No matter how much pain it causes him, he continues to let the son live freely; not because he doesn't love him, but because he loves his son so much that he is willing to let his son decide for himself what he wants to do. So the father waits for him. The son eventually loses all his wealth, and realizes how stupid he was for leaving his father. Feeling that he was no longer worthy of his father's love and anticipating the punishment that should be waiting for him, he timidly returned home. But instead of being greeted with anger like he had thought he would be, he was greeted with love and joy. Even after all he had done, his father still rejoiced at his return!

This story is so true of God's relationship with us.  First of all, notice how patient the Father is. God gives us everything we need and could ever want and then gives us the free will of doing what we please; He doesn't force us to do anything. But being human, we do fall away from the plan He has for us from time to time. We sin against him, and cloud up our relationship. But notice His wonderful patience. He lets us go, even though it hurts Him, because He loves us so much that he wants us to be able to choose Him. Like the father of the prodigal son He is patient and waits for us to come to Him.  No matter how long it might take us, he sits quietly in the stillness of our hearts, and waits. He is always with us, just waiting for the moment when we call on Him.

And oh! What a beautiful moment when we finally do return to Him. Like the prodigal son's father, he is not angry, he greets us with love and compassion. The heavens rejoice at our return! He will never condemn us if we acknowledge our sins and are truly sorry for them and promise to try and do better.

My own life is like this story all the time.  Time and time again I stumble. Time and time I fall. Occasionally I will be ashamed and try to hide what I have done. But God knows all and patiently He waits for me to come to Him. And when I do come to Him, it is such a beautiful reunion. God delights in me. He delights in you. He delights in every single person that he has ever created.

God desires to be in perfect union with us. He longs for us to want the same. But out of love, He gives us free will, and like the prodigal son's father, he waits patiently for us.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas!
-Catherine

I don't kiss you... Because I love you.

A little something I wrote quite awhile ago that I thought I'd share:
  
         “If you love someone, then you kiss them to show it.” Wait, how about instead of that we think, “I don’t kiss you… Because I love you.” Some of you are probably thinking, “wait… what?” I know it might sound a little absurd at first, but allow me to explain…

            A kiss, an innocent physical act with no side effects to show someone how much you love them. Sounds simple enough, right? But hold on for a moment… Why are you kissing them again? Because you ‘love’ them? No, think deeper. Of course you may feel physical attraction to the person you are with, but is it really love, or is it lust? A kiss that is not with the person you will spend forever with doesn’t really do anything if you think about it. Sure it ‘feels good’ but is it really ‘good’? It can invoke feelings in us that we never knew we had, and set us up for more serious temptations.

            Another thing to consider; who are you really kissing? Your girlfriend/boyfriend I know, but ok, you are also kissing the person they will be ten years from now. Until you say your vows at the altar you do not belong to each other. There is always a possibility that you will break up. Therefore you are not only potentially kissing another person’s future spouse, (Or a priest or Nun. Imagine how strange that would be!) But you are also giving away a tiny piece of your heart to that other person. Would you want your future spouse going around and kissing other people and giving pieces of his or her heart away? Imagine how beautiful it would be to give you whole heart to your future spouse instead of just the ‘leftovers’. My way of thinking about it is this: don’t do anything with anyone that you wouldn’t want someone to do with your future spouse, the one you will spend forever with. Because even if you think you're with the person that you are going to spend forever with, until you say your vows at the alter that person is not your spouse, so why treat them like they are?

One of my favorite quotes is from a woman called Crystalina Evert:
            “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, or where you’ve been. All that matters is where you go from here.”
            So it doesn’t matter if you’re given your first kiss away and now you are sort of regretting it. You can choose to begin to live a pure life for your spouse right now.

            The Bible tells us that love is not selfish. At all. Kissing someone is a beautiful thing, however with no commitment what does it do? It creates a bond between two people and it ‘feels good’ but it makes breaking up a lot more painful. I can’t think of a reason to kiss someone that wouldn’t be partially due to my selfish reasons.

So brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all called to love one another as he loved us. So in our relationships with other people we should be focusing on the best for the other person. What’s best for them now, and 10, 20, 50 years from now; especially with members of the opposite sex. Realize that there is a desire for physical connection (After all God did give us that desire.) But talk about it, pray about it, and choose to help prepare the other person for their future spouse. Remember that you might only be in their life for a short time, but use that time to build them up for their soul mate. Not to tear them down with your own selfishness.

I am not trying to condemn kissing before marriage. I am simply asking you to think and pray about it. Love in God’s terms is not selfish in any way. I cannot honestly kiss someone who is not my husband without having a little selfish reason behind it. My first kiss will be at the altar. I don’t kiss you because I don’t like you, I don’t kiss you… Because I love you.

The Litany of Humility

I was first introduce to the 'Litany of Humility' probably about two years ago now by my confirmation mentor.  It's such a beautiful prayer, so I'm going to share it with you now:

 "O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…"

God Bless,
Catherine

Thankfulness

"Brothers and sisters: Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This was part of the second reading that was read this past Sunday. It got me thinking about prayer and being thankful.

I would like to talk a little bit on thankfulness. It is so easy for us to be thankful for the things that we want, and desire for ourselves. If we get a lead part in a play, we thank God for it. If we are blessed with an amazing friendship, we thank God for it. The list goes on.

But how many of us are thankful for the less obvious things, or even more, the things that we wish didn't happen? A loved one dies, we get into a car accident, we can't find a job, that list goes on as well. How often are we thankful for those things? How often are we to get upset when things doing go the way that we plan. It seems to me that some of the things that most of the time, the things that we think are the most awful things in the world, are some the most wonderful blessings, although I also think that we spend so much time being upset about things that we don't always see the real blessing behind it.

So many times we learn so much more from the things that God gives us that we get upset by, then by the things that make us happy. I am beginning to realize how selfish I must be to not give thanks to God for everything in my life, the good and the bad. God wants to give me the best thing possible for my life, but I so often get upset when I don't get what I want. God's trying to give me so many gifts, but so many times I am so ungrateful and don't accept them as I should.

What is stopping us from rejoicing always and giving thanks under every circumstance?

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception everyone! As I grow deeper in my faith, I begin to appreciate the Feast Days of Mary a lot more then I used to.

This feast day celebrates Mary being conceived without the stain of Original Sin on her soul.  This can be a hard fact for some to grasp onto. After all, every human is born with sin on his or her soul because of the fall of Adam and Eve. Why should Mary be an exception?

Mary had a very special purpose in life.  She was to bring Christ into the world. Christ could not come through anything that is not pure.  So God made Mary without sin.  After all, he is God, he can do anything. But just like us she needed a Savior as well. I once heard it phrased this way:  "Each of us has fallen into a pit, and we need Christ to come and pull us out.  In the case of Mary, she still needed Christ, but he stopped her earlier; before she fell into the pit."

Then it should be understood that as Catholics, we do not worship Mary.  Our worship is reserved for God, and for God alone.  Instead, we give honor to Mary for her 'yes' to God, and her obedience to follow His will for her life.  Take a step back in time for a moment.  In the time when Mary was living, it was a grave abomination to have a child out of wedlock, so grave that in fact it was punishable by death.  Think of Mary, a young girl who was probably around sixteen years old. She was engaged to Joseph. Now think of the angel Gabriel that appeared to Mary and asked her to be the Mother of God, to have a baby without any relations with a man.  Mary knew that she could face the penalty of death.  She knew that she could lose Joseph's trust. But she trusted God and said yes.

We honor her for her courage. We honor her for her humility. We honor her for the example that she set for us. We seek to follow God as perfectly as she did.  Mary is our perfect role model.

One last note for all you Catholics: Today is a Holy Day of Obligation. In other words, make sure you get to mass today!

God Bless You All,
Catherine

"And with your Spirit"

So as all of you English speaking Catholics are by now probably quite aware, we have been given, (or rather, been blessed with.) a new translation of our Mass.

During Vatican II, the bishops who were translating the Mass were more concerned about getting the translation out quickly, rather than accurately.  Thus a new translation was needed to get us more in line with the original Latin, the universal language of the church.  This change was not sudden however; the leaders of the Church had been talking about a new translation for probably around 10 years now.

One of the most noticeable things that has been changed in the people's parts is the change from "And also with you." to "And with your spirit."  This is pretty much word for word from the original Latin text,”et cum spirito tuo."  The other changes are similar to this. Even though some of the changes might seem unnecessary because they mean the same thing, each word has a slightly different meaning after all, if they didn't mean something slightly different why have two words for the same thing?

Along with getting more in line with the Latin and Scripture, we are now closer in line with what the rest of the world is saying. The Catholic Church is about unity and revising the translation gives us the opportunity to say more closely what is being said throughout the whole world.

I know for many Catholics (including myself.) The old translation was something we knew by heart, we were able to rattle off all of the words without really having to think about them, or the meanings behind them.  This new translation forces us to take a step back, and see our mass with a whole new light, and to really think about what we are really saying. 

So let us use this time of transition as a time to enter more deeply into the mass.

God Bless you all,

-Catherine

Amen, "Yes, I believe"

I was just pondering to myself about the word "Amen".  So often we conclude our prayers with this Hebrew word, but how often do we actually stop to think about what we are actually saying? 

All to often do we use the word Amen to close our prayers, and that's all. It's like we are using that word to say, "Ok Lord I'm done praying now, let me get back to the other things I was doing." or "yeah whatever", And we tend to do just that. (I'm not pointing fingers, I tend to be guilty of this as well.)

But what does 'Amen' really mean? The Hebrew word translates into English to mean; "Yes, I believe" or even more closely "It is true."

It doesn't mean 'I sort of believe' or 'I think that this is true' it means that 'Yes, I believe that this is true with all my heart, in fact I believe it so much that I am willing to stake my life on it.  Let me die if this is not true." 

Amen is not a word that we should casually say. We need to be aware of what we are actually saying. It is not just a word we use to end prayers, it's a profession of faith.

Amen. Yes I believe that God exists. Let me die if this is not so.

God Bless you all,
-Catherine