ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE PRAYERS

“Say this powerful prayer and God will grant you a wish.”

I hate those pieces of paper that end up in church pews.  When I find them I throw them away.  God is not a machine.  As though if you find the right nickel to stick in, the machine will do whatever it is that you task it.  Like you parents, no matter how much you might beg for a horse and no matter how perfectly behaved you are, there is no guarantee that you will receive one.  This mentality is one inch away from the prosperity Gospel.

That being said, I have had some prayers that have constantly surprised me.  I’ve told you before about praying to my guardian angel and being astonished.  Here is one more that I am shy about sharing (for some inexplicable reason) but that, more often than not, seems to be something near and dear to my Father’s heart and appears to bring about some blessings.

So say that there is some person with whom you are having difficulties.  And assume that you want those difficulties healed in some fashion.  (You don’t necessarily get to pick the “how” of it, just the “that”.)  While praying for the other person and for yourself is always helpful, there is one more prayer that I use.  It does not exactly entail praying for the other person or for yourself, but by engaging the imagination, picturing the relationship between you.  For me, it changes from person to person, but a particularly, shall we say, “failing” relationship I might picture as a withering vine between us; fading leaves, withering branches, limp and lying on the ground.  The point is, there is not much of a connection, not much love, not much life getting through.  So I lift that image - that relationship up to God and ask Him to bring some healing - to do something (it’s always His call) and thank Him.

A great number of times I walk away from an encounter with the other person and find myself thinking, “Well that went strangely well.”  And then I remember that I had prayed that odd little prayer and give credit to God for doing . . . something.  And I’m never quite sure exactly what it was.  But I am grateful.  

DO NOTHING WITH ME

One way to know if you are in love is if you waste time with the person.  Nothing is accomplished, no project finished, no true destination reached, maybe even no meaningful information exchanged, but just the same there is joy for having spent time together.  Lovers and friends can sit in a field and watch the clouds pass or the sun go down and just enjoy being in each other’s company.

 

It may just be a personal hang up, but this idea is why I become annoyed (very much so) when I am with someone and they spend their time checking and sending texts with invisible people whether or not we are in the depths of a meaningful conversation.  A ten hour car ride is one thing, the period of time while awaiting your turn at a board game is another.  Perhaps I am greedy, but I am here to spend time with you, not with a board game, and I want you to waste it with me.  If I am not enough, then let’s quit the pretense if the game and either do something else, or I’ll grab my book while you decide to engage others.  I do not want to be “fit in.”

 

The idea of wasting time is also a great definition of the prayer of contemplation or adoration; “Wasting time with God” Who deigns to waste time with us.  Our entire relationship with God is not one of attacking and subduing the world, or carrying on a conversation while we are also power walking or driving, but having, in this world’s eyes, completely unproductive time just to sit and be with the other.  “Be still, and know that I am God,” is so beautiful when we think that we have a God Who will be still and know us. 

GUEST BLOGGER: POVERTY OF FRIENDSHIP

Greetings friends,



Today we have a guest blogger (saving me from a tight schedule today.)  Mr. Ryan Mann is a seminarian for the Diocese of Cleveland.  I hope you enjoy his thoughts and that it spurs some thinking in your part of the cyberworld.

Last fall, while interning with the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA in Washington D.C. a priest friend came to visit. One night, on our way to dinner, we were stuck in traffic - not surprising for the District. As I looked out my car window I saw a homeless man nestled into an abandoned store’s stoop. I turned to my friend and asked, “Do you think you could ever end up homeless?” With almost no hesitation he quipped, “No, I have friends.” I was silent with awe.

Over the next few weeks I shared this story with other friends in the area. Each one responded with a similar awe.  This priest’s response was so obvious and simple, and yet not one of us ever thought of it that way. After sitting with this for a while, I came to realize that my priest friend’s response was the right response (the point I am making here is not the cause of homelessness, but the nature of friendship revealed in my friend's comment).

Friendship isn’t simply a nice thing to have. Aristotle, for example, taught that friendship is necessary to become fully human. Without friendship virtue would be beyond our reach and life itself would be lonely and dull. And yet, as good Americans, my friends and I felt a very different ethos animating our bones and tainting our minds. This was the modern mind that sees an individual at the basis of all society, and tells us to depend on will power, ingenuity, and hard work to avoid situations like the homeless man. This worldview was at odds with the simple and enlightening answer of my friend, and I'm sure that is why it shook me up so much. He spoke from some other world, from some other place, and it was simple, profound and transforming.

This “other world” is none other than the Kingdom of God. This priest’s radical vision was Jesus’ vision. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus like Aristotle never does anything on his own. He is constantly referring to the most basic element of His existence, his relationship with the Father. Jesus says things like: “…the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” (Jn 5:19). On the Cross - a situation much worse than being homeless - Jesus sighed, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). He was not even going to die of his own accord. These pronouncements disclose that Jesus was not a modern American whose trust resides in himself. Jesus’ trust was in his Father and it was this relationship that made him so radical 2,000 years ago and continues to make him radical today.

The problem for most of us is that we have accepted a dangerously modern approach to life. Aristotle’s insights have been dismissed as antiquated and Jesus’ revelation is seen as weak and idealistic.  We are told to trust nothing other than our own ego and “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” I assume this means that real men and women buckle down and think more, work harder and adapt. While hard work is not to be avoided and ingenuity is praiseworthy and good, we are not saved by our efforts but by grace, by the community where Christ lives, the Church. This way of being in the world is mysterious and strange, but mystery and strangeness is the nature of Christian living.

It’s something of this mysterious way of being in the world that my priest friend knew and revealed to me.  He knew friends are there to laugh with and challenge you to grow, but in a revolutionary way he also knew that in those painful and tough times friends are there to help you. When we are most vulnerable and in need of help we don’t need to do it alone. I never thought I’d be homeless, but now, because of a friend, I know why.

TRUE BLUE FRIENDS

If you are living the Christian life you should be encountering some amount of opposition. It may be veiled, but it exists by way of snide comments, “funny” put downs, disdained looks, the dredging up of urban legends, or dismissive attitudes. It can be discouraging and disheartening.

There are two paths one can take at this point: 1) Surrender. “Why do I bother? I’m all alone in this. Does this stuff matter anymore?” 2) The second and only appropriate response is thankfulness. “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Act 5:41. What better way for mere mortals to show their love for God than to stand by Him even when others persecute you for it. Would you not rejoice to have a friend like that – who believed in you no matter what – no matter the consequences? That is our gift to God too – to love Him not just when and where He is popular but always. To rejoice that you were found such a good friend as to deserve the scorn that He is given.

When next you encounter pain on account of the Name, remember to stop and give thanks and pray for those not given the faith you have received.

WITH THIS RING

At one time I thought I wanted to be carpenter. Then I discovered how much a hate sanding. And I mean hate. Perhaps loathe is a better word. Anyway, I made this box in junior high school. It turned out pretty neat and I’ve kept one thing or another in it all these years and had it proudly displayed on a shelf or table. Then about a year ago a friend of mine came to visit. Wanting to save the finish on a (cheap, tacky, wouldn’t mind if I had to throw it out) table, he set his pop can on top of the box. It left a ring. Now, of course I could SAND the whole thing down and try to re-stain the box, but that would require doing something that I LOATHE.

At this point one has a spiritual matter to consider. Do I want to be bitter every time I look at it? Do I want to DO something about it (such as re-stain the box and never offer my friend a drink when he enters my house again?) Or do I want to be able to look on the stain and think of a nice afternoon we spent together a few years ago that I might have otherwise forgotten. In other words, what will I decide is more important, a thing or a person.
We do have a choice. Unless we have some sort of chemical imbalance or some such thing, we choose to be angry or accepting, we choose things or people, we choose to see something as an absolute tragedy or we go on, we choose, we choose, we choose. And when our first impulse is to get angry we discover something or someone that we are holding onto very tightly and that is the moment to evaluate if we are inordinately attached to whatever it may be or not.

Every time I see that box my first reactions is, “That idiot.” But then an evaluation is made. I could have prevented it so I am partly to blame. (Here’s a coaster you Neanderthal.) But I am remembering a nice afternoon. And he is worth more to me than a box – even a really nice wooden box that I made in junior high school and won an award for and have cared for and protected all THESE YEARS AND NOW KEEP ON A SHELF SO THAT NOBODY SEES HOW LAZY I AM IN NOT FIX . . . – but I digress.

And I choose the friend.

Who will buy breakfast today for reasons he knows not.

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

Here is a Christmas present suggestion.

You will not to whom you give it.

The person you give it to will not know that they are getting it.

But you and they will benefit from it.

The first is to determine who will receive you gift. Who do you wish to have in your life? A spiritual director? A new friend? A girl or boy friend? Start praying for them especially if you do not know who the person may be as of yet.

Pray to God that such a person might come into your life and then offer a prayer for that person. Maybe even pray that you will readily recognize this person when he or she appears.

That way when you meet and a relationship starts you can say, “I’ve been praying for you for a long time already.”

MONDAY DIARY CHAPTER 7

A young man came into my office on Thursday night. He is seriously entertaining the notion of entering into the seminary in a bout a year or so and we talked about the journey and what he might do to prepare. I told him that when my priest friends and I get together we often say, “I can’t believe more guys don’t want to do this!” If this is what God is calling you to, this is a great way to live life!

But it is different. You get used to that difference after a while and do not even realize it. It takes someone else to point it out. My sisters are good at that. We will be walking down the street and one will remark, “Why is everyone being so friendly today?” Then she’ll look at me, see the collar and sock me in the arm. “Oh! That’s right. I with YOU!”

The essentials are the same. For example priests have friends just like anybody else but there will always (or should always) be a slightly different element in the relationship that does not exists elsewhere. So last week I went to visit a friend whose young adult children were just about to switch kidneys. But you are never just a friend, you are also a priest and so I talked to the them about being anointed. One readily agreed but the other baulked saying that he was not planning on dying. Now this kid knows his theology and his sacraments and should know better but I showed him the prayers assuring him that they were not putting the mark of death on his forehead but asking for his protection and healing and so we were able to go ahead with the sacrament.

Back to the young man who wants to become a priest. I asked him what led him to desire priesthood and he responded that God has touched him so deeply and that it is so awesome he wants to in some radical way share that with others; to get them to wake up to the joy that is there waiting for them if they would just wake up to it! That is also part of the delight of being a priest as well as friend. What an honor and privilege it is to be able to bring Christ to those who are close to you in such a way.

PLAYING HARD TO GET

When I was much younger, had much more hair but a lot less self-esteem, God was kind enough to send me a friend named Jim. Jim was somewhat popular and talented, kind of a wild hair that marched to the beat of his own drum. I was well liked but a bit of nerd I suppose and Jim was exactly the type of friend that I needed at the time.

Jim was constantly popping up wanting to go out and carouse. I worked for a movie theater and would occasionally have to lock up afterwards, the last person walking out into a dark and deserted street. Often Jim would be there sitting on top of his Volkswagen Beetle smoking a cigarette and informing that we were going to hang out.

If I were working too hard, he would come a drag me away from my projects forcing me to take a break. I’d fight it but was always grateful that he made me get away.

It was quite a thing having a friend like that, especially at that point in my life. Jim was not just a friend but also a friend who pursued my company. It seemed wholly undeserved but I had it anyway and that meant an incredible amount to a young man without an over abundance of self-esteem.

Can you imagine what I mean? I wish a friend like that for you. But even more importantly, I hope you realize that you have God that pursues you like that. A God! The God! When we wandered from Him He did not let us go our way but came down to earth to pursue us and united us again with our Father. He spared nothing. Thought you even worth dying for. The only challenge is, we need to realize it.

Sometimes it is hard. His life, death, and resurrection as a gift is believable for humanity in general, but for me personally? Yes. “Before you were knit together in your mother’s womb, I knew you.” His birth was for you. His life was for you. His teaching was for you. His death was for you. His ascension was the pattern He established for you. And since that was not enough, He touches you personally in the sacraments. He makes Himself vulnerable to you by making bread His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity for you, and not just as something to see and worship from afar, but to take on your tongue or into your hands and be consumed by you. Is there anything else He could possibly give? Everything He can give He gives to you. Waits patiently for you day after day, year after year if need be. Always ready to welcome home a prodigal son with ring and robe and calf.

Our part is to become aware of His love and allowing Him to love us. He loves you no less than He loves the one who seems His most beloved on earth. The only difference is that some have the gift of acknowledging and accepting that love, cooperating with that love, and allowing that love into their lives.

Risk it. Risk being so radically loved. Risk knowing it. Risk knowing that even though you have not earned it, He gives it to you anyway. That’s just the way it is.