Prayer is intended to be our way of communicating with God. It is a gift, yet sometimes it becomes a task, a burden, or a mundane part of our daily routine. We may also experience dry spells in our spiritual life and begin to feel disconnected from the God who...
No matter how spiritual we are, we cannot ignore our bodies when we pray. Indeed, we pray with and through them, not only with our voice and thoughts. If we are happy, our face expresses it, and our body does, too; if we're worried, we put our head in our hands. When...
The greatest adventure we have in life is learning to pray. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Ratzinger, said that the entire purpose for Jesus coming into the world was to show us God the Father (Ratzinger Report). What's the Challenge? What if I told...
“If you want to challenge yourself, you have to rethink what you consider impossible.” So begins the opening of this 2015 experiment that involves the Berlin Wall, a group of school children and a storybook about a cat. The challenge that has been set in this video is...
Knowing that we are called to follow the Will of God and being able to discern His Will are two very different things. Do you ever feel like asking God for a neon sign to guide you in your next step in life? Usually, God does not send neon “go here, do that” signs. So...
A terrible tragedy for Christianity has been, and always will be, the separation between rite and symbol; or to be more precise, the tragedy is due to the fact that the believers have forgotten the meaning of the symbols that take place during the various rites. Yes,...
I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a place of pain or distress, my prayer life can go one of two ways. Either I can feel closer to God, and prayer comes more easily, or my prayer life dries up and any kind of communication with God feels impossible. It is in...
As someone that tries to share the faith with others, I often find myself struggling to explain prayer. What difference does it really make? Isn't it enough that I simply help others, that I be a "good person"? Albeit convincing for many – sometimes I myself fall into...
“I don’t have time to pray!,” some argue. “That is not true,” I tell them. They give me a thousand excuses and leave. Then time goes by and I observe them. Long hours spent watching TV and YouTube videos, checking Facebook, playing games, listening to music, pursuing...
How often do we hear the phrase, or even say ourselves: "I should pray more...; I would like to but often I have no time." It's true. Our lives are busy. But maybe instead of taking time away from us, prayer is really the remedy to our obsession with the apparent lack...
Oftentimes today the idea of a "creed" is associated with closed-thinking and mediocrity. Yet the early Christians were willing to die to protect a single iota of the creed! In their days, the authorities of ancient times considered it to be a threat to the...
Everyone who is engaging in their faith will experience this eventually- at a time when difficulties or despair set in, when doubts become overwhelming, and God feels distant. Prayer feels impossible and no long or short the length of the dry spell, there is no...
Have you ever found yourself in a prayer rut? Perhaps you've been saying the same prayers for so long you no longer pay attention to the meaning behind the words. Your prayer routine has become just that, routine. Though it is good to be in the habit of...
“Let your prayer be entirely simple. One word was enough for the publican and for the prodigal son to obtain God’s forgiveness (cf. Lk 15,21)… No pretentiousness in the words of your prayers; how often it is that the simple and unadorned stammerings of children sway...
If you are anything like me, it bothers you, it makes you uncomfortable, to see so many people sharing photos, prayer chains, and hashtags like #PrayForJuanito. You ask yourself, “Do these people really pray or do they just share an image?” Then again, “Have they...
We utter the words every time we go to Mass, but when was the last time that you took a moment to reflect on what you are truly saying when we pray The Nicene Creed? The Creed is more than a prayer, it is a profession of the truths of the Christian faith. The words...
Praying with your child is a vital part of their faith journey. Whether you are a parent, godparent, aunt, uncle or sibling, introducing your child to a life of prayer is arguably the biggest gift you can give them, because you are teaching them how to communicate...
You probably have a rosary lying around your house somewhere. Maybe you received it as a Confirmation gift or picked one up when the sweet old lady was passing them out at church, but you don’t really know what to do with it. If you remember praying...
Whatever type of ministry you do within the Church, chances are there will be a time when it becomes all-consuming and your own personal prayer life begins to suffer. Maybe you’re so busy and have already been praying all day with a group, talking about God, giving of...
This week we will begin the Lenten season. It is a beautiful time to grow in closeness to God and to others. This time can, if we are willing to cooperate, be 40 days of immense spiritual and personal growth. While the specific penances we choose are not...
This is a fun quiz to help you start thinking about what you should give up for Lent and planning ahead for this season of fasting,almsgiving, and prayer. Get ready to discover what Lent resource is best for you to use to grow in your spiritual life from Ash...
How many times have we heard these from our friends? Or more, how many times have we used these same excuses ourselves when we are not actively praying? Have we really abandoned our relationship with the Lord for these types of reasons? Whether we want to or not, each...
For any sincere Christian and determined apostle, prayer is an absolute must. It isn’t rare that many seem to doubt in the power of prayer. In fact, I would say it is perhaps the fundamental temptation: God does not listen. Still, more times than not, we are lacking...
Although eating snacks can be a very healthy part of one’s diet, it can become problematic when we use snacks and food to bury our emotions. Since we are a unity of mind, body and spirit, as St. Paul affirms in (1Tess 5:23), it is natural when we feel something on the...
What if I told you that there was something you could do which was so amazing it would change your life and that, what’s more, it wouldn’t cost you a penny? Something which would involve making the best friend you could ever have, something that would give you more...