Journeying With The Saints

How y'all doing, Catholic Pilgrims. I'm working on my Alabama accent there for ya.

I was recently giving a talk and I sat down next to this lady before the talk began and she said something to me and I responded. As soon as she heard me speak, she said, "Oh, you ain't from the South are ya?"

I said, "No, ma'am, I'm from Kansas originally." I think it's so cool how different part of the country have different accents.

Anyway, enough about that. We have another short reading today. Last time, St. Francis talked to us about making sure we say our morning prayers; today, he is going to talk to us about our evening exercises. So, let's open to Chapter Eleven of the Second Part and begin.

Welcome back, Catholic Pilgrims, to another day with St. Francis.

When I was working, I couldn't even imagine a morning prayer routine. I was so busy getting ready, getting my girls ready for school and daycare, packing lunches, laying out something for dinner, and getting everyone out the door on time, that there was no way I could squeeze time in for prayer. Or so, I thought.

See, my idea of morning prayer time meant that I needed a solid hour of uninterrupted time and since I didn't have that luxury, well, prayer time was just gonna have to take a back burner.

I think a lot of people think that if they don't have loads of time for morning prayer then it's not worth doing. That's not true, though, and St. Francis has some thoughts on morning prayer.

Turn to Chapter 10 of the Second Part and let's begin.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Thank you for coming back to join me in another reading.

Have you ever looked in the comment's section of a celebrity's social media page? We all know that celebrities, or at least very few, manage their own social media pages. If you look in the comments, you see person-after-person heaping praise and adoration on the celebrity. Obviously there are some haters, too, in the comments, but for the most part, people sing the celebrity's praises. People do this, all the while, knowing it's a one-way street. The celebrity, rarely if ever, responds back. If you are looking to be filled-up by communication with them, well, it's a dry well.

I'm not here to blame the celebrity. They can't possibly respond to all the comments they get. What is amazing, though, is that even though the relationship is dry and most certainly always will be, people still come back again, and again, and again.

Yet, too often, if our prayer life becomes dry…we give up.

That is what we are going to hear about from St. Francis today in our reading from Chapter Nine of the Second Part. Let's begin.

Pilgrims, pilgrims. Welcome back for another reading.

What do you do when you are done praying or meditating on some aspect of God? Do you then get up and have your breakfast? Turn out the lights and go to sleep? Maybe you go get ready for the day?

If life were always perfect, we would be able to leave our prayer life and just quietly slip into the rest of our day or end our day peacefully. But, it's not always like that. Prayer time can be disrupted by babies waking up, kids needing your help, a spouse needing to talk, or people leaving the church loudly.

Life happens and that's okay. We can't let those things get to us. The important thing is to, at least attempt, or as much as we can control, to not leave our prayer time in a jarring way. St. Francis has a few more tips about meditation and so let's see what he has to say.

Flip your book open to Chapter Eight of the Second Part and let's begin.

Welcome, fellow Pilgrims, how is the journey going today? I hope things are well and if not well then I hope God is giving you the grace to shoulder what you are struggling through.

Today, St. Francis gives three acts to do to wrap up any meditation time. This is another very practical reading from him and, so, I'm not sure there is much I could expand on. As you can see, when you are dealing with Saints that aren't mystics, you typically get very straightforward advice and insight. That's not to say that reading the mystics is not worthwhile, of course it is.

So, we will read and then be done for the day. Go ahead and grab your book and open to Chapter Seven of the Second Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims. I hope this day is treating you well.

So, the last couple of readings, St. Francis has been coaching Philothea, or us, you might say, in how to meditate. We've learned that it is worthwhile to pick out something in the Bible, especially, some point in Christ's life and meditate on it. We are to use our imagination to place ourselves in the scene and we are to meditate, not to simply gain knowledge, but to grow closer to God.

But, as we are doing all this thinking and meditating we should be drawn into some affections and resolutions. That is our focus for today and so let's grab out books and open to Chapter Six of the Second Part.

My fellow Pilgrims, welcome. We have another very short reading today which is, again, very straightforward. You may be wondering why all these short readings, but we must remember that St. Francis is teaching Philothea about the devout life. So, he's leading her, step-by-step to an understanding. Some of these steps are very practical and some are going to be more philosophical and theological.

Today is another practical step. I don't think we need a lot of reflection from me, but the key thing I do want us to hone in on is that St. Francis wants us to reflect on God for love of God: Not to just acquire knowledge and be super smart about theological things, but because we want to more intimately know the God we claim to love.

So, with that said, let's open to Chapter Five of the Second Part.

Welcome to our reading today, Catholic Pilgrims.

Our focus for today is on the third point of preparing to meditate. As a refresher, first we are to recognize that God is present, then we are to offer an invocation to show the genuineness of our desire to enter into mediation and, today, we St. Francis wants us to set forth the mystery.

In essence, he wants us to use our imagination to see the places or people we are meditating on, specifically the events in Christ's life and the people that were with Him at those events.

So, let's open our books to Chapter Four of the Second Part.

Hello, hello, Catholic Pilgrims. Today, St. Francis is giving us the second point in preparing to enter into prayer or meditation. Remember last time, he wants us to place ourselves in the presence of God or recognize that God is present–either spiritually, as in He is everywhere, or physically, if you happen to be at church in front of the tabernacle or a monstrance.

The second point is on the invocation and this is a very straight forward, short reading, so I don't feel that it needs much reflection from me.

So, I will just read and then we'll be done with a lighter day. So, grab your books and open to Chapter Three of the Second Part.

Hello, Catholic Pilgrims, and welcome.

Today, St. Francis is going to be giving us some pointers for preparing to enter into meditation. If you remember last time, we talked about the necessity of prayer and there are a lot of people that just don't know what to do. Unless you are a spiritual heavyweight, most people need guidance when it comes to prayer. It's something that, in many ways, has to be learned.

So, today is the first point of preparation and it's all about placing yourself in the presence of God. So, let's grab our books and open to Chapter Two of the Second Part.