The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

Today's first reading describes an amazing event where Saint Paul and Barnabas are in jail, only to be set free by a great earthquake. Except they do not leave. And the result is the amazing action of the Holy Spirit.

The Fullness of God. In today's gospel, Jesus tells us that we should rejoice he is going to the Father. In another part of the gospel of John, Jesus tells us it would be good if he went to the Father. Why?

Today's homily seeks to answer this question. Why is it better that Jesus returns to the Father? What does the sending of another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, mean for us? In many ways, the answer is simple: By sending the Advocate, the Spirit, we can all be drawn into an even deeper relationship with the Trinity.

Yesterday we identified three ways the catechism of the Catholic Church sought to answer the question about what is prayer. The first was that prayer is God's gift. What this means is that this a chance to apply what I first learned as a little boy. When someone gives you a gift, you say, "Thank you."

Gratitude is an important thing. Consider what we have learned about being grateful. A study reported in Forbes Magazine says that expressing higher levels of gratitude correlate with higher levels of openness to relationships, which make people happy. People who could reflect back on positive experiences discovered they were happy than they were thinking about positive purchases.

Also, people who expressed their gratitude, and responded to it by becoming generous was also shown to lead to greater happiness. Studies have also shown happiness increases when gratitude becomes a habit, being grateful helps us to stop comparing ourselves to others, helps us better focus on positive experiences rather than negative ones, and gratitude is an "energizing force that may lead us to pursue our goals and become better, more socially engaged people."

And so thinking of prayer as a gift from God should lead us to be more grateful. We do know that being grateful can lead to more and deeper relationships. And being grateful to God can help us to a deeper relationship with God, our most important relationship.

Over the next few days, we will look at concrete ways we can grow in the habit of prayerful gratefulness. Spend time today thanking Jesus for the good things in your life.

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The first early crisis in the Church was what to do with those Gentiles (non-Jews) who were receiving the Spirit just as the Jews had. Could they be Christians? Did they have to be circumcised? Did they have to follow dietary laws? It was the account of what the Spirit was doing in the lives of these Gentiles that made the difference. Put simply, recognizing the Spirit was the difference maker. What account would we give of the Spirit's actions in our lives?

We all know that it is important. We know we should do it. Everyone who speaks on the spiritual life tells us that it is essential. But what is it? What is prayer?

Accountability is a buzzword today. Businesses do performance reviews to hold others accountable. Schools become accredited for the sake of accountability. And in a way, this morning's first reading provides a record of accountability for Paul as he recounts to the disciples all the good things God has done.

What is the role of silence in your prayer? What do you pray for and what do you pray about? Prayer can be one of those topics where we use the word, prayer, but we do not always know what it is. One way of coming at the answer to that question is to consider the question, "What do we pray for and about?"

There is nothing more frustrating to me than when I am certain I put an object somewhere, but I cannot find it. It simply is not where I thought I put it. And it even takes me a little while to convince myself that in fact, the object is not where I put it. Sometimes, when I find it, I then remember that I told myself I will put it here so that I will know where it is.

The English language is direct in some ways, limited in others. Take the word "love" for example. For us, we can love pizza, a new car, our house, our children, our spouse, and God. But when we use the word "love" we do not mean the same thing in each of these instances. So when God tells us to "love one another" we have to know exactly what he means.

This homily was given at the baccalaureate Mass for the Class of 2022 at Christian Brothers College High School. When it comes to our lives, we may think we know the way, but until we find The Way, we can never really be sure.