The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

Crushed. I prayed and prayed and prayed and God did not answer my prayers. Grandpa died anyway. My friend is still sick. I didn't get that job. These all seemed like very good things? Wouldn't God want these things to happen?

Saint Thomas Aquinas said that the problem of evil is the most difficult challenge to believing in God. It is however, the case, that praying for something that seems quite good and not having that prayer answered can be a difficult challenge too.

Crushed. I prayed and prayed and prayed and God did not answer my prayers. Grandpa died anyway. My friend is still sick. I didn't get that job. These all seemed like very good things? Wouldn't God want these things to happen?

Discernment. In a world of noise, listening is harder than ever. How do you make opportunities to hear God's word? This commentary will be posted tomorrow. https://thefriar.org/2022/01/12/discernment-cranking-up-your-hearing011222/ #thefriar #homily #goingbehindtheword

The Friar Book Club: The Confessions of Saint Augustine Book 2, Chapters 1-4

This is the text of this section of The Confessions of Saint Augustine, read aloud.

The introduction Book 2 of the Confessions starts with a summary that could be helpful. "He concentrates here on his sixteenth year, a year of idleness, lust, and adolescent mischief. The memory of stealing some pears prompts a deep probing of the motives and aims of sinful acts. “I became to myself a wasteland.”

Even those who are only slightly familiar with Saint Augustine might know that he had quite the conversion story. So it should come as no surprise that for him his adolescence might have presented a few challenges for him, especially given what we have already read.

But for most of us this time of adolescence is not really an easy time at all. The transition from childhood to adulthood is generally not something easy for anyone. But given that Saint Augustine is really a powerful and great saint, his struggles should provide for us some hope.

Today's story of Hannah praying for the birth of her son Samuel is really a tender story. How can it be the case that it is not wonderful when a woman who so desperately wants a child is able to have one. But the story of the birth of Samuel is not an ordinary story about a woman giving birth later in life. Rather, it is a story about devotion to God.

In our last "Spend 5 with Jesus, we focused upon the sacrament of confession as a way to enter into a proven relationship with God. One reason for starting with the Sacrament of Confession is because preparing ourselves for Mass is important. And, if we are aware of having committed a mortal sin, we should go to confession before receiving the Eucharist.

Today we are going to focus on the Eucharist. First, we will discuss the importance of going to Mass each Sunday (or Saturday night). Second, we will discuss the role that Eucharistic adoration can play in a strong spiritual life.

Going Behind the Word

What does baptism mean? What do Catholics believe about baptism? These are important questions for us to consider as background to the homily given today. There are so many questions that arise from the readings today, but especially about what it means to say we are baptized.

"Baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift....We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism because sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God's Lordship."

St. Gregory of Nazianzus

God loves you more than you can ever know. So much that God makes you an adopted son or daughter. As we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, we can see just how important our own baptism is. 

Seeking the Sacraments. The wisdom of the spiritual life is not the wisdom of Wall Street. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself. It is in giving that you receive. In order to be successful you must sacrifice. To be first, you must be last. And to have power, you must surrender.