The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

It is not always easy to help the poor. It is not always easy to treat our enemies with respect. It is not always something we choose, lending to those who may not repay. Put simply, it is not always easy to be a Christian. But today's gospel helps us to see that the size of our heart, the ability to receive the love of God, is connected to our ability to love. But it is not our loving someone only by our efforts. Rather, it is loving someone because God enables us to love.

Readings for Today

Are you too "busy" for prayer? In today's gospel we see the importance of prayer in the life of Jesus. We see this at other times too. When things have gotten really busy, he invites the disciples to come away for a while. When he has fed the multitudes, and he knows they will make him king, he retreats to prayer. Time and again we see that Jesus is a model of us about prayer. Make time today to pray with Jesus.

Readings for Today

How often do we reduce the Christian life to our effort alone? It can be easy to think that the priority of growth in faith life is more effort on our part. We need to do this. We need to put more work into doing this. It can feel sometimes like all spiritual growth is something we accomplish in ourselves. But the starting point of every good action is the grace of God which enables us to do good works. And so our spiritual conversion starts with our openness to God's grace, to seeing what it is he longs to do for us. To be sure, we need to cooperate with God's grace. And when we do that we begin to see all that God can do for us.

Readings for Today

Be prepared. There is certainly a value in being prepared. We know when a hurricane approaches, people prepare. Those who do well on a presentation have taken the time to prepare. Athletes prepare. Those in business prepare. Musicians prepare. But what does it mean for Christians to prepare?

Readings for Today

We can all have the desire to make an impact. We can all want to be heroic, or holy. We want to be the one who stands out because of all of our success. But how does this happen? How is it Saint Louis, King of France became a saint? How is it the first Christian Brothers to arrive in Saint Louis built a legacy that is stronger today than ever? It was not simply they focused on great things. They were disciplined in little things. And in the reading for Saint Louis today, we see the prophet Isaiah tells us what spiritual discipline looks like.

The readings today are taken from the readings for Saint Louis, King of France, a Feast in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, and a Solemnity in the city of Saint Louis.

Just what was Bartholomew (Nathaniel) doing under that fig tree? Was he praying? Did you go to the fig tree because of a revelation? Or was it a chance encounter that lead to the movement in his heart to acknowledge and accept Jesus as his savior? Whatever, it was a faith that was strong enough for him to offer his own life for Jesus, and to preach throughout his life the saving message of the gospel.

Readings for Today

I cannot do it. How often do we say something like this when facing a challenge. The challenge can be getting along with someone we do not like, it can be dealing with the suffering in the world, it can be watching someone we love die from a terminal illness. Or, the challenges we face may be more "ordinary" like being a holy father or mother, a loving parent, or a person dedicated to growing in the faith each day. Good news? We are right. Alone, we cannot do it. But with God, all things are possible.

Readings for Today

And pray without ceasing on behalf of other men. For there is in them hope of repentance that they may attain to God. See, then, that they be instructed by your works, if in no other way. Be meek in response to their wrath, humble in opposition to their boasting: to their blasphemies return your prayers; in contrast to their error, be stedfast Colossians 1:23 in the faith; and for their cruelty, manifest your gentleness. While we take care not to imitate their conduct, let us be found their brethren in all true kindness; and let us seek to be followers of the Lord (who ever more unjustly treated, more destitute, more condemned?), that so no plant of the devil may be found in you, but you may remain in all holiness and sobriety in Jesus Christ, both with respect to the flesh and spirit. –Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Saint Ignatius of Antioch is probably the earliest of the Church Fathers, and is one of the Apostolic Fathers since he likely knew and interacted with the apostles. Born in the middle of the first century, and dying at the beginning of the second century, Ignatius of Antioch provides a picture of the early Church where already we see some of the things that we see as connected to the Church today. Much of his later life was spent in chains as a prisoner.

This quote from Ignatius of Antioch is one that is both quite challenging and at the same time quite appropriate for today. The first thing Ignatius tells us is that we should pray without ceasing, which is also an invitation from Saint Paul. One way the Church lives up to that invitation today is by praying the liturgy of the hours, and priests and deacons today promise to pray the liturgy of the hours upon their ordination. The US bishops’ website provides a good overview of the Liturgy of the Hours. If you are interested in praying the Liturgy of the Hours, you can do so online with ibreviary.org.

But even if you are not one to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you can still “pray without ceasing.” One easy way to do this if you carry a smart phone is to set random alarms throughout the day where you stop to say a short prayer when the go off. You could also leave yourself random notes that remind you to pray in various locations around your house.

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As we look to these next chapters, Augustine is pondering the very nature of God. And what he discovers is that there is much about God that to his mind seems to be a paradox. God fills the earth, yet does not contain it. God is in all things, but is not all things. We owe God a debt, but God never loses anything. Even though we cannot pay the debt, God is no less complete.

Moreover, the actions of God are equally paradoxical. God is poured out in us, but nothing ever flows out. In fact we are made more full by God. Augustine recognizes that in the contemplation of God there will always be this paradox, since in fact, we can never understand God. Chapter 4 begins with a question that we cannot answer, namely, "Who is God?" This is in fact such a difficult reality for us. We seek and strive to understand mysteries. Science longs to solve the problems that plague us. We want to know with certainty who this God is that loves us. But God is so far beyond all we can imagine it simply is not possible.

Does this mean the exercise is pointless? Of course not. Even the little ways we can know God more fully are of great benefit to us. Even in very small ways we grow in tremendous grace because God's love for us is so vast, so great, so awesome. Even when we become broken by sin, God is not poured out of us. In fact, all we can do is to place ourselves in the magnificence of God and be filled with awe. We can only realize the brokenness of our own lives and ask God to come into our hearts. We must begin with a simple admission that we cannot save ourselves and as a result we need a Savior. But the good news is that we have one.

We speak of God both in terms of transcendence and imminence. In other words, God is all-powerful (transcendent) and yet loves us more than we can know (imminent). How do you experience and have you experienced the transcendence of God?

It is not always easy to believe our brokenness and sinfulness can be forgiven by God. How do you experience the forgiveness of God? How is it you prepare for the sacrament of Confession?

In what ways do you speak of God even though you can never fully speak perfectly of God?

Augustine-Confessions-Chapters-1-2Download

At the beginning of Augustine's Confessions is a reference to Pelagius, who shares a belief that is probably common to many even though it is heresy. Namely, Pelagius believed that we were able to achieve our salvation by our own efforts, that we were not wounded by Adam's sin. On some level it can be seen as a popular image of God holding a scale, our good works on one side of the scale and our evil deeds on the other. Then, whichever weighs more gets us into even. Namely, we earn our salvation because of what we do.

The Christian view of salvation is quite different. We are saved by God's free and undeserved gift. In no way can we earn our salvation, since the fall and sin of Adam has so damaged us. It is only this free and unmerited gift that enables us to be saved. Even our desire to know God is the result of the free movement of God's grace that wants us to do so.

And so at the start of the Confessions we read the very famous quote from Augustine: our hearts are restless, O God, until they rest in you. While we have a natural inclination to want to know God, we can only do so because of God's powerful will and gift of grace that enables us to do so.

Where would you describe the restlessness of your heart? What is it you believe causes this restlessness?

If you were to describe the beginning of your life as it pertains to faith, what is it you would say?

Where in your life have you seen God wishing to move your heart to know him?