The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

To pray the rosary live (11am central, 17h00 GMT). Look for the Upcoming Events Column on the right side of the page. You can also pray an audio version using one of the audio versions at the end of this post.

For a guide on how to pray the rosary, click here.

For a guide on how to pray the Dominican Rosary, click here.

For a guide on how to pray the Lasallian Rosary, click here.

Today's Reflection:

To be a young adult in this day and age is especially challenging. Many are looking for work. Many who are able to go to college in the United States can only do so be going deeply into debt. The types of jobs are changing so fast that many young people cannot keep up. And the tension between living life in real life and living a virtual life is something no previous generation has faced in the same way.

For all kinds of reasons, some even caused by the Church herself, young people are not embracing the constant that grounds human beings. That is, young people are often abandoning their faith at a time when they need it the most. For at the heart of everything we do is the profound, undeserved love that made us.

And so on this day we pray for young people as they seek to find a way in life. We hope they may remember that Jesus is the Way, and he leads all who follow him to eternal life. He accompanies us in our struggles. He is with us to help us to recognize that we are never alone, that we are always in the presence of God. As we continue this rosary marathon, let us pray for all young people.

Today's Intention:  For all young people.

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

To pray the rosary live (11am central, 17h00 GMT). Look for the Upcoming Events Column on the right side of the page.  You can also pray an audio version using one of the audio versions at the end of this post.

For a guide on how to pray the rosary, click here.

For a guide on how to pray the Dominican Rosary, click here.

For a guide on how to pray the Lasallian Rosary, click here.

Today's Reflection:

Any teacher will tell you that the most edifying moment of teaching is when a child learns and understands something for the first time. For parents I suspect there are so many moments when something done or said by a son or daughter is so awesome, you wonder where the talent came from.

When we encounter a young child or an adolescent, we should be filled with hope. Every time a child is born it is a powerful statement of hope, that God continues to love us and to create. We are so blessed when we can see this hope.

And yet, we know that far too many children suffer from poverty. Many do not live long enough to see adulthood. Many are not even born. How tragic that when God pours out to us this new and wonderful hope, we can disregard it. Can we give some time today to seriously reflect on Matthew 25, so that in every person we meet, we will recognize the face of God? As we continue this rosary marathon, let’s pray for all children and adolescents.

Today's Intention: For all the deceased.

Areas where the Church is new, and areas where the Church is persecuted. These are both conditions where the Church grows and flourishes. We see that in today's first reading, as Saint Paul is beaten and left for dead. But the Church grows.

Readings for today.

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

To pray the rosary live (11am central, 17h00 GMT). Look for the Upcoming Events Column on the right side of the page. You can also pray an audio version using one of the audio versions at the end of this post.

For a guide on how to pray the rosary, click here.

For a guide on how to pray the Dominican Rosary, click here.

For a guide on how to pray the Lasallian Rosary, click here.

Today's Reflection:

I was talking with a doctor yesterday and she was marveling that even though she had delivered more babies than she could count, everyone one was still a miraculous experience for her. I can only imagine. And I can only imagine how miraculous it is when a mother or father sees their child for the first time. I remember a close friend of mine saying that when his daughter was born he could not stop crying all day because she was so beautiful.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if every parent were able to have all the resources necessary to provide for the basic needs of their children? That single mothers would fully be supported so that they could both find work and be able to work, not having to worry about their children? All too often today, some see motherhood as a burden, rather than an awesome miraculous moment of God’s powerful love. In many ways, this change on the part of some seeing motherhood as a burden falls on us Christians who fail to take seriously Matthew 25 to feed the poor, or to fully celebrate how wonderful is the role of a mother. As we continue the rosary marathon today, let us pray for all expectant women and their unborn babies. And let us pray today for all those infected with COVID and for all the sick.

As we think of the harm from the COVID, let us pray the rosary today for the entire world wounded by this pandemic.

Today's Intention: For all expectant women and their unborn babies. And, we pray for all those infected with the coronavirus and all the sick.

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

Today's Reflection:

Contrary to what some may think, there really is no right or wrong way to grieve. In fact, when someone dies, we simply grieve. At first, we may feel quite sad, overwhelmed and maybe even depressed. We ask ourselves what life means now, because our loved one no longer lives here on earth. Not knowing what else to do we pray and welcome the support of loved ones. After this initial grief we may find there is simply no rhyme nor reason to when we feel sad, when we laugh, and when we might even do both at the same time.

The pandemic brought us a new type of suffering and grieving as far as death was concerned. Often when a loved one dies, the members of the family can surround the loved one. I know this was the case for me when my father died. But due to the risk of transmission to health care workers and other patients in the hospital, it was too often the case that those who died did so alone. The number of visitors was severely limited. As difficult as the death of a loved one due to COVID was, it was made more difficult by the distance that was created by the virus itself.

It becomes important, however, to rely on our faith. We are part of a great mystical body. Our community is created not only with physical or geographic proximity, but with spiritual proximity as well. When we lift up loved ones in prayer, we are closer to them than we could be physically, because both we and they are brought into the presence of God. As we continue the Rosary Marathon, we pray for all those who have not been able to say goodbye to their deceased loved ones.

As we think of the harm from the COVID, let us pray the rosary today for the entire world wounded by this pandemic.

Today's Intention: For all those who have not been able to say goodbye to their deceased loved ones.

The readings for today.

Being a disciple of Jesus is a lot of work. Being married is a lot of work. Being a religious is a lot of work. So why would people do any of these things? Because following Jesus, living out your vocation, and being connected to the Church is more fulfilling than anything else.

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

Today's Reflection:

Sometimes it is called “the great equalizer.” At other times, it’s called “the brother of sleep.” In the Old Testament, it is the place of nothingness. Saint Paul refers to it as the wages of sin. Of course, all these things refer to death.

Probably most of us have had the experience of mourning the loss of a loved one to death. And whenever a loved one dies, there is pain and sadness. We feel loss. Sometimes we wonder how we are going to go on.

But in the Catholic faith, there are assurances that can help to provide us support. For many, with the nearness of death comes the celebration of sacraments. There are prayers for the dead, and in a wake, times for families to gather to both support one another and to share the stories that help us to know that while life has changed, it has not ended.

But the pandemic brought an additional suffering. At the times when a dying person most needed their family, often they did not have that support. The risk of spreading the virus and causing more death was too great. But we can always pray. And so, let us continue the Rosary Marathon by praying for all of the deceased.

Today we pray the Glorious Mysteries.

An audio version of the rosary.

An audio version of the Dominican Rosary.

An audio version of the Lasallian Rosary.

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

Today's Reflection:

It is my belief that God only permits evil if some greater good can come from it. In the abstract, this is easy to say. But in the concrete, like in the face of this pandemic, it can be harder to embrace. For a year and a half, we have been in a pandemic. And there has been so much suffering, so much woundedness, and so much death. We may never know the true toll of this pandemic.

But as I think about the suffering and death of the spread of the pandemic, I cannot help but think about how the spread of the pandemic mirrors the spread of sin. Some of us in the United States might remember when we first heard about the Coronavirus in parts of China. Just as the pandemic began in a small way, sin too sin can begin in a small way. We can think our sin does not impact anyone else at all.

But just like sin, the pandemic spread. And quickly. Our sinful actions can impact others in the same way. We can tell ourselves that sin is just “personal” or “private” and that our sin only harms us. We saw this with COVID. We did not need to worry about COVID because it occurred so far away. But soon people were getting COVID even though they did not even know the people who first contracted COVID. We could not know how people were contracting the virus, and could not see the virus.  We had many theories about how it spread. Just like COVID, we cannot always see the ways in which our sin effects others, how it spreads, or the harm it causes.

As we think of the harm from the COVID, let us pray the rosary today for the entire world wounded by this pandemic.

Today's Intention: For the entire world wounded by this pandemic

To pray the rosary in audio form, click here.

To pray the Dominican rosary in audio form, click here.

To pray the Lasallian (De La Salle Christian Brothers) click here.

You may have been asked by non-Catholics why we "pray to the saints." Or, why do we pray the rosary? You may have been asked what Catholics believe about the rosary, or the saints. This podcast is an introduction to the prayers of the rosary and what Catholics believe when they ask the saints to pray for them.

A document for the entire list of daily intentions.

The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations.

And so placing our faith and trust in Jesus, we ask Mary for her powerful intercession. Join us tomorrow as we pray the rosary. By going to Vatican Radio you can pray along with an audio version of the rosary, pray along with an audio version of the Dominican Rosary, or pray along with an audio version of the Lasallian rosary. You can also join in praying the rosary live at 11am Central (17h00 GMT) each day.

Saint Catherine of Siena just might be the most underappreciated Doctor of the Church. She was a great mystic. She was a tremendous theologian. She was a woman of courage who loved the Church so much she was able to challenge the pope. Perhaps the best way, though, to sum up her great life of faith is that she loved Jesus and His Church. And that is a challenge for each one of us.