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문화체육관광부 (2014) via  Flickr , CC A Big Heart Open to God . That's what the world's Jesuit magazines titled their interview with Pope Francis six months into his papacy. (You can read the English-language version at America Magazine  here .) Yes, Pope Francis seems to have a big heart open to God, and to all of us. He often reveals his heart for children too. I would like to dedicate today's blog to some of the Pope's inspiring words about children and the adults who care for them. (All excerpts come from the  Vatican Information Service. ) We parents, grandparents, teachers, catechists, and other adults who work for the welfare of children can pray with the Pope. We can pick one or two lines from these passages and ponder them in our hearts, as Jesus' own mother Mary did:  Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. -Luke 2:19 Visit Praying with Grace to be INSPIRED!!

Do you remember Flight 800?  It was the jet that exploded over the Hudson river in 1996.  I had a ticket on that flight!  My dream from when I was very small, maybe 3 years old, had been to study in France.  I learned everything I could about the language, nation, and culture. I pleaded with my mother to send me to a boarding school in France, like my heroine  Madeline .  I collected every Madeline book and trinket and dreamed of one day strolling down the streets of Paris.  When I was a junior in college, my chance finally came.  I was required to study abroad for my major. My father booked me a non-stop flight to Paris and a three night hotel stay in Paris, so I could live my dream before heading to school in Reims. I could not have been happier!!  Then, the Sunday before my scheduled departure, I had a complete panic attack like no other panic attack in history. I was up the entire night wondering how I could explain to my parents that I couldn't board that plane.  Read mo

Schools in Sierra Leone reopened today, having been closed since the Ebola outbreak in July. According to an  NPR report , "more than one-third of the 10,000+ deaths have been in Sierra Leone." When this year's harsh winter closed schools for several days in a row, some parents joked about how grueling it was to be trapped at home with stir-crazy children. Very few of us reading this blog can imagine what it's like to experience nine months of closed schools, especially amid a health crisis claiming thousands of lives. Not that long ago, in 1991, Sierra Leone faced another horrifying crisis: civil war. A month ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a survivor of that war. Ishmael Beah, author of  A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier , was forced to become a soldier in Sierra Leone at the age of thirteen. Photo courtesy of Brookfield Academy Ishmael visited my children's school, where his book is required reading for the ninth graders. Students, t

I am thankful for the many aids we've been given to help us pray.  Just today, sidetracked during the Office of Morning Prayer, I found my way back more than once through words on paper before me. In case anyone else has a mind that 'drifts' now and then, here are some keys I've found to help open doors to prayer. While these are readily accessible without needing to be sought online, I am including links for anyone who may find those beneficial. Scripture. The current day's Mass readings are an ideal source for Lectio Divina . These can be found by starting here , or here.   The Divine Office . This is the prayer of the Church, in which nuns, monks, clergy, religious and laity all over the world are participating, as one, on the same days. In addition to being available in bound volumes, this is free with no registration necessary online at Divine Office.org . The entire day of prayer is right there, printed and with (optional) audio. Bound volumes a

So much to pray for.  Where do I begin? Do you feel that way sometimes?  I've been feeling like that a lot lately.  Before I left for vacation, I prayed the rosary every night so that I could  actually get on the plane !  During vacation, I prayed for our safety and well-being.  When I got home, I prayed for my family, friends and my job.  My prayer life has become overwhelming! You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

Today begins the novena in preparation for the feast of St Joseph on March 19th. I am sponsoring a pray along. Each day I will post the Novena prayers for the day along with intentions that need prayer. Please share with family and friends, and share any prayer requests in the comments. Let's pray for and with each other! Today, I am praying for struggling marriages, reconciliation within families, and those trying to sell their home. God bless! Source Novena to  St. Joseph Day One FOSTER-FATHER OF JESUS Saint Joseph, you were privileged to share in the mystery of the Incarnation as the foster-father of Jesus .  Mary alone was directly connected with the fulfillment of the mystery, in that she gave her consent to Christ's conception and allowed the Holy Spirit to form the sacred humanity of Jesus from her blood. You had a part in this mystery in an indirect manner, by fulfilling the condition necessary for the Incarnation -- the protection of Mary's virg

This March is the 500 th   anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Ávila, Carmelite nun and Doctor of the Church. One of her legacies to the Church is her teaching about prayer. In Teresa’s final book,  The Interior Castle , written near the end of her life, she summarized her life of prayer. In it she imagined that her growth in love of God had been a journey from the outskirts of a crystal castle to its center, inhabited by her King. The castle image with its many rooms symbolized her soul. The King was God who beckoned Teresa to come to him and to be spiritually united with him. Responding to her King’s call meant that Teresa first had to leave the dark, cold, noisy place outside the castle, where she spent so much time. Steadfast prayer was the key to unlock the castle door. Once inside she prayed faithfully. Quietly and persistently Teresa traveled through the castle’s rooms, each representing a stage of growth in her personal relationship with God. Read the rest a

monastery bell Cristian Bortes Manastirea Neamtului July 2008 What comes to mind when you hear the word “discipline?” Punishment? Do you think of those times as a child when you were disciplined by your parents for doing something wrong? Dull, repetitive actions such as practicing a musical instrument or working out to keep in shape? Perhaps even prayer, like reciting the rosary, feels like such a discipline, an endless repetition of Our Fathers and Hail Marys. I was resistant at first to applying discipline to my spiritual life. How can a discipline be heartfelt? I remember watching “The Nun’s Story” with Audrey Hepburn and noticing the way she chafed at the bell ringing for prayer. .... Lent offers a wonderful opportunity to establish a prayerful spiritual discipline. I would like to offer my regimen as an example. Click to continue.

Apostle St Peter , El Greco, 1610-14 Museo de El Greco, Toledo, Spain [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)  Gospel   Mark 1:29-39  ( New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition , Canada)   As soon as they   left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.   Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once.   He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.   And the whole city was gathered around the door.     And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning,

The next stage of prayer that we have to talk about has been called by so many names that it is often hard to tell that various writers are talking about the same thing. Teresa of Avila calls it recollection. But she also calls the first stage of infused contemplation recollection. This adds to our confusion. On my blog I will call this stage of prayer acquired recollection , as opposed to the infused recollection that is a pure gift of God. Other authors use the terms acquired contemplation, the prayer of simplicity, or the prayer of simple gaze . In Interior Castle Teresa doesn’t speak much of prayer in the third mansions, except to say that souls at this stage “spend hours in recollection.” If we find prayer tedious, tend to avoid it, or cut it short, we are probably not firmly in the third mansions. People in the third mansions love to pray and would spend much of their day praying if they could. In fact, they begin to recollect themselves throughout the day as t

'The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish  which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterwards plunges down and is always going  deeper; the soul plunges,  dives, and loses itself  in the sweetness  of conversing with God.' St. John Vianney   (from The Cloistered Heart)

We’re going to start discussing the third mansions from St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle with the most exciting part–prayer. In the third mansions, prayer begins simplifying, as the soul prepares herself to receive infused contemplation. Now, when I say prayer begins simplifying in the third mansions, that doesn’t mean that a stark line lies between one mansion and another. We don’t one day say, “I’m going to take one step forward and leave second mansions behind forever, entering the third.” More likely, we peer through the doorway, thinking, “Those rooms look interesting.” Then we look over our shoulder and say,” But I’m comfortable here.” We might go through the door, make a small circle, and go back out. We might lean against the door frame, with one foot on each side. My point is that our prayer might start simplifying long before we leave second mansions completely behind. But when it is habitually simpler–and accompanied by growth in virtue–we can

I am not crafty. When normal women set out glue guns, fabric, and paint, I see magic wands, mithril, and pixie dust. The mere thought of "craft time" with my children makes my palms sweat. Pope Francis, however, inspired me to overcome my fears. This is the Pope's  universal prayer intention for January 2015 : " Peace: That those from diverse religious traditions and all people of good will may work together for peace. " In honor of this prayer intention, I stepped out of my comfort zone. I adapted, published, AND EXECUTED the following Apostleship of Prayer "Sea Bottle" craft activity with my daughter Rose. A little whisper popped into my head just as Rose and I were delighting in our teamwork. Here I was, spending time with my daughter, relishing the moment, and joining our prayers to the Pope's universal intention for peace. And then, BAM! My heart grew restless; my mind became distracted. With one little whisper, peace vanished. In

How to use Facebook for Prayer , an article written by  Annie Turner  for  Busted Halo  caught my attention right away. There are days when I spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook.  I have to admit that I don't pay a lot of attention to my friends' posts.  Most of the time I'm looking for inspiration for my blog or just something to brighten my own day.  It didn't occur to me as I scrolled through my news feed that some of my friends might need a prayer or two. You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

Praying the Rosary can be a challenge. The 15 minutes required to complete the meditation (for some reason) appear as 15 hours, longer than a session of heavy cleaning…or working out. Should you manage to overcome the “time constraint” and actually pick up some beads, you are faced with new obstacles. You must sit idle and focus – kind of like when you binge watch Netflix, only not. What’s more? You are expected to meditate, not only upon the words of the various prayers, but upon the Mysteries of the Rosary depicting key events in Christ’s life. Needless to say, the Rosary is not for the faint of heart.

I have written several times about guided meditations I do with my young boys. Now I am working with my oldest, who is in 7th grade, to help him take the next step in mental prayer. He is a choleric, and I hope to write in more detail about this method in my upcoming book A Spiritual Growth Plan for Your Choleric Child. I plan to make a template for children to fill out as they practice. Here is the method I am planning to use for my eldest now. I will show you an example along with the method. 1. Read a small section of the Gospels. First, choose one of the four Gospels to pray through from beginning to end. Then choose a passage of 10 to 20 verses. For this example, we’re using Mark 1:1-11 , last Sunday’s Gospel. Read it silently and slowly. 2. Use your senses. Record the sights, sounds, smells, etc. you would encounter if you were present when this story took place. Brainstorm as many as you can think of. Here are a few for our example: John’s camel hair

Just over a year ago, Pope Francis gave the world his Apostolic Exhortation  Evangelii Gaudium ,  in which he extends an invitation: I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. So how are we doing? Check in at Praying with Grace to take a little prayer quiz!

(From Facebook, via SkyNews; and BBC News; used w/o permission.) ( Clarissa Jean-Philippe , and Ahmed Merabet : two of 20 dead so far, apparently in response to Charlie Hebdo's editorial policy.) Some of the 20 known dead are important by my culture's standards, others not so much.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

God is always speaking to us, His people, but we are not always listening. Or we aren’t quite sure how to listen because we aren’t quite sure what that looks or sounds like in our daily lives. The fact is, we can’t obey Him or follow His lead unless we hear Him—and we can’t hear Him unless we understand how He speaks to us today. Many of us read Scripture and long to hear God speak to us as He spoke to Moses, Noah, or Abraham. We desire the clarity that apparently existed for the prophets and sages and patriarchs. Consequently, we miss out on God’s active participation in our lives because we miss out on all the ways He speaks into our very existence. read more here

Reading Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, we might find ourselves surprised. The Church has proclaimed Teresa a Doctor of Prayer, but the first part of her master work on the subject barely mentions prayer! If prayer is so vital to the spiritual life, why hasn’t she said more about it? How can we grow into the later stages if she doesn’t tell us what to do in the early ones? The first thing we need to get clear is that for Teresa prayer and virtue grow together, no matter where we are in the seven mansions. Some people think that everyone can be contemplatives, regardless of their lifestyle. This is one of the basic problems with Centering Prayer , as we discussed a few months ago. Real growth in virtue takes commitment to prayer Others have the opposite problem. They think that if they are living a moral life, that’s all they need. Not committed to prayer, they think they are nonetheless spiritually advanced, so they see no reason to start praying more faithfully. Th