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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

One of my favorite recurring characters on the long-gone  Mad TV  show was Keegan-Michael Key's "Eugene Struthers." Eugene, an overly enthusiastic delivery man, would catch Hollywood celebrities in random moments and gush about how they take their craft to "a hole notha level." On this sixth day of Christmas, I am thinking of Eugene. I imagine Eugene interviewing Christians throughout the world and marveling at how they take Christmas to, as he would say, a Hole. Notha. Level! Keep Christmas with us! At Praying with Grace .

Children are hungry for affirmation. Children are desperate for love, for family, for an understanding of their place in the world. Children who lack these things grow up hating themselves and wanting to disappear, or forcing others to pay attention to their outrageous displays of addiction or terror. The truth about Christmas provides all the affirmation we need: the only reason we exist is because our God created us out of love; and when we forgot this, God proved his love by becoming one of us. Relentless headlines tell us about school shootings, suicides, rampant drug use, epidemic STDs, teenagers joining terrorist groups. . . . This is not God's plan for us or for our children. And we don't begin to address the crisis by telling children how great they are. We free our children by showing them how great God is. Read more at Praying with Grace .

Pursued by the Furies by John Singer Sargent (Wikimedia Commons).  Okay, you’ve all poured over the chart of the seven mansions from Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle that I posted last week and now you’re ready to study each in depth, right? Let’s dig right in. Many people, unfortunately, live completely outside the castle of their souls. These include the unbaptized, atheists and agnostics, and Christians who have unconfessed mortal sin.  Their state is truly pitiable and only an act of God can open their eyes to it. So accustomed have they grown to living all the time with the reptiles and other creatures to be found in the outer court of the castle that they have almost become like them; and although by nature they are so richly endowed as to have the power of holding converse with none other than God Himself, there is nothing that can be done for them. Unless they strive to realize their miserable condition and to remedy it, they will be turned into pillars of salt

Teresa of Avila by Rubens (Wikimedia Commons). Today I’d like to start digging a little deeper into Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle . Specifically, let’s talk about the seven mansions and how each of them is different. While Teresa divides her book into sections talking about seven different stages of the spiritual life, we should note that she speaks about “first dwelling places,” et cetera, not “ the first mansion.” What does this mean? Each stage has several rooms. Not everyone follows exactly the same path to union with God. You must not imagine these mansions as arranged in a row, one behind another, but fix your attention on the centre, the room or palace occupied by the King. Think of a palmito, which has many outer rinds surrounding the savoury part within, all of which must be taken away before the centre can be eaten. Just so around this central room are many more, as there also are above it. In speaking of the soul we must always think of it as spacious, amp

Craniosynostosis – the coronal suture has prematurely fused My ten month old grandson is a happy, quick, engaging little fellow who was born with the plates of his skull fused together prematurely. As a result, he is facing major surgery to cut the plates and reshape his head which has grown lopsided. Emmett’s surgery is on   Wednesday Nov. 19 at 9am Eastern Standard Time . The surgery will take between 5-7 hours, but it could take up to 10 hours. Details of the surgery are as follows: an incision is made from ear to ear, the skull is removed from the orbital bone to the centre of the head. After the neurosurgeon removes a piece of his skull that has fused prematurely, a plastic surgeon will reshape the skull.  Then the surgeon will put it  back together using plates and screws which are made of a dissoluble substance. They use between 150-200 screws. read more

1 Corinthians 12:3 -" ...no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit". This is what the bible says and yet some evangelicals I've met do not agree with infant baptism. Not making the connection? How about this? These same evangelicals do not consider their children "saved" until, on their own, they can say Jesus is Lord and ask him into their heart.  Also, they are not seen as ready for baptism until they ask Jesus in their heart. However, it is by the Holy Spirit that we can truly recognize Jesus as Lord. Catholics, Orthodox, and some Protestant denominations believe in infant baptism. As Catholics, we believe at the moment of baptism, when the water is poured over the baby's head, they also receive the Holy Spirit. I believe this gives them an advantage that unbaptized children do not have. I would dare to even say that since Jesus lives in their heart through baptism, they will probably be more predisposed toward the things of God.

Today the church celebrates the first official feast day of Saint Pope John Paul II.  His heroism and total devotion to his prayer time, even during times of illness, injury and suffering, that propelled him to the heights of holiness and made him a compelling witness to the world of a life lived in complete surrender to the Lord. Click here to read more about Saint Pope John Paul II's morning prayer routine.

Tribal Textiles   License : CC Fanny Schertzer Who’s your "tribe"? Who supports your mission as a family? Historically (and pre-historically), humans congregated in tribes. Tribal living made us safer, distributed our work, and connected us with strong bonds. Many people, especially women, probably didn’t have much choice about the tribe they belonged to or their place in it. Our modern, mobile society has improved things in this respect: if I don’t get along with my family or I hate the weather, I can always pack up and move. Yet this mobility has weakened our bonds. Read on at Praying with Grace !

There's something new on the blogroll , under ' Something Else :' PrayTheRosary.com " Prayer Change Everything ;" live Rosary online, prayer requests. A very little more at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Without exception, God calls each believer to become a prayer warrior. While some believers are uniquely gifted as intercessors and their prayers seem to flow right out of their spirit,  all  are nonetheless expected to intercede for others. But how do we respond to that call to mediate for another person—especially if intercession is not one of our gifts and we stumble along in our attempts at intercession, feeling inadequate and even inept? How can we answer God’s call upon us and become the best prayer warriors this side of heaven? Abraham is the first example of intercession as he speaks to God about Sodom and Gomorrah and gives us a couple of excellent clues on how to be a prayer warrior. First and foremost, Abraham models a personal relationship with his God. Think about it: which of our personal relationships allow us to be most like our real selves? Which of our relationships encourage us to be open and honest? It is always those relationships that are

In these last days of September, we continue to pray for Pope Francis' Evangelization Intention this month: Service to the Poor. Pope Francis knows serving the poor is a divine mandate: "Whatever you do for one of these least brothers of mine, you do for me" (Matthew 25:40). We must serve the poor as Jesus did, as he continues to call us to do as the Body of Christ on earth. But the Pope calls this month's prayer request an  evangelization  intention, because he knows serving the poor also attracts others to Jesus and his Church. We share the Good News of Jesus in our deeds--if not also in our words--when we care for the poor and disenfranchised. As a mother and as the director of children's ministry at the Apostleship of Prayer, I love to consider how to help children encounter poverty in a prayerful way. Many, many children know poverty from the inside, of course. Even in this prosperous country of ours, too many children experience hunger, poor nutrition, ho

"Those who love to be feared, fear to be loved, and they themselves are more afraid than anyone, for whereas other men fear only them, they fear everyone."  St. Francis de Sales We've all come across those who seem to "love to be feared".   Most of the time, we just turn away and ignore their chest thumping.  Sometimes, we want to stand toe-to-toe and let them know what's what; especially when we see injustice. No matter how we decide to react to these persons who cross our path, we should try to remember that behind the bravado is really someone who is fighting a battle from within. Those who "love to be feared" choose to cling to the inclinations that we've all inherited as the result of the fall in the Garden of Eden.  They've developed a deep distrust of the world and have forgotten that it is God who is in charge. They take on the world with an "It's me or them." attitude.  They forget that God's

Does your heart look like this pantry? Two weeks ago I began a series on whether we should sit quietly during prayer. Part 1 talked about the false silence of Centering Prayer . Part 2 talked about Teresa of Avila’s teaching on prayer and silence. Today I’d like to talk briefly about the silence of detachment. If we want God to enter our lives in a significant way, we must make room for Him. He never forces Himself on anyone. Counterfeit spiritual silence can exist alongside mortal sin. But sin is incompatible with union with God. The writer to the Hebrews urges us: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:1-2)

Photo Source . . . Suffering and sin pressed on me heavily this morning, making me feel constricted, helpless. Feeling burdened and discouraged, I boarded the bus for work. Immediately I noticed something new on the bus: a PA system recently installed that announces every upcoming stop. I couldn't help but notice the new system, because it's loud and relentless. The computerized voice blared out each bus stop as we approached: 120th Street! 118th Street! Watertown Plank Road and 116th Street! Watertown Plank Road and Mayfair Road! Transfer to Route 31, State Street Branch! Given how deflated I was feeling, my first reaction was to be annoyed by the new two-block warning system. And then, by God's providence, I started to imagine why the automated voice had been installed in the first place. Read on at Praying with Grace

Sunday Morning by Thomas Waterman Wood (Wikimedia Commons) How can we know that God will hear and answer our prayers? I learned a new word the other day that I want to share with you: impetration. Impetration is a prayer that God infallibly answers. The concept comes from such New Testament passages as this: Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Mt. 7:7) Now we know from experience that God does not answer every prayer. Or, as we like to say, He sometimes answers with a “no.” So where is the fulfillment of this verse? St. Thomas Aquinas taught that there are four requirements for impetration: We must be praying for ourselves, since freewill is involved. We must be praying for something necessary for salvation (but theologians include in this all the goods that could help us grow in grace). We must pray piously–in Jesus’ name, with humility, trust, and attention. We must persevere in prayer wh

  František Dvořák, in US public domain due to age  Just what IS Lectio Divina?   Is it something I can practice in my ordinary daily life? The answer to the second question is "yes." The answer to the first can be found here (continue) ...