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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

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.