Association Of Catholic Bloggers

How's Lent going? We're coming up to the Fourth Sunday of Lent: Laetare ("Be joyful!") Sunday. Just a bit past the halfway mark in Lent, this rose-colored celebration encourages us to stay faithful to our fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Here at the Apostleship of Prayer , of course, our favorite part of that Lenten trifecta is prayer. Our mission is to encourage children to cultivate vibrant, personal prayer lives of their own. The spiritual giant Romano Guardini warned against "empty reciting" in prayer, so the Apostleship of Prayer encourages ways of praying that will grow with young people as they mature. ©2015 APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER One of my favorite resources for children in 3rd through 7th grade is our " 3 for 3 Prayer Experiment ." It challenges students to observe three deliberate times of prayer each day for three days, and then reflect on the results. Perfect for a middle-of-Lent prayer boost! Join me at Praying with Grac...

Today I take one last stroll through "Prayerful Thoughts of St. Ignatius of Loyola," this time searching for wisdom in the face of my friends' deep suffering. ©Rick Schroeppel/Getty Images Please join me in prayer at Praying with Grace .

©Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images "Not only among men, but not even among angels is there anything more noble than glorifying the Creator." -St. Ignatius of Loyola Join me at Praying with Grace to read more Ignatian insights into the glory of God.

I wanted to pray "for families" today. Then I looked in my little book of Ignatian thoughts and realized that's too vague. His words challenge me to become a better wife and mother myself--THAT is an important step in praying for families! Open this booklet with me at Praying with Grace !

You need a few minutes to pray. That's what St. Ignatius thinks, anyway. I've got just what you need. Join me at Praying with Grace !

Sometimes it’s hard to find time to pray. Actually, most of the time. Maybe once in a while life calms down enough to lend itself to prayer, but the rest of the time, we can easily go from morning until evening barely keeping up with family, work and responsibilities, and never finding the time to talk to God. Finding time for prayer doesn’t have to be a daunting challenge. St. Ignatius of Loyola developed a simple prayer we can say each day called the Examen. A priest recommended this prayer to me several months ago; I’ve prayed it (almost) every day since then and have found it helpful. The best part? If I have half an hour, it can fill the full half hour. If I have only 3 or 5 minutes, that’s OK – it still works. There are many different versions of the examen, but they all consist in five basic steps that came from St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Continue reading at Eyes On Heaven.

Last winter Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of St. Joseph. One of his remarks there was eagerly snatched up by social media: "Babies cry, make noise, go here and there. But it annoys me when a baby cries in church and there are those who say he needs to go out. The cry of a baby is God's voice: never drive them away from the church!" ©Johanna Goodyear/Getty Images Being a mother of five children, I've had my share of those who say my baby "needs to go out." A friend of mine was once asked to leave with her baby--by the priest, during his homily! And sure enough, there are times when an inconsolable child needs a change of scenery so other churchgoers can have a little peace. But children belong in church. Let's bring them on Christmas, the day when God's voice actually became the cry of a baby. Let's bring our older children too, who, crying in their pre-adult way, sometimes protest having to go to church. Let's bring our children t...

Prayer is the place where "heart speaks to heart," as John Henry Cardinal Newman says. Using Scripture, we can enter into Jesus' experience of Holy Week; we can place our hearts into his. We can read the Passion accounts of the Gospels and ask Jesus for the gift of compassion, of suffering with him in his agony. Jesus himself invites us to do this when, in the midst of his agony in the garden, he calls to his disciples and to us: Remain here and keep watch with me. Matthew 26:38 "Gethsemane" © Deror Avi / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 St. Ignatius of Loyola proposes a deeply personal and imaginative way to remain with Jesus. A master strategist and student of the human soul, St. Ignatius articulated a process of praying with Scripture that allows us to encounter Jesus personally. This kind of imaginative prayer engages all the senses and has come to be known as Ignatian Contemplation. At the Apostleship of Prayer, we call it praying with the he...

The man in the purple wheelchair is my brother Mark. The happy little girl with him is my daughter, who dearly loved her Uncle Mark. Mark passed away in 2007 at the age of 39, but I think about him every single day. Mark had a unique personality, as well as severe mental and physical disabilities. Mark was blind, but he trained me to see; without him as my brother, I might never have paid much attention to people with special needs. As it is, I am always on the lookout for folks who respect people with special needs, and who learn at least as much as they teach. I met just such a person a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Joellyn Cicciarelli, the director of curricula development at Loyola Press. I sat down with Joellyn one fine morning at her offices in Chicago to learn more about her and her unique work. Read all about it at Praying with Grace!

Even though you've sought forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, do you still find yourself burdened with regret? Susan Bailey from beasone.org offers a prayerful way to use your imagination to let it all go. Click here to read ...

Last week Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of St. Joseph. One of his remarks there was eagerly snatched up by social media: "Babies cry, make noise, go here and there. But it annoys me when a baby cries in church and there are those who say he needs to go out. The cry of a baby is God's voice: never drive them away from the church!" Considering how much I crave silence, it is with great wonder and gratitude I realize how much I love to hear crying babies and noisy toddlers at church. And I don't mean I just love to hear  other  people's children cry, making my rambunctious brood seem comparatively docile. No, I mean squalling children help me pray. Please continue the reflection with me at Praying with Grace . . . .

Pope Francis has an evangelization prayer close to his heart this month: he is praying for parents. As the Pope puts it, "Pray that parents may be true evangelizers, passing on to their children the precious gift of faith." Mary and Joseph were the first evangelizers of Jesus. If evangelizing means to bring the good news of salvation to the world, then Mary was a literalist: she physically brought Jesus, the saving Word of God, to the world. Joseph and Mary cared for the Word, loved the Word, and shared the Word with others in their daily lives. It almost seems unfair, in a way, doesn't it? SAY WHAT?! Read on at Praying with Grace .

God was lavish with me on Sunday, drawing me close to him through church, music, family, community, and nature. Why would I sabotage his invitation to intimacy, his consolation? I must continue to pray and discern how to help others who suffer, certainly, but the panicky guilt I suddenly felt constricting my heart was a dirty trick. The movement I had noticed all day was joyful consolation; only an enemy would be interested in sucking the gratitude out of me. Once I got that straight, I decided to accept God's gift, gratefully, and to store up the peace for more difficult times that might lie ahead. Brimming with joy, then, I made this little list of 5 things that make me happy. Maybe they will make you happy too, or remind you of other happy things you've been meaning to thank God for. And now,  Things That Make Me Happy: Find out at Praying with Grace !

Cartoon from The Economist , July 26, 2014 Indifference is great for parents. As I read through the latest issue of  The Economist  over the weekend, I plunged into an article about helicopter parents that made me remember the Ignatian principle of indifference. The article, titled  Cancel that violin class , invites modern parents to relax. I imagined Ignatius reading the article, a secret smile on his lips, shaking his head slowly, as he learned about the savage preferences parents have for their children and the exhausting effort they put forth to make sure their children are playing the right instrument, volunteering the established number of service hours, and getting the necessary grades to enter an Ivy League school. The article cites the advice of Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University: "if parents fretted less about each child, they might find it less daunting to have three instead of two. And that might make them happier in the long run. No 60...

Does your summer bend the rules a bit? In our house, bedtimes become a little fuzzier, trips to the pool cut piano practicing short, and french fries count as a vegetable at cookouts. The ambling summer months feel expansive, and spending time outside on long sunny days gives one plenty of "scope for imagination," as Anne of Green Gables would say. Imagination is always available, of course, but sometimes the leisure of summertime reminds us how creative we can be. Slow days ease the rigidity of lock-step schedules, and imaginative play breathes life into our family activities. Suddenly that pile of leftover mulch becomes a human ant hill. A bucket of water becomes a stew, flavored with rock-onions, twig-carrots, and maple-leaf-spices. My brothers and I always pretended the cracks in our driveway were cavities in a giant's tooth, and we (newly appointed dentists) had to clean out all the gravel with sticks before the giant's anesthesia wore off. Ah, summer! Cal...