Quote About Peace

I was cleaning out my Inbox, and noticed this quote that I've been holding onto. Instead of keeping it in email, I thought I would post it here. I'm not sure who the quote is from unfortunately.

Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of God.

White House Retreat

I went on my first White House retreat this past weekend. The White House is a Jesuit-run retreat facility in St. Louis. The retreat is a silent retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. For three days, I spent time in silent prayer, prayer services, mass, and spiritual talks. I loved it!

The facility is wonderful. It sits on the bluffs over the Mississippi River. Every day I watched barges move up and down the river. I saw bald eagle swooping overhead. I was able to walk in the brisk air every day. It was peaceful, restful, and great!

My life has a lot of noise in it; a constant stream of questions at work, email, news feeds, kids, etc. The quiet time on the retreat was wonderful. It took quite a while to settle down my mind, but once I did, I was able to focus on trying to listen to the Lord. The retreat gave me a sense of peace and gave me time to reflect on a number of things that I've been anxious about in my life.

I would highly recommend a retreat. It was exactly what I needed!

Integrating Christmas

This Sunday marks the start of Ordinary Time in the church. As the Christmas liturgical season wound down this week, I realized the challenge that is presented to us at Christmas.

In the secular world, Christmas is about gifts. We spend Advent preparing by buying and wrapping presents, cleaning out spaces in our homes for new things, singing carols, and generally getting ready for the big day. Then Christmas hits. We spend the day(s) traveling around visiting family and friends, getting gifts, and receiving gifts. Then, after all the celebrations, we have to find ways to integrate the gifts into our lives. So it is for us spiritually too.

We spend Advent trying to prepare for a wonderful gift from God. We pray more, reflect more, and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation. On Christmas, we try to understand the gift that God gives us: He sent his Son into our world to show us how to love! After Christmas, we have to find ways to integrate that gift into our lives.

As Catholics we must use the awesome gift we've been given and take Jesus into the world with us. Along with our new clothes and other gifts, we need to integrate Jesus into our lives and share Him with our family and friends.

That's the challenge of Christmas: to share the gift we've received with everyone around us!

Almost Wrecked Christmas

My regular prayer life includes the morning and night prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours and I've added daily mass. All through Advent, these prayer activities kept me tied to the liturgical season. They helped me stay expectantly hopeful to God.

I took time off between Christmas and New Year's. My schedule changed, and so did my prayer routine. We slept until our boys got us up; we went on family outings; and our normal routine was very different. It was wonderful! However, I wasn't praying.

Part way through last week, I had a down day. We had an issue at work, and I spent a few hours working from home helping to resolve the issue. I got a little depressed thinking about how my vacation was ending. This depression was a result of being away from God for too long.

I need my regular prayer to stay close to God. It keeps me connected to the liturgical seasons and to the Holy Spirit's influence in my life. Because of the hiatus from prayer, I missed out on the joyfulness conveyed by the church. I missed the celebration!

Fortunately, I realized that my spiritual tank was empty when I went to mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. It reminded me that I needed my regular prayer life and I needed to stay close to God. I was able to capture some of the joy the church conveys, and I'm hoping to carry it forward into the new year!

Staying Close to God

I've taken vacation over the Christmas holidays. With the kids being off of school too, my daily schedule has been different. I haven't spent as much time praying as I normally do.

Last night and earlier this morning I was feeling very anxious and edgy. This morning I spent some time in prayer, and I feel much better. The experience underscores the idea that we must stay close to God through prayer.

As human beings, it is easy to get discouraged in our prayer. We may not see the immediate effects that prayer has. Yet, it is critical that we continue to pray so that we stay close to God. Through prayer we receive the consolation that St. Paul talks about. Prayer is the link that God uses to communicate with us.

Keep praying. It keeps us going.

Angering Article About Charitable Giving

I read an article yesterday that really made me mad! The article was about how religious people donate more to charity than non-religious people. The author used the article as a call-to-arms for atheists to "catch up" in their charitable giving.

(NOTE: I generally like the Get Rich Slowly blog. I was hesitant to publish my post because I think the blog is generally helpful. However, the post in question really pissed me off, and I needed to rant to get it out of my system.)

The author of the article has missed the true crux of the matter: religious people donate more because they are focused on something other than themselves! I know this is a tough message, but it's the truth. I donate money, clothing, time, etc. because I genuinely want to help people because I believe that my God is calling me to do that.

I want to call non-religious people to search their hearts for the reason that as a group their charitable giving is lower. If they honestly look for a truthful answer, they will find God waiting for them.

Litany of St. Joseph

I saw this link posted on Twitter. http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2009/11/friday-litany-litany-of-st-joseph.html

Suffering Servant and Our Call to Service

I work as the manager of a small software development team. Lately, my team has been under a lot of pressure with a large workload, and I've been working quite a bit. This weekend has been especially stressful and busy.

Last night at mass, the first reading was from the book of Isaiah. It was one of the suffering servant songs that appears in the book of Isaiah. (Is 53:10-11) My pastor's homily talked a little about the suffering servant songs, and it got me curious. This morning I read all four of the suffering servant songs in Isaiah. (Is 42:1-4, Is 49:1-7, Is 50:4-11, Is 52:13-53:12) Reading these poems gave me a much better perspective on my current workload.

It is really easy to get down on oneself during times of exhaustion and great stress. If we look on these times with the eyes of the suffering servant, we realize that we are specifically called by God to be his instrument. (Is 49:1-2) We also realize that being God's servant entails a lot of work without reward, and possibly suffering (Is 49:4). The end of Is 49:4 gives us insight into our reward:

Yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God.

These passages from Isaiah give me hope during this stressful time. The servant songs remind me that I was specifically created by God for a special purpose. Even though I may not see the fruits of my labor, my reward will be with God. I just have to trust Him.

Novenas

I was on a search for novenas and found the following ones. I didn't want to lose them, so I'm posting them here.

Novena to St. Nicholas I

Novena to St. Nicholas II

Novena to the Holy Family

Novena to Our Lady of Hope

Novena for the Conversion of Sinners

Interesting Background on Liturgy of the Hours

Here is an article about the origins of the Liturgy of the Hours that I thought was interesting.

The Power of the Liturgy of the Hours

I just read this blog post giving a brief history of the structure of the Liturgy of the Hours.

The article got me thinking about the power of the Liturgy of the Hours. The repetition of the prayer is its power. Someone praying the hours regularly immerses himself in the Psalms, encompassing prayers of petition, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of praise. These prayers open the pray-er to God's grace on a daily basis.

Over time, the repetitive act of opening oneself to God allows God to fill the person with the Holy Spirit. This prayer, this communion with God, becomes an anchor in the person's life. God becomes the focus of the person's life. By getting one's focus properly fixed on God, the trials that we face in everyday life become much easier to handle.

The repetition of the Liturgy of the Hours is brilliant. It is a powerful tool that enables limited human beings to be able to open themselves up to God and the workings of his spirit.

Inability to Communicate

I'm having a little trouble this morning. I've got an idea about how to do something at work, but I don't know how to communicate it. It's really frustrating for me because I would love to implement this idea, but I can't think of a way to express it to my boss so that he wants to implement it too.

I bet this happens with my kids all the time. How often are they unable to communicate a want or need to me in a way that I understand? Quite often. I think I see this when they are acting out. It's probably the only way for them to communicate something to me.

Holy Spirit, give me the wisdom to approach my children with understanding, so that their inability to communicate with me won't make me angry or frustrated.

Mix of Technology and Religion

I read a blog post today about a group of people that set up a computer lab for a learning center in Austin, TX. The East Austin Computer Learning Center was set up to help expose children to computers and technology. The part that struck me was that the learning center is housed in the Cristo Rey Catholic Church.

I've normally thought about centers like this as being the sole domain of government institutions. Setting up a center like this in a Catholic church is a wonderful idea. It would be a way to reach out to the community to interact with children, teach and counsel the unemployed, and could help provide the local Catholic grade school with resources for their technology courses.

As the church moves to embrace new technology for evangelization, having centers for teaching people how to use that technology could be beneficial.

Fear and Trust

Recently I learned that I'm going to be my youngest son's soccer coach, and that got me thinking. At first I worried about having time for practices, then I moved to worrying about being able to teach soccer. If you haven't been able to tell, I'm a worrier.

I've been thinking about and worrying about being a soccer coach for about two weeks now. Just this morning on my way into work, I realized part of why I worry about being a coach: fear. I'm afraid of doing it wrong. I'm afraid of what the parents might think. I'm afraid of ruining the next international soccer star because I don't know soccer as well as someone else might. I'm afraid.

Naturally I have to ask why I'm afraid. I've played soccer. There are many web sites with tips and drills for kids. I know a few people that coach. I have experience leading a group of kids. So why am I afraid?

The "Aha" moment this morning was a revelation to me that I don't trust God like I should. God doesn't give us a challenge without also giving us the grace to handle it. I should be comfortable and excited to be answering God's call. But I'm afraid. This fear can either be debilitating or a growth experience.

If I use this fear as an opportunity to work with Jesus, I'll be better for it. This is a golden opportunity for me to tell Jesus how I feel. Easy. The part that takes a little work is that I need to listen to Him. I think if I take the time to listen, my relationship with Jesus will grow, and I'll trust Him more with the next challenge.

Welcome Archbishop Carlson

Today Archbishop Carlson was installed as the Archbishop of St. Louis. Welcome to St. Louis!

The Cost of Discipleship

Bishop Hermann of the Archdiocese of St. Louis had an article in the St. Louis Review about Pentecost. The gist of the article is that Pentecost is about the apostles being filled with the Holy Spirit, after they had been completely broken down so that they are no longer interested in their own personal goals. Pentecost is the culmination of Jesus purging the apostles of their selfishness.

This presentation of Pentecost troubles me. It directly challenges us to give ourselves completely over to Christ. This is tough! Our culture builds up images and concepts that are deceptively self-serving. Breaking through these misconceptions is difficult.

Bishop Herman challenged his readers to say the following prayer everyday:

Lord, I don't like myself as I am. I want to give my life over to You. I want You to be the Lord of my life. I want to surrender my life totally to You so that You can do with me as You will. Lord, as I had over my life into Your hands, I ask that You forgive me all of my sins and fill me with the fullness of the Holy Spirit!

I think I'm going to say the prayer daily. I'm scared about giving over complete control, but that's why I'm here!

How Do I Help?

Yesterday we learned that the P.E. teacher at my son's school passed away. He was fighting a brain tumor and lung cancer. I thought about this quite a bit yesterday.

A little more background may be in order. This teacher was my P.E. teacher when I was in grade school. His wife was my eighth grade algebra teacher and their daughter was in my grade all through grade school.

Hearing of his passing felt like a call to action for me. But there wasn't anything I could do. I'm not close to the family, so there wasn't anything I could do for them. The feeling of not being able to do something bugged me.

Slowly throughout the day yesterday I came to realize that I could do something, and that something is very powerful. I could pray.

Too many people overlook the power of prayer. If St. Monica's prayers for her wayward son could create a wonderful saint, our prayers can do marvelous things too. Even if we don't see the effects of our prayer, we need to realize that prayer is a powerful tool always at our disposal.

I'm praying for the Teter family.

Thinking About Mother's Day Got Me Worked Up

As I was writing the last post about Mother's Day, I was getting somewhat agitated. I think part of the problem with fathers not being real dads is that most men, and certainly society in general, don't give women the respect they deserve.

Women, especially mothers, are the source of love in this world. This has been made abundantly clear by the church's teaching on Mary and the prominence she has in the church. Most people, looking back on their childhoods, would say that mothers were always the loving, affectionate parents. It's not hard to see that mothers are the source of love.

Unfortunately, society is destroying motherhood and the love that flows from it. Throughout the media, women are depicted as objects, either for sexual conquest or simply for fleeting entertainment. Many mothers are forced to fill all parenting rolls in some families because the fathers have left or are too macho to be true dads.

As Catholic husbands, we must be guiding examples in these areas. Our children are learning from us, and their understanding of what a husband is will be determined in large part from the example we set. We must love and respect our wives; we must be involved with our children; we must be involved in our parishes; we must be dedicated to our work. These things, along with prayer, will help guide our children to be the people God calls them to be.

Now that I've gotten the rant out, here's the real message: Catholic husbands and dads are called by God to be living examples of the love God the Father has for all of us.

A Dad's Reflection on Mother's Day

Driving back from celebrating Mother's Day at my in-law's house today, I was thinking about how we approach Mother's Day.

Society puts a lot of emphasis on Mother's Day. Most of this emphasis is for the shameless sale of flowers, cards, and candy. For one day, everyone loves their mothers. One day a year, father's cook, clean, and help with the kids. By the end of the day, most mothers are doing their "jobs" again.

As a dad, I've tried to help out as much as possible. I do the dishes, take care of the yard, and try to fix things around the house. I've always been involved with my boys, including diaper changes, bath time, illnesses, etc. For the longest time I thought this was just something I did to be a dad.

I believe that God calls all fathers to this type of involvement. Fathers are called to be more than just half of the chromosomal pairing of children; they are called to be dads. Dads are close to their children. Dads lovingly correct their children. Dads talk to, read to, and play with their children. Dads support and bolster their wives. Catholic dads are called to be fathers just like God the Father was "abba" for Jesus the Son.

Jesus showed us the perfect example of fatherhood by giving us glimpses into his relationship with his Father. His relationship was close and affectionate. The Father was firm, but loving. This is the fatherly relationship we are called to have with our children.

Mother's Day should be about honoring our mothers and the mothers of our children. It should also be a day for reflection, ensuring that we are being the dads we are on Mother's Day, all year long.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!