Category: Readings and Reflections

Prompt Me to Pray ~by Monica McConkey

Posted: by Monica @ Catholic Bloggers Network

I have realized that despite good intentions to practice the Presence of God, surrender to divine Providence and pray without ceasing, my human weakness gets in the way and sometimes I simply forget to pray. I struggle on my own, mistakenly thinking I can somehow keep control on my own strength, forgetting that I need to faithfully rely on Him, seek His Will and trust in Him to work through me.

I wrote Prompt Me to Pray, as I began to discover a practical plan for more consistent heartfelt prayer. By relying on visual cues, daily tasks, habits, and frequent events as prompts to pray, I can build a stronger habit of prayer. I can even use my littleness, my struggles and my sin as prompts to pray when I most need to!

By reflecting on the teaching of theology masters like Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade, Brother Lawrence, Fr. Jacques Philippe, Fr. Jean d’Elbee, Fr. Michael Gaitley and St. Therese, I think I have found some ways to pursue more consistent prayer from the heart.

The book features different approaches to heartfelt prayer including journaling and praying out loud, both spontaneous and classic prayers. It also includes journaling pages with specific writing prompts and prayers to customize your own personal plan for prayer. It includes a prayer vault of classic prayers and templates of full color pocket prayer prompts.

The book presents the Practice of the Presence of God, Surrender to Divine Providence and the Sacrament of the Present Moment. It underlines the need for surrendering our concerns and truly trusting in God and pursuing His Will. It also addresses our human frailty and suggests ways to use even our human weakness to draw us closer to Jesus and prompt us to pray more consistently.

What’s Your Favorite Prompt to Pray?

Favorite Prompts to Pray

My favorite prompt to pray is the Rosary my son made for me that I keep in my pocket. Each time I search for spare change, my keys or a pen, my fingers touch the Rosary beads and I’m reminded of Christ’s Love for us, as well as of my son. ~Robert

I always make it a point to pray while I am pumping gas. ~AM

When I started your book, I didn’t think that I had a favorite prompt to pray but that afternoon when I got in my car, I automatically started to pray my rosary.  I do love to pray my rosary in the car!  ~Mary

Check out these Favorite Prompts to Pray by our Readers! over at Equipping Catholic Families

 

 

Have a LOOK INSIDE Prompt Me to Pray HERE

Purchase Prompt Me to Pray at Arma Dei:

 

 

 

 

What They’re Saying about Prompt Me to Pray

It is an irrefutable truth that the new evangelization in our time “depends in great part on the Church of the home.”
(St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 52).
Monica McConkey has been equipping Catholic families with creativity, fidelity, and fun for decades.
This little book is another gem in that arsenal! It is both simple in presentation and profound in content.
But be forewarned … it could change your life,
and the life of your domestic Church, in powerful and beautiful ways!
~Bishop Scott McCaig, C.C.
Military Ordinariate of Canada

This is a wonderful and practical book on how to practice the presence of God throughout the day. It is one thing to know that personal prayer is important and another thing to be given tools and tips on how to maintain our prayer life on a daily basis and especially throughout the busyness of our daily schedules.
Monica McConkey, a mother of five, has learned and developed these tools over many years of striving to be faithful to her relationship with the Lord throughout the day.
~Fr. Roger Vandenakker,
General Superior of the Companions of the Cross

If you long for a deeper spiritual life and a more vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ, Monica McConkey’s wonderful work Prompt Me to Pray is the perfect companion for your journey.
By presenting practical prompts to pray, Monica provides a framework to help us encounter God’s presence not only in special moments of formal prayer but in the tiny tasks that fill our busy lives. Phenomenal!
~Lisa Hendey, Founder of CatholicMom.com
and author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms, The Handbook for Catholic Moms and The Grace of Yes

The Coronavirus and a Sacramental Recession

Posted: by Ryan Bilodeau

These days it seems like we are undergoing as much of a sacramental recession as we are an economic one. At a time when COVID-19 has rendered our priests’ public appearances relegated mostly to television, debates about how to deal with this crisis are being waged among Catholic bloggers and Bishops alike. Has COVID-19 resulted in a sacramental as well as economic recession? What is the relationship between the sacraments and our salvation?

Blessed John Duns Scotus – A Theology of Love

Posted: by David Torkington

My school report was so bad that my eldest brother was commissioned with the task of teaching me to read. But when he could not even manage to teach me how to read the Beano, he resigned his commission and commended me to St Jude of hopeless cases. But even St Jude failed. It seems that in those days it was not only in school, but in heaven too, that dyslexia was unheard of. St Anthony was the only real friend that I had. Most people who now know about dyslexia still do not  realise how it affects your short term memory. That is where St Anthony came in. He might not have known much about dyslexia, but he was able to find the things that I was always losing. It was through him that I found St Francis of Assisi who may not have been dyslexic, but on his own admission he had little more than an elementary school education.   read on…..

A Reflection on The Resurrection

Posted: by David Torkington

The Resurrection,  means that Jesus has been swept up out of the world of space and time in which he’d lived before, not to leave us alone, but to be closer to us than ever before, and as he prom­ised ‘even to the end of time.’ Before the Resurrection Jesus was limited by the physical body into which he had freely chosen to enter. His choice meant that he could only be in one place at a time, so meeting him would have been as difficult as meeting any major celebrity in our time. But that’s all changed now, because the same otherworldly power that raised him out of this world on the first Easter day enabled him to re-enter it on every day. So now he can enter into us, as he promised, so that he can make his home in us and we can make our home in him. In the words of St Augustine this means that – ‘He can be closer to us than we are to ourselves’. All this can be possible, not in some distant pipe dream, but here and now. That’s why de Caussade said that ‘The present moment contains far more than we have the capacity to receive, for it is full of infinite treasures’.  read on……

 

The Unjust Steward

Posted: by Mark Connolly

This past Sunday, the Gospel reading was Luke 16:1-13. In this reading, a steward, (a trusted servant responsible for the household of his master), has wasted his master’s goods. He is told to prepare an accounting, as he will be removed from his position. In something of a panic, he calls in his master’s debtors and reduces their debts to curry favor with them that he might have some recourse after losing his position. On its face, he appears to continue to mismanage his master’s affairs, again for his own benefit. And then we have this odd reaction from his master:

“The master commended the dishonest steward for his prudence…” Luke 16:8a

??

This is followed by Jesus saying to the Pharisees: “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” Luke 16: 9

So, am I the only one that was ever confused by this? Looks to me like Jesus is telling us to lie, cheat and steal to gain heaven. I’ve never been particularly enlightened by any of the homilies I’ve heard on this either. Most times the focus is on the earlier reading from Amos, which talks about how the people “observe the Sabbath” by not selling and cheating in the marketplace, yet, their hearts and minds are focused on when they can resume their dishonest lives instead of on the worship of God. Let’s face it, there is a lot of material to work with there, in our time as much as 2000 years ago.

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The Joyful, Cosmic Dance

Posted: by Melanie Jean Juneau

kid_dancing_rain

Is joy at the heart of your life in Christ? Many Catholics feel beleaguered as they struggle to stand up for the truth in an increasingly hostile environment. Of course, it is easy to become so busy addressing serious moral and religious issues that our spirituality is relegated to Sunday Mass and a few Hail Marys rattled off on the run. However, if we are determined to be effective agents of change in society, we must make time to learn how to live in, with, and through Christ. Only when we are filled with the power of Holy Spirit, we will witness effectively with joy, with a dance in our step.

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Recipe for Holiness: 2 Parts Courage

Posted: by Allison Gingras

Pope Francis_Recipe for Holiness

Personally, I am not good with courage or living simply.   My anxieties have me afraid of pretty much everything:

  • lightning storms
  • spiders, snakes, anything that creeps
  • germs
  • being alone
  • injury or illness to my kids

…just to name a few.

As I have well documented in my Money Monday series; my inability to live within my means for the last 30+ years has wreaked havoc on my finances and my peace of mind.  Where was Pope Francis’ message when I needed it? If I’m honest, would I have even listened back then?
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Well, luckily as long as I’m breathing – there is always time to find out.  Here’s the amazing thing about being a believer and a friend of God – “see I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5); today I can make the changes necessary to embrace this message and apply its teaching to my current (and for hence forth) circumstances.

Life requires courage.  That is clear in the horrific events of this year – just making the decision to leave our homes can be cause for pause.  In the case of my dear friend from our parish, stabbed in her own home by a random act by a distraught young man, even home doesn’t feel safe any longer.  There is illness and accidents; and so much beyond our control that can lead our hearts to ache; and fall into despair and fear.   As a person who has battled anxiety her entire life (diagnosed with a ‘nervous stomach’ at age 9); just watching the news or reading social media can send me spiraling into a panic attack.

So what do we do?  …  read more on Reconciled To You 

All Rights Reserved, Allison Gingras 2016
Cover photo copyright – Debbie Guadino, Saints 365

You Can’t Make a Silk Purse Out Of A Sow’s Ear

Posted: by Melanie Jean Juneau

Man cannot transform himself into a holy being. As my Irish grandmother would say,“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”In other words, only Christ can transform us into His image and draw us into the heart of His Father.

Atendance at Mass, regular confession, spiritual exercises, fasting, and prayer are wonderful vehicles of grace but if we think pious activities will sanctify us, we will only appear to be holy on the outside like the Pharisees:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.(Matthew 23:27)

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Do We Follow the Church or Does the Church Just Happen to Agree With Us?

Posted: by David W

Some people become or stay Catholics because they agree that the Church has the authority to teach and give their assent to that teaching. Others become or stay Catholics because they find her position on certain topics compatible with their own. The former is like a house built on rock, the latter is like a house built on sand. Like the houses in Our Lord’s parable, the one built on sand faces ruin.

Why do I say this? Because the Church is simultaneously gifted with Our Lord’s authority (Luke 10:16) and protected from teaching error (Matthew 16:18. Matthew 28:19-20) on one hand and filled with sinful people who need salvation on the other. So when the Church teaches and we dislike the teaching, or if we get scandalized by the bad behavior of some churchmen, the only thing that will keep us on the right path is faith that God protects His Church. If we treat our affiliation with the Church like a political affiliation, what will we do when the Church goes in a direction we don’t like?

Continued HERE

Quick Quips: Bulletproof Personal Infallibility

Posted: by David W

It’s time for some more short observations on topics. I write this set about the rebellion against the magisterium and how we excuse it when we find ourselves in the wrong. We do this so well that whatever the Church teaches what we dislike, we automatically treat it as proof of their error.

Double Standards Make Us Hypocrites

Dual hypocrisy2

When it comes to people citing Scripture or Church teaching in a partisan attack, it always gets quoted in a way which condemns an opponent but ignores one’s own transgressions. The liberal Catholic points to Scripture or Church teaching about charity and care for the poor, condemning his conservative opponent for hypocrisy. But he ignores them on morality. Likewise, the conservative Catholic points out what they have to say about living rightly, but ignores them on the topic of mercy.

Both of them take pleasure in accusing the other of being bad Christians but both behave hypocritically. They edit Scripture Church teaching to what pleases them and ignore the parts they violate. Our Lord gets transformed into an endorsement of a theological or political position. The problem is, our faith calls us to be both moral and charitable; both just and merciful. If we only obey the faith we profess when it suits us, we disobey and cause scandal to non-believers who can plainly see our hypocrisy.

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