Slaves of All

A small chain worn as a reminder of Holy Slavery

Readings for Sunday, October 18/ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm 33
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45

As you all know, I’m something of an amateur runner. A very amateur runner. One thing that I’ve learned in the past few years of preparing for races is that I’m very bad at setting my own steady pace. I start off at a good quick pace, feeling confident that I can keep it up. And so I begin at 11-12 minute miles. Then after a half mile I’m at 12-13 minute miles. Before the second mile is done I’m often slugging along at 15 minute miles, which is more of a quick walk than a slow run. Not only do I tend to slow down over the time but I find myself out of breath and occasionally unable to finish the intended distance I had set as a goal. In contrast I find that when someone else sets a moderate pace and is consistent with it that I can usually keep up and run for longer distances. And breathe.

That image came to mind as I was praying with the Scriptures for this weekend because it seems that James and John are out there trying to set their own pace and it doesn’t work out so well for them. They walk up to Jesus and in a statement that shows what is either great boldness or great stupidity: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Jesus humors them a bit, knowing the foolishness of such a request but using it as a teachable moment. Upon hearing their request for the seat at the right and left of the Lord’s glory, He immediately responds, “You do not know what you are asking.” He knows what His seat of glory would look like and it was anything other than a comfortable kingly chair; it was a cross. If James and John had understood the reality of their request they would surely have shrunk back in fear and willingly abandoned their desire. The problem is that they were trying to set their own pace and had the Lord let them pursue it, they would surely have been unable to run the full race. Thankfully it is the Lord who always walks with us in our eagerness so as to bring us back to the place where we need to be. He enters into the darkness so as to guide us back into the light.

“Whoever wishes to be the first among you must be the slave of all.” With these words Jesus helps to point the disciples back in the right direction. We all know that as Christians if we seek to exalt ourselves we will be cast down and if we humble ourselves we will be lifted up. And yet we still struggle. Jesus uses this strong language to challenge us to keep up the struggle and indeed to place ourselves in the last spot of all. In the day of the Lord there were essentially two types of people who did the lowest forms of work: servants and slaves. Servants were free persons who did the work for the money. Slaves, as we know, were simply perceived as property of the master. A servant could leave his labor and go elsewhere, but a slave was unable. A servant received a reward for their labor; a slave was simply carrying out their duty. A servant gave a part of himself; a slave gave everything.  A servant sets his own path in some sense, but a slave is simply directed in the way to go. The labor may look the same, but the interior reality is far from the same.

It might startle us a bit to hear Jesus tell us to be slaves, but this is a common theme in the Scriptures. Jesus Himself alludes to slavery also in the last line of the Gospel just proclaimed with the reference to ‘ransoming the many’ – a description of purchasing persons. To this we can also add the other passages in which we are reminded that we all were “purchased, and at a price.” We all were born in original sin, slaves of the evil one and the desires of our flesh. But it is Jesus Christ Who has bought us for God, who set us free from slavery to sin and invites to take up a new slavery, a holy slavery, a slavery not of obligation but of love.

Holy slavery seems like a strange idea, since we are brothers and sisters of the Lord, and Jesus Himself refers to us as ‘no longer servants but friends’. But it is Our Lord that first sets the standard of holy slavery. In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul speaks of Christ “taking on the form of a slave” – He took on humanity. His life in the flesh is not one that seeks to accomplish His own will but the will of the One Who sent Him (God the Father). It is a life in which He willingly submits to follow the pace of the Father out of love for Him. And He invites us to join ourselves in doing the same.

Holy slavery has a great tradition in the life of the Church, but came alive in a new way in the late 1600’s in the preaching of St. Louis Marie de Montfort. St. Louis wrote a book called True Devotion to Mary and numerous saints and popes of the Church have spoken of it as “the highest form of devotion to Our Lady”, “a decisive turning point in my life” and spoke of the graces of following his method of devotion to Mary. And that devotion was holy slavery to Jesus through Mary. The encouragement is to give everything we have to Mary, that she might bring us to Jesus. She is so powerful because she alone among humanity was free from sin here entire life, from conception until her Assumption, and so can help us to follow the divine pace rather than rely upon ourselves and our own plans.

To this end, I will be consecrating our parish to Our Lady on December 8^th of this year, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which will also mark the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. What I propose to you though is that you don’t allow it simply to be ‘Father consecrating the parish to Mary’ but rather to have each of us consecrate ourselves to Mary that same day as a parish. I have in the back of the church copies of a book titled “33 Days to Morning Glory” which everyone is encouraged to pick up and take home. It is a method suggested by St. Louis of taking 33 days, mirroring the 33 years of Christ’s life, to prepare our hearts by reflecting on our relationship with Jesus & Mary. To conclude in time for the consecration on December 8^th, you would begin on November 5^th. So I invite you to join with me in taking up or renewing this holy slavery. Together let us give everything to Jesus through the hands of our most loving mother Mary, knowing that though the rewards will be many, the great reward will be the consolation and joy that wells up in the Heart of Jesus that we are joining with Him in this labor.

Read more about Holy Slavery HERE.

The Response

Readings for Sunday, June 28/ 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Mark 5:21-43

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis spoke to us these words: “The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these beonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with tohers depite our differences and to belong to one another; it is alos the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage no tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born ‘of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but form the depth of the obligation assumed by spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life.’”

As you all presumably know, the Supreme Court of the United States announced their opinion Friday, decided by a 5-4 vote, to reject the traditional view of marriage in light of a new definition that permits ‘same-sex marriage’ in all 50 states. While this may upset us, it should surprise us because traditional marriage has been under attack for a long while and this is just one more step. Catholic theology on marriage notes that marriage has two ‘ends’ or ‘goals’, namely procreation and the good of the spouses, which basically means the union is emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, & physically beneficial. We can see that attacks on procreation began decades ago with the introduction and encouragement of contraceptives. This fundamentally separates marriage and its first end. Following behind it is the continued attack on children. Abortion necessarily follows because when contraception fails there has to be a means to be rid of the child one sought first to avoid. From there society made ‘advances’ in being able to choose certain attributes of their children and ‘get rid of’ children who had undesirable attributes. In vitro fertilization and other unethical means of creating life only further the chasm between marriage and the gift of children. The good of the spouses came under attack with the introduction of no-fault divorce, which necessarily makes marriage less binding and thus less valued. To this we can add the devaluing of women in general. It’s interesting to me that in an age when feminism fights so strongly for the rights of women to equal pay, equal job opportunity, etc. (rightly so!) that the culture continues to treat women worse and worse. Women are generally not valued in themselves for the gift that they are, but rather are used for their bodies and their ability to increase sales. This is only encouraged by the acceptance of pornography and pornographic films and books, which only seek to make people objects to be used instead of persons to be loved. With all that has happened to the two ends of marriage, it is no surprise then that the very definition of marriage itself should be free from attack.

The question is this: how do we respond?

I’ve seen responses ranging from fear, anger and despair to excitement, relief, and celebration. As Catholic we ought to stand on neither end of that spectrum but rather firmly planted in the middle full of faith, hope, and love. We are called to have faith that God is in control of this country and this world, regardless of what happens around us. We are called to have hope that Marriage would shine brightly in our culture and remind us of the love of God for us and our call to heavenly life. And we’re called to love. Love of every single person who stands in front of us, regardless of their age, sex, race, social status, sexual orientation, or any other personal attribute, because they are a person. Because they are created in the image and likeness of God. Because they were made to love and be loved.

A lot of times the Catholic Church is painted as this hate-filled body that spews its hatred and condemnation at people who identify as gay, lesbian, transgender, bi-sexual, queer, etc. But did you know the Church says the stands for the exact opposite? The Catechism says unambiguously that we are called to show them ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ and that we are to avoid any sign of unjust discrimination toward them. Holy Mother Church loves all of her children and wants to have all of humanity rest in her loving arms. Sadly, we Catholics and fellow-Christians often failed to convey this truth, but the call still stands for us to be images of God’s love ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we condone or celebrate ‘same-sex marriage’ or relationships that lead to such, but it does mean continuing to love the other by showing respect, compassion, sensitivity, and honoring the dignity of others.

So our response needs to be one of faith, hope, and love, which is exactly the same at it has always been. The Supreme Court can say whatever it wants, but the ultimate reality is that the true King of this world is Jesus Christ. I love my country deeply, but we all have to remember that we’re Catholic first and American second. And that means that our Catholic faith informs everything we do. And what is our mission as Catholics? To shine with the light of Christ.

Did you hear the Collect at the beginning of Mass today? It’s easy to miss but it was beautiful: “O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.” I love that last line ‘be seen to stand in the bright light of truth’; not just to stand there, but to be seen standing there. We are called to be witnesses that reflect the Light of Christ as the moon reflects that of the sun.

As I noted last weekend, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders both are sacraments of service. The entire goal of the individual is to get the other person to heaven. I’m a priest. I’m obligated to be a holy priest, a saintly priest. The Catechism tells me that my life as a priest is to be entirely consecrated to service of the others. Every moment of my day is to be dedicated to getting every single one of you and many others to walk through the pearly gates of heaven and sing the Gloria along with the angels and saints. And if I get there too, good! My call is to shine with the Light of Christ in holiness and priestly ministry.

Single people, your call is much the same. To consecrate your days to loving whoever stands before you. Love them as if it were Jesus Himself and seek to recognize in them the Christ who seeks to love you as well. Be holy and happy Catholics, radiating the joy of the Gospel in your eyes as well as on your lips. Seek the Lord at all times and trust in His guidance of you through all that life brings.

Married people, your call is the same, but even more important. When marriage is under attack, the need is for good, holy marriages to be even more visible and even more effective in their outpouring of love and witness of the goodness of the sacraments. You are called to be icons of the Most Blessed Trinity! The love of husbands for their wives and wives for their husbands is a powerful sign of the love of God for us, and the love of both for their children speaks even more fully of the life and love of God in Himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Husbands and wives, remember that your goal is not to get to Heaven and hopefully to drag your spouse along with you. The goal is to get your spouse to Heaven and for them to drag you! When this mutual selfless love is present then it produces saints, both in the parents and the children. The parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Bl. Louis & Bl. Zelie Martin, will soon be canonized and only for the fact that they were a holy family. Be models for your children and for all the world of the gift of God’s grace, and the joy of selfless giving. It can seem that you have little effect on the world, ‘what good can I do in such a big world?’ you might be tempted to think. But remember that Pope St. John Paul II called the family the basic cell of society and a blessing to the world. Strong words. St. John Chrysostom has some strong words too in a homily on marriage as he reminds each and all of us that “The love of a husband and wife are the force that welds society together.”

Be the force and the weld. Be the blessing and the light. Be saints.

Good Friday

Readings for Good Friday - The Lord's Passion

“Do not let hope die! Stake your lives on it. We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son.”

Do not let hope die. These words of St. John Paul II are the trumpet call to our hearts in the midst of Good Friday to remember the truth of the event of the Cross that we have entered into this afternoon.

Love and sweetness itself was mocked and cursed.

He Who hung the earth on the waters is hung on a Tree.

The King of Angels is crowned with piercing thorns.

He Who wrapped the Heavens in clouds is wrapped in the cloak of mockery.

He Who freed Adam from sin is bound in chains.

The Bridegroom of the Church is fixed to the Cross with nails.

To the eyes of the world, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is foolishness, a stumbling block for belief, the unfortunate end of a promising leader. But to those with the eyes of faith: Christ, the power of God and the Wisdom of God. The Wisdom of God! Who among us would consider this wisdom? And yet it is.

The Cross is our only hope because in it we see the truth that Christ is stronger than everything, even death itself. The victory of Jesus on the Cross means that there is absolutely nothing that cannot be conquered by Christ is we let Him in. Nothing. The hardest of hearts are as butter pierced by a warm knife. The darkest of souls becomes radiant with Divine Grace.

St. Leo the Great reminds us of this reality as he writes, “No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the Cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against Him. How much more does it bring to whose who turn to Him in repentance.”

“Do you realize what I have done for you?”

HWP: St. John Paul II

Happy feast of Pope SAINT John Paul II! Today we celebrate the official feast of this man of God who had such a profound impact upon the Church and the world, and whose effects are still manifesting themselves as time unfolds. I keep in my office a little prayer card of Fr. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, that says 'One good priest can make a difference.' Pope St. John Paul shows us the truth of that statement. As a suggestion, maybe pick up something he wrote and start reading it - during his pontificate he wrote on just about anything you might find fascinating. So, I'll quit my gushing of this saint of God and get to this week's Half-Way Prayer: 

A Prayer to St. John Paul II

O, St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing! Bless the church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading it along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young, who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up high again to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth. 

May you bless families, bless each family! You warned of Satan’s assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. St. John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family. 

Pray for the whole world, which is still marked by tensions, wars and injustice. You tackled war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love: pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace. 

O St. John Paul, from heaven’s window, where we see you next to Mary, send God’s blessing down upon us all. Amen.

I Got All 10!

Readings for Sunday, April 27/ Divine Mercy Sunday:
Acts 2:42-47

Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

It’s the time of year when we start to see all the First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion pictures popping up on social media sites and the events happening in our community. The little girls come in their cute dresses and some even decked in veils, the boys with their best suits on, all looking nice for their big day. As a priest, I particularly love the reconciliation part because it’s like being stoned to death by popcorn – seven year olds aren’t usually horrible sinners. Maybe they’re just holding back, but I doubt it. My experience of First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion were very different. Because my family left when I was little to attend the Methodist Church in our home town, I didn’t have the true Sacraments of the Church, so when we returned I had to start from scratch as an 11 year old. At 12 I celebrate First Reconciliation and remember it rather clearly. You know how the ‘Examination of Conscience’ sheets often break down the 10 Commandments? I walked in, sat down in the chair, looked at the priest and said, “I got all 10!” At age 12 the sins I spoke weren’t popcorn style because I had learned how to sin well and often. The bigger problem was that I didn’t even care because I had no belief in God, no faith, no anything that made me think that maybe I should be worried about the things I’d done in my life to that point. I didn’t get the seriousness of it.

This weekend Mother Church invites us to pause and realize the full implication of the message of Divine Mercy. Did you hear the opening Collect of Mass? We prayed for the grace, “that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed.” We need to understand the message of Mercy and that begins by understanding the reality of sin.

To simply say, “I have sinned” or “I broke one of the Commandments” or even “I hurt God” doesn’t always hit home. It can seem a bit vague or lacking in consequence. But to say bluntly “I deserve to go to Hell”… well, that’s a different story. The truth is that because we are sinners, because we break the Commandments and offend the Lord, we do deserve Hell - or maybe we could put it a bit more nicely since it’s Easter and say we don’t deserve Heaven. Either way that’s the reality and it’s true for all of humanity. Not even the Blessed Mother herself deserved Heaven apart from God! Let that soak in. It was because God preserved her from sin and He cleanses us from it and we are able to enter into the Kingdom prepared for the Righteous. And when we realize that, when we realize that we deserve Hell but are given the gift of Heaven, then we really understand Divine Mercy. I didn’t understand the value of Mercy at my first Confession, but I understand it today more than I ever have and I hope that understanding deepens as the years go along.

So we gather here today to call to mind, to celebrate, and to be immersed in, the infinite Divine Mercy of God. The Mercy that is so great that is k“Let the house of Israel say, “His mercy endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His mercy endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say, “His mercy endures forever.” Psalm 136 in the Scriptures says it even more, after every line, “for His mercy endures forever.” The truth is that God Divine Mercy does indeed endure forever and there is nothing that can separate us from it. There is no sin – past, present, or future – which can separate us from the Love and Mercy of God. God’s Mercy conquers everything, even death itself. God wants us to have that Mercy, to live that Mercy, and to show that Mercy to others. The question is this: do we want that Mercy?

nows no limits, that counts no costs, and that is willing to give more than we can ever ask. The Mercy that led Jesus Christ to climb the Cross and die for me. For you. That is the Mercy we celebrate today. It’s the Mercy we heard spoken in our readings, most beautifully in Psalm 118.

In the Church today there is lots of talk about the day of four popes – Popes Francis and Benedict celebrating the canonization of Pope Saints John XXIII and John Paul II. But there is another pope speaking to us today and that’s the original Pope, Peter himself. In the second reading today we heard an outpouring of rejoicing in the words of Peter. This rejoicing comes because Peter knows Mercy. Just a week or so ago we heard how Peter said at dinner “Lord, I will never deny you!” and yet he had done so thrice before breakfast, in addition to turning his face from the Lord at the scourging and the total abandonment for the crucifixion. Peter knew his sin all too well, but the Mercy of God came to him and changed everything. No more was Peter stuck in sin, but he was alive in Christ Jesus. The words he writes are in the second person tense ‘you’ but only because he knew them before in the first person ‘I’. Let’s listen to that first line again in that mindset.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave ME a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for ME, who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

In the midst of so much celebration in the Church, let us implore our Lord to help us know the reality and consequences of our sinfulness that we might indeed come to understand the true power and value of the gift of Mercy that He shows to us today and, filled with joy, share that with the whole world.

Where am I?

Pope Francis during the Passion Sunday celebration

Readings for Sunday, April 13/ Palm Sunday:
Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Philippians 2:6-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66

When Jesus came to Golgatha,

They hanged Him on a tree,

They drove great nails through hands and feet,

And made a Calvary.

They crowned Him with a crown of thorns,

Red were His wounds and deep,

For those were crude and cruel days,

And human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham

They simply passed Him by,

They never hurt a hair of Him,

They only let Him die;

For men have grown more tender,

And they would not give Him pain,

They only just passed down the street,

And left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them,

For they know not what they do!

And still it rained the winter rain

That drenched Him through and through;

The crowd went home and left the streets

Without a soul to see,

And Jesus crouched against a wall

And cried for Calvary.

This poem entitled ‘Indifference’ was written by G.A. Studdert-Kennedy  in the early 20^th Century as an indictment on a culture that had lost its passion and a people whose heart had grown cold. The same could well be said of our society today. We are one in which things are ‘better’ now than ever before and we would never do something as bad as crucify someone. We’re more civilized than that.

Blessed John Paul II often spoke in his reflections and homilies that the opposite of love is not hatred but indifference. Listen again. The opposite of love is not hatred but indifference. Jesus Himself says in the Gospels that we should be either hot or cold, for if we are lukewarm we will be spat out, rejected. In the Passion narrative we just prayed together, we heard a whole variety of voices. We heard the voice of Love Himself in the person of Jesus. We hear echoes of His love in the quiet presence of the Blessed Mother, St. Mary Magdalene, the others with them at the Cross, Simon of Cyrene and the like. We also heard those voices of hatred. The blistery words of Judas, the voices of the high priests, Sanhedrin, and elders, as well as the bloodthirsty crowd crying out for the death of the Christ. “Crucify Him! Let his blood be upon us and our children!” They were not content with scourging, beatings, or mockeries. Death on the Cross, and that alone, would quench their thirst. But then there is also another group here in the midst of the story that we often over look – the silent majority.

We don’t understand the magnitude of the city of Jerusalem. Jewish Historians recount that during the week of Passover, well over 500,000 Passover lambs were slain in the Temple and as the Gospel hinted at, each lamb required to men to prepare it for the meal. That means that over 1 million men had travelled to Jerusalem, many of them bringing other family or friends along with them, and that number being in addition to the community already dwelling there. This means that like 2 million or more people were around the city when the Lord entered in the triumphal procession and was later crucified. Where were their voices in the story? They were not hot or cold, but lukewarm. They weren’t angry enough to hate Jesus, nor were they strong enough to love Him. So they simply passed Him by, unaware that their salvation was right before them.

Homeless Jesus Statue by Timothy Schmalz

The Passion narrative is a lengthy one and there is much there to ponder. It’s not meant to be something we read once a year and are done with it. We should come back to it regularly, but especially in this Holy Week of preparation for the Sacred Triduum and Easter. So that’s what I invite you to do. Take up this Gospel passage each day this week and read through it as you ask yourself the question: Where am I in here? Where is my voice? Am I full of love for the Lord? Am I full of hatred for some reason? Has my heart grown cold such that Jesus doesn’t really have an impact upon my life? Where am I in here? Where is my voice?

O Good Jesus, let your Precious Blood truly be upon us, not to condemn us, but to heal us and save us.

HWP: Respect for Life

I would be remiss if I didn't include in this 'Respect Life Month' a prayer for greater respect for life! So.... I bring today the prayer by Blessed John Paul II from the closing of his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life):

 

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life:
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely,
in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life. 

They're ALIVE!!!

Readings for Sunday, October 20/ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Exodus 17:8-13
Psalm 121:1-8
2 Timothy 3:14-14:2
Luke 18:1-8

I don’t know about y’all but I love the Old Testament, especially because every so often it will have one of these gems of a story that we hear this evening, where Joshua and the people of Israel fight against Amalek and his army and th outcome is determined not by might or strategy but by whether Moses hands were up… or down. Yep! So the story goes! The reality is that when God first began to reveal Himself to the people of Israel they were in need of many physical signs and manifestations of His presence and guidance. God used that foundation to speak later of the deeper meaning of the physical signs that would lead His people to a more spiritual approach to life in the Lord. In the end it wasn’t really the placement of Moses’ hands that was all that important so much as the meaning of his hands being raised up in the first place. To have your hands lifted up in the air was a sign of prayer before God. We see it today in the liturgy when the priest extends his hands in prayer at various times throughout the Mass, especially in the Eucharistic Prayer, as well as in many more charismatic communities. Also, consider that Aaron and Hur were on either side holding up his hands and we can easily conceive that Moses was actually holding his arms out, foreshadowing Christ crucified who would win us the ultimate victory. The point of the story is to remind us that to the extent that we are people of prayer and conform ourselves to Christ crucified we will be victorious in our battles. And to the extent that we are not people of prayer and flee from imitating Christ crucified we will experience defeat.

This emphasis on prayer is what St. Luke drives home as a preface to Jesus’ story, as he writes of “the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” It wasn’t that it was highly advisable that the disciples prayer, or that they should do so when they get a free moment and don’t have anything better to do. It is an absolute necessity to pray and to persist in prayer. Our God desires to pour out His blessings on us but we must do our part in seeking them out. We must be people of prayer.

The story from Exodus isn’t just a story of a battle that took place some 3000+ years ago. It’s story of every single one of us gathered here in this church today. That people once bound in slavery had received the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey, symbolically of place of life, prosperity and joy. To arrive at that place, however, they had to battle many nations who sought to keep the Israelites from entering the land. Our story is the same except that rather than freedom from physical slavery we fight to be freed from the bonds of slavery to sin. And the battles that we are called to fight, St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12, are not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. We are fighting against our sinful flesh, against the world that tempts us, and against the devil who always seeks to deprive us of peace. And the land that we long to attain is not an earthly place but our heavenly homeland where all the angels and saints await us. It is for us to be willing to hold up our hands and gain the victory.

On this topic of prayer, Blessed John Paul II said this in a 1979 address to youth: “We must…pray because we are frail and guilty. It must be humbly and realistically recognized that we are poor creatures, confused in ideas, tempted by evil, frail and weak, in continual need of inner strength and consolation. Prayer gives the strength for great ideas, to maintain faith, charity, purity, and generosity. Prayer gives the courage to turn from indifference and guilt if unfortunately we have yielded to temptation and weakness. Prayer gives light to see and consider the events of one’s own life and of history in the salvific perspective of God and eternity. Therefore, do not stop praying! Let not a day pass without having prayed a little! Prayer is a duty, but it is also a great joy, because it is a dialogue with God through Jesus Christ! Every Sunday, Holy Mass: if it is possible for you sometimes during the week. Every day, morning and evening prayers, and at the most suitable moments!”

These words of this soon-to-be saint recall that need for us to come weekly for Mass but also to come before the Lord daily in prayer. The great thing about our Catholic faith is that we have so many diverse ways to pray and there are enough rote prayers written by saints and sinners throughout the centuries that you could write them all on sheets and paper and they’d stack up clear from the floor to the roof of the church and probably higher. But the bad things is that we have so many diverse ways to pray and different prayers we could pray that it easily becomes a problem because we don’t know where to start!

While there are many great ways to pray, there is one privileged place to start with our prayer and that is Sacred Scripture. Our second reading called to mind the fact that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The key word in there is ‘inspired’ because that means that God breathed His Spirit into the text. It’s not just words like every other book in the world, but is a book that is alive and speaks to us if we are willing to take the time to listen. And one way that the Church has offered pray with the Scriptures throughout the centuries is what is known as Lectio Divina, or divine reading. Some of you may have heard of it and some of you may be doing it already without realizing it.

The method of Lectio Divina is simple and composed of four basic steps. First is to read. Pick a selection from the Bible and read through it a couple of times. Usually a word or phrase will stick out if we’re attentive. The second step is meditating on the text. Ask questions about why things are the way they are, what details might be pointing to, what does this have to do with the bigger picture. And spend some time putting yourself into the shoes of the people in the story – consider what it might be like to be the Apostles hearing Jesus teach, or a Pharisee receiving a sharp rebuke, or the Blessed Mother watching your son in His ministry. As we really begin to interact with the text and place ourselves in the scene, the Lord will usually begin to raise questions in our own hearts that are in need of answering. That leads us to the third step of prayer. We take the things we’ve reflected upon and the things the Lord ahs brought up and we bring them to Him in prayer and ask how we can be changed and transformed by what we’ve read. And lastly we sit in contemplation, which is simply to rest in God’s presence not necessarily doing anything for ourselves but letting God give the grace we need to put into action the things we’ve prayed about.

You can do that with any Bible, but sometimes the text isn’t so clear. To help with that I recommend a book entitled ‘The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer” by Fr. John Bartunek (HERE on Amazon; it's also available for iPhone). It is a tool that is worth its weight in gold, and I don’t say that lightly. This book has the power to change and transform our lives by transforming our prayer and I speak from personal experience as I’ve been using it for the past year myself. The first 60 pages or so are a primer on prayer that addresses all of our questions on prayer such as ‘How do I pray?’, ‘What is prayer supposed to be like?’, ‘Am I praying well?’ and ‘I feel stuck in my prayer, how can I get better?’ These and other questions he addresses in a straightforward fashion. Then the next 950 pages or so are used to break open the Gospels. He takes the four Gospel and splices them into sections like we have at Mass and for each section for the entirety of the Gospels he has three separate reflections that help to draw us deeper into the mystery of the Scriptures and to encounter Christ. If we make the time to pray, especially with this book, we will indeed be found possessing that faith the Lord longs to find upon His return. So let us today as God’s grace to keep us strong in our faith, that we might indeed be always lifting up our hands to the Lord in prayer.