"Give us this day our daily bread"

I've sometimes wondered how to reconcile the reality of crippling poverty with some of the promises that Jesus makes in the Bible. Jesus teaches His disciples to pray "Give us each day our daily bread" (Luke 11:3), and then a few verses later he promises that "every one who asks receives" (Luke 11:10). Now, I am sure that there are many people throughout the world who earnestly pray the Lord's Prayer every day, and yet starve. Where is their daily bread? Why are they not receiving what they ask for, even though it's something Jesus specifically told them to ask for? Why isn't God holding up His end of the deal?

I think I got some insight into this problem on Monday when I talked with a man who has been working in Guatemala for the past few years. For 18 months he worked with people in Guatemala City who literally lived in a garbage dump. They dug their homes out of the garbage, and the floors were garbage and the walls were garbage. For the past year he's been working in the rural areas of Guatemala, where 50 percent of people are so poor that they can't afford sufficient food for their families. Here's what he said:

"Now when I say the Lord's Prayer, it's just very different for me. It's much more immediate, that it's not something just on Sunday, but it's actually a daily prayer there for them. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' And I think it's important to remember it doesn't say 'my daily bread,' it says 'our daily bread,' that it's for the whole world. You know, it's not, 'Oh, give me enough for me to get by today.' No. It's 'Give us -- give all of us -- our daily bread,' and I have a greater understanding of that now."

As usual, the problem is not with God, but with us. He has certainly provided us with enough food to feed the world. But selfishness and indifference keep us from seeing that those who are hungry get the food they need. There's no excuse for it. We are responsible for one another. I probably eat enough for a small village, and somewhere a child is swallowing rocks to fill the awful emptiness in his belly.

The pope's prayer at Ground Zero

From EWTN, the text of Pope Benedict's prayer at Ground Zero in New York this morning:

"O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths
and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.

"We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here —
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and
Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.

"We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.

"Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives
with courage and hope.

"We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

"Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.

"God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.

"Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.

"God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.

"Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all."

Get free stuff

You should really go here to request an absolutely free copy of the monthly magazine Magnificat. It's a beautiful little book that could really help you deepen your prayer life. I bought the March edition, and I'm loving it. For each day of the month, it has morning and evening prayers adapted from the Liturgy of the Hours, as well as all the Scripture readings and prayers of the Mass. Each issue also has prayers for night, daily meditations, mini biographies of Saints, a few editorials, and an article on a piece of religious art.

I'm also a sucker for publications that feel nice, tactilely, and this is one of the nicest feeling ones I've come across. It would be worth getting one of these things just to hold it in your hands. It's about 400 pages, but you could still put it in your back pocket. The paper is really thin, but the whole thing's incredibly sturdy -- very high-quality. The covers are smooth and shiny, smoother than a normal magazine. Anyway, maybe not so important to the normal person, but I enjoy it.

So yeah, check it out. Like I say, it's completely free -- no shipping cost, and it's not even one of those awful "free trial" things where you have to send back a card so they don't start billing you. Just free. And you might really like it.

Lectio Divina

I found a website today dedicated to lectio divina, a way of prayerfully reading and meditating on Scripture. The site is run by the Carmelite Order, and it seems to have commentaries and reflections on the Gospel readings for every Sunday of the year, as well as some weekdays. It looks like it could be a great aid in reading and understanding the Gospels and drawing closer to God. Here's the entry for today:

1) Opening prayer

God, we tend to lose ourselves
in the bustle and stir of the day,
in our work and our petty worries.
Give us the freshness of heart
to look for the things that matter,
those that make our lives deeply human
and at the same time open us
to your world and to your values.
Make us long to encounter you with joy,
that we may discover again the quality
of gratuitous giving, of respect,
and of carefree, self-forgetting love,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

2) Gospel Reading – Luke 1, 39-45

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah.
She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'

3) Reflection

• Luke stresses the readiness of Mary in serving, in being a handmaid. The Angel speaks about the pregnancy of Elizabeth and immediately, Mary rises and sets out as quickly as she could to go and help her. From Nazareth to the house of Elizabeth there were more than 100 km, the minimum, four days of travelling!, There were no buses, no trains. Mary begins to serve and fulfils her mission in behalf of the people of God.
• Elizabeth represents the Old Testament which was about to end. Mary represents the New Testament. The Old Testament accepts the New one with gratitude and trust, recognizing in it God’s gratuitous gift which is going to be realized and is going to complete the expectation of people. In the encounter of the two women is manifested the gift of the Spirit. The child leapt with joy in Elizabeth’s womb. This is the reading of the faith which Elizabeth makes of the things of life.
• The Good News of God reveals his presence in the most common things of human life: two house wives who visit each other to mutually help one another. Visit, joy, pregnancy, children, mutual help, house, family: Luke wants us and the community to perceive precisely this and that we discover in this God’s presence.
• Elizabeth says to Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Up until today, these words form part of the best known Psalm and most prayed in the whole world, “The Hail Mary”.
• “And blessed is she who has believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled”. This is the praise of Elizabeth to Mary and the message of Luke for the community: to believe in the Word of God, because the Word of God has the force to fulfil all that which it tells us. It is a creative Word. It generates new life in the womb of the Virgin, in the womb of people who accept it with faith.
• Mary and Elizabeth already knew one another. But in this encounter, they discover, one in one another, a mystery which they had not known as yet, and which fills them with great joy. Today also, we meet persons who surprise us because of the wisdom they possess and the witness of faith that they give. Has something similar happened to you already? Have you met persons who have surprised you? What prevents us from discovering and from living the joy of God’s presence in our life?
• The attitude of Mary before the Word expresses the ideal which Luke wants to communicate to the Community: do not close yourselves in self, but get out of self, be attentive to the concrete needs of persons and try to help others as far as possible according to their need.

4) Personal questions

• Placing myself in the place of Mary and Elizabeth: am I capable to perceive and experience the presence of God in the most simple and common things in the life of every day?
• The praise of Elizabeth to Mary: “You have believed!” Her husband had difficulty to believe what the angel was telling him. And I?

5) Concluding Prayer

We are waiting for Yahweh;
he is our help and our shield,
for in him our heart rejoices,
in his holy name we trust. (Ps 33,20-21)

Praying to Saints

Note: Before I get started, I'm just going to clarify that when Catholics pray to Saints, we are not worshiping them. Worship is reserved for God alone, as the Catholic Church has always taught and will always teach. And Saints are certainly not God. They are simply people -- real, sinful people -- who sought to live lives of faith and holiness and who are now in Heaven with God.

Moving on: Jeanette asked me tonight what the point of praying to Saints is. I told her that was something I'd often wondered about myself. I tried to give her a decent answer at the time, and maybe this post will help clarify things a little more.

Many non-Catholic Christians have a big problem with the idea of praying to Saints, largely based on 1 Timothy 2:5, which says, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." By praying to a Saint, Catholics are putting a mediator other than Christ between themselves and God, these Christians argue.

I guess now would be a good time to talk about what Catholics do when we pray to a Saint. I've already said it's not worship, but what is it? Basically, it's asking the Saint to intercede for you, to pray to God on your behalf.

If you think about it, that's really not so different from something that many Christians do all the time. We all go through difficult times in our lives, and during those times of trial it's very common to ask our friends and relatives to pray for us. Now, I've never heard anyone make the objection, based on 1 Timothy 2:5, that this practice is unbiblical. And yet it is practically identical with the practice of praying to the Saints. In both cases you are asking someone other than Christ to pray to God for you.

Of course, the reason you never hear anyone worrying about circumventing or usurping the unique mediation of Christ by asking their friends to pray for them is that asking others to pray for you is a perfectly biblical practice. It's true that Jesus is the one mediator between God and men, but He can effect that mediation however He pleases, and He allows us to participate in His mediation. Jesus has not arranged things such that we cannot intercede or mediate for one another. This is clear enough from moving just a few verses back from 1 Timothy 2:5 to 2:1, where Paul writes, "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men." Indeed, in Romans 15:30, Paul specifically asks others to pray for him: "I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf." James is more explicit still when he tells his readers to "pray for one another" (James 5:16).

So it seems pretty clear to me -- since God inspired Paul to write both that Christ is the one mediator and that we should pray for each other -- that asking a friend to pray for you is not in conflict with 1 Timothy 2:5. And if we can ask our friends to pray for us, why not the Saints? The Saints are our friends in Heaven. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before us. They're not dead -- they're more alive than us, and more closely united to God. And since "nothing unclean shall enter" (Revelation 21:27) Heaven, we know that God has made the Saints in Heaven fully righteous. Now, James 5:16 tells us that "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects," so it seems like the Saints would be good people to have praying for you.

Praying to the Saints is not about circumventing Christ or avoiding Him or replacing Him -- it's about enlisting others who love Him and who know Him far better than we do to pray to Him along with us.

Now, when it comes to how prayer in general works, that is a mystery whose depths I have barely begun to plumb, so you'll have to give me some time if you'd ever like me to speak to that with any kind of clarity. For the time being, since I do not understand it, I must walk by faith in the amazing promises of Christ.

Holy water and sacramentals

So as we were leaving Mass tonight, Jeanette asked me, as she has a few times before, what the deal is with holy water. She asked in reference to the bowl of water at the back of the church that people commonly dip their fingers in before making the sign of the cross as they enter or leave the church building.

I told her, helpfully, that holy water is water that has been blessed by a priest. She asked what does it do? I said holy water is what's known as a sacramental, and that I wasn't entirely clear on what exactly sacramentals do, but that I thought they were supposed to have some symbolic/reminderly value. Anyway, since no one should have to go off of my vague notions and semi-educated guesses, I told Jeanette that I would do some research about sacramentals, and holy water specifically. So here are the fruits of my research.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has a section on sacramentals which starts off thusly:

"Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy." (CCC 1667, quoting Sacrosanctum concilium)

I didn't quite understand all that, so I kept reading to try to find out exactly what sacramentals are and what they do:

"They always include a prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water (which recalls Baptism)." (CCC 1668)

"Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church's prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. 'For well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event of their lives with the divine grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God.'" (CCC 1670, quoting Sacrosanctum concilium)

So, broadly speaking, it sounds like pretty much any material thing can be a sacramental, as long as it helps us to receive God's grace and cooperate with it. But apparently not all sacramentals are material:

"Among sacramentals blessings (of persons, meals, objects, and places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. In Christ, Christians are blessed by God the Father 'with every spiritual blessing.' This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the name of Jesus, usually while making the holy sign of the cross of Christ." (CCC 1671, quoting Ephesians 1:3)

Exorcism is also covered in the section on sacramentals, but now we're a long way from where we started, I think. Here's what the Catechism says "in brief" about sacramentals, and then we'll get back to holy water:

"Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life." (CCC 1677)

Jimmy Akin, a great Catholic apologist, gives this explanation of sacramentals on his blog:

"Like the other sacramentals, holy water thus serves as a means by which we can to something to signify our desire to consecrate ourselves and our circumstances to God, striking a connection with him in response to his grace and asking him to give us of his grace. They are, if you will, a kind of acted out prayer in which we and the Church implore God's blessings."

So, holy water. As I said, holy water is water that has been blessed by a priest, and it is a sacramental. And the bowl that it is kept in is properly called a font. Holy water is used for baptism (which is itself a sacrament, not to be confused with a sacramental) and, as I said, for making the sign of the cross as one enters a church. Dipping your fingers in holy water and making the sign of the cross is intended to be a reminder of baptism. A priest will also sometimes sprinkle holy water over the congregation at the beginning of Mass. You can even put some holy water from church in a bottle and take it home with you.

Anyway, to close, here is the rite of blessing said by the priest at a baptism to make water into holy water. I think it's wonderful.

"Father, You give us grace through sacramental signs, which tell us of the wonders of Your unseen power.

"In baptism we use Your gift of water, which You have made a rich symbol of the grace You give us in this sacrament.

"At the very dawn of creation, Your Spirit breathed on the waters, making them the wellspring of all holiness.

"The waters of the great flood You made a sign of the waters of baptism, that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness.

"Through the waters of the Red Sea, You led Israel out of slavery, to be an image of God's holy people, set free from sin by baptism.

"In the waters of the Jordan, Your Son was baptized by John and anointed with the Spirit.

"Your Son willed that water and blood should flow from His side as He hung upon the cross.

"After His resurrection, He told His disciples: 'Go out and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.'

"Father, look now with love upon Your Church, and unseal for her the fountain of baptism.

"By the power of the Spirit give to the water of this font the grace of your Son.

"You created man in Your own likeness: cleanse him from sin in a new birth of innocence by water and the Spirit.

"We ask You, Father, with Your Son to send the Holy Spirit upon the waters of this font.

"May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with Him to newness of life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Intercessions

I thought intercessions from this morning's prayers in the liturgy of the hours were beautiful:

Let us joyfully cry out in thanks to God the Father whose love guides and nourishes his people: May you be glorified, Lord, for all ages.
Most merciful Father, we praise you for your love, for you wondrously created us and even more wondrously restored us to grace.
At the beginning of this day fill our hearts with zeal for serving you, so that our thoughts and actions may redound to your glory.
Purify our hearts of every evil desire, make us intent on doing your will.
Open our hearts to the needs of all men, fill us with brotherly love.

All Saints' Day

As I mentioned yesterday, today is the Feast of All Saints. I just wanted to share a very nice prayer for today from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Spiritual warfare

“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

It's easy in these enlightened times not to think much about the devil, or, if we do think about him, to think that he doesn't exist. We ignore or deny the existence of the devil, however, at our peril. To quote Baudelaire's oft-paraphrased line, "La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas." (The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.) The Bible mentions Satan by name nearly 50 times, not to mention all the times he is referred to by some other word or phrase. Indeed, the devil is all too real, and it is only when we acknowledge this that we can fight him and his evil influence in our lives and in the world. As St. Paul writes:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:10-17)

(Side note: When I typed this out, I accidentally wrote about the "flaming farts of the evil one." Now that would be really scary.)

The devil wants to lead us to destruction, to keep us from experiencing the amazing love of God, and to that end he works in all kinds of terrible and subtle ways: by persuading us that God doesn't exist (or at least doesn't matter), or that prayer is boring or pointless, or that sin isn't really sin, or any number of other things. And he is quite adept at disguising his attacks so that we never suspect he's behind them -- he can make the most heinous lies seem utterly reasonable, and he can lead us astray so gradually that we're a million miles from home before we realize we've left at all. That is why we must be always on our guard against the devil.

And, luckily, we're not alone in the battle. When we are tempted by the devil, God will always give us the grace to resist him if we are willing to accept it. God even has a whole army of angels ready to do battle with the devil, headed by St. Michael the Archangel, to whom we can also pray for backup:

"St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen."

Mother Teresa on prayer

So I've been trying lately to recenter my life more squarely around prayer, and I've been finding, as I always do, that it's not always easy to pray. There always seems to be something more immediately gratifying to do, and it's all too easy for prayer to fall by the wayside. Anyway, as I was putting away some books on my bookshelf a few minutes ago, I noticed a little volume I'd never really looked at before called A Simple Path, which is a compilation of short writings by Mother Teresa. For some reason I grabbed it and flipped it open randomly to a page in the middle, which began with these words:

"Try to feel the need for prayer often during the day and take the trouble to pray. Prayer makes the heart large enough until it can contain God's gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own."

Now, a good portion of the book seems to be devoted to writings about prayer, so I'm not going to say that this was definitely an instance of divine intervention, but I'm not going to completely rule it out, either. I will say that it was certainly a timely bit of very relevant encouragement, and I'm thankful for it.

Praying always

Zenit.org has a nice commentary on this Sunday's Gospel reading by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, who is the Preacher to the Papal Household (meaning he's the guy who gets/has to preach to the Pope). Fr. Cantalamessa writes about Jesus' instructions to his disciples in the Gospel of Luke to pray always without growing weary. Here's an excerpt from the commentary:

"This ideal of constant prayer is realized in different forms in the East and West. Eastern Christianity practiced it with the 'Jesus Prayer': 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!'

"The West formulated the principle of constant prayer in a more flexible way so that it could also be proposed to those who do not lead a monastic life. St. Augustine teaches that the essence of prayer is desire. If the desire for God is constant, so also is prayer, but if there is no interior desire, then you can howl as much as you want -- to God you are mute.

"Now, this secret desire for God, a work of memory, of need for the infinite, of nostalgia for God, can remain alive, even when one has other things to do: 'Praying for a long time is not the same thing as kneeling or folding your hands for a long time. In consists rather in awakening a constant and devout impulse of the heart toward him whom we invoke.'

"Jesus himself gave us the example of unceasing prayer. Of him, it is said that he prayed during the day, in the evening, early in the morning, and sometimes he passed the whole night in prayer. Prayer was the connecting thread of his whole life.

"But Christ’s example tells us something else important. We are deceiving ourselves if we think that we can pray always, make prayer a kind of respiration of the soul in the midst of daily activity, if we do not set aside fixed times for prayer, when we are free from every other preoccupation."

For me, the practice of praying always is something I've only ever been able to get a very feeble and tenuous (and brief) grasp of. I've found it difficult to maintain for very long, mostly because my will is just so weak and I am so easily distracted by silly things. But those days when I am able to live in constant awareness of God's presence and when I am continually seeking His face are just so indescribably joyous. It's a sad commentary on myself that I could experience such periods joy in the presence of God, but then let them slip away because of the effort of the will involved. I must pray for God's grace that I might persevere in loving and desiring Him in every moment of my life.

Wholly Catholic's one-month anniversary

I know it's silly to talk about an "anniversary" without reference to years, but I don't care -- "birthday" would have made even less sense. In any case, as of today, this blog is one month old, and by the grace of God, I haven't lost interest in it yet. I continue to pray that God will somehow use this humble blog to His glory, and that my faltering reflections might someday prove helpful to someone.

To any readers out there, thanks for reading, and please let me know how I can serve you better.

St. Teresa of Avila and prayer

October 15 is the memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, a 16th century mystic and reformer who was recognized in 1970 as a Doctor of the Church and who is commemorated in Bernini's famous The Ecstasy of St. Teresa (left). I've just been trying to learn a little bit about her life today, and I came across a passage in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that contains a very nice quote from her:

"What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: 'Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.'"

Sounds good to me.

Prayer of St. Ephrem

I just think this is such a beautiful prayer. It is attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian, a Doctor of the Church who wrote many many hymns during the 4th century. I need to pray this prayer every day. Here it is:

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of laziness, meddling, ambition, and vain talk. But give me a spirit of prudence, humility, patience, and love. Yes, Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins and faults and not judge my brother. For You are blessed forever and ever. Amen.