Five-minute Sermons: How to Pray
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 16, 2024 at 01:00AM in Sermons
"Launch out into the deep."—St. Luke v. 6.
IN this account of the miraculous draught of fishes which we have just heard in the Gospel we see a striking illustration of what real prayer should be, and how it is rewarded. Suppose we devote these few moments this morning to the subject of Prayer.
We know that prayer is an absolute necessity of the spiritual life. We are strictly bound to pray, if we would save our souls. The manner and the matter of our prayers are, within certain limits, left to our own judgment. There are no conditions of length or place or time. Long prayers are not necessarily the best ones; on the contrary, the Publican said only seven words, and the Penitent Thief nine; and we have yet to hear of prayers more promptly efficacious. We need not come to church in order to have our prayers heard; God will hear us anywhere and any time—as He heard Jeremias in the mire, Ezechias on his bed of death, Daniel in the den of lions, the Three Children in the fiery furnace, Peter and Paul in prison...
Note that our Lord first desired Peter to "thrust out a little from the land," and afterwards to 'launch out into the deep." So with our prayers. We must thrust out a little from the land—that is, from attachments and affections of earth, before we can fully launch ourselves into the deep of perfect spiritual union with God.
Do we "thrust out from the land" when we pray? And have we Jesus Christ in the vessel of our heart when we make the launch? Our prayers, to be good for anything, should have four characteristics: they should be recollected, detached, definite, and persevering.
1. Before we begin to pray, we must place ourselves in God's presence. We must collect all the powers of our minds and hearts, and set them on the one supreme object. The Memory must be called away from every-day affairs, and used to furnish food for our meditation; the Understanding summoned from its ordinary musings on worldly things, to reason and reflect on what we pray for, and Whom we pray to; the Will steadily fixed on God--striving to conform itself to the divine will, producing affections and forming resolutions suitable to our present needs.
2. Without detachment there can be no recollection. We must thrust out from the land." And how can we do this if the vessel of our soul is moored to the shore by a thousand and one little cords of earthly desire, and worry and care, and anxiety and passion? All these cords must be cut away, and we must "launch out into the deep," if we would pray aright and have God's blessing in ourselves.
3. Let us have a clear, definite idea of what we are going to pray for. Vague, meaningless generalities are out of place in such a serious business. Let us make up our minds beforehand about what we want, and then pray for that. It will not profit us much to ask for all the Cardinal Virtues and allthe Gifts of the Holy Ghost at one time. It will be quite sufficient, and decidedly more profitable, to single out some one virtue of which we stand in special need, and make that the particular burden of our prayers and thoughts and efforts for weeks, and months and years, if necessary, until we gain it.
4. And this, after all, is the true test of a genuine prayer-perseverance. 'We have labored all the night, and have taken nothing; but at Thy word I will let down the net." "Never despair" is the Christian's motto. Never mind how long we may have labored and prayed in vain; never mind how weary the spirit, or how weak the flesh; never mind how little seems our progress and how far away the "mark of the prize of our supernal vocation." God will, as He has promised, finally and gloriously reward our perseverance. Him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of My God."
Five minute Sermons for Sunday by the Paulist Fathers
To St. John Francis Regis (June 16.)
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 16, 2024 at 01:00AM in Poetry
Wikipedia
"Everything good that I have done, I owe to him" St. John Baptiste Vianney Catholic Encyclopedia p 465
"A
sudden inspiration one day entered his mind, which, after consulting
his director, he carried into effect. He made a vow to go on foot,
asking alms as he went, to the tomb of St. John Francis Regis; to ask,
through his intercession, the gift of sufficient learning to enable him
to become a good and faithful labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. His
prayer was heard. St. John Francis Regis, to who he ever afterwards bore
a special devotion, obtained for him the grace he had asked in a
measure which astonished his master and those who had felt most hopeless
of his success." Life of Saint John-Baptist Vianney, Curé d'Ars by
Monnin, Alfred, p22.
To St. John Francis Regis (June 16.)
[A.D. 1507-1640]
Few know thy name, St. Francis Regis! Few
Beyond thy native hills pay homage due,
Save those thy brothers and dear friends, who share
That slandered name it was thy pride to bear.
Nay, some who know thee need to ask thy claim
To shining aureole and saintly fame.
What wast thou? what hast suffered? what hast done,
That 'mid his heroes God hath ranked thee one?
No novice-prince who, yet a boy hath given
Honour, and wealth, and prouder hopes for heaven -
No hermit hoar, who long, long years hath passed
In lonely watching and in cruel fast;
No fiery martyr, who hath meek defied
The tyrant at the stake, and smiling died.
Thy story reads not like a wild romance,-
It never strays from polished modern France,
Where, 'mid the rudest of her southern steeps,
Its stream unseen, but fertilizing, creeps.
Yet in that homely sphere of some score miles,
What restless, tranquil zeal - what saintly wiles
For luring souls to God! Ah, wherefore roam?
The hero finds a hero's work at home.
Oh, thou hard-toiling missionary-saint!
Not thine in such dull martyrdom to faint.
The winter's ice, men's freezing doubts and sneers,
Chilled not thy glow, but thawed beneath thy tears.
Dauntless in labour, patient to endure,
The firm, the mild apostle of the poor.
Francis and Lewis here in one behold -
Xavier at home, Gonzaga twice as old.
Oh, gray-haired Aloysius! Yes, that name
When thou wast young, thy virtues well might claim,
Hadst thou, like him, been early snatched away,
Not left to bear the "burden of the day."
But thou liv'dst on, God spared thee to his earth,
Keeping thee innocent as at thy birth,
That first true birth when o'er thy baby-brow
The waters flowed, and left thee pure as snow-
Pure none the less when, after many a year
Of earnest faith, of humble, loving fear,
After great things for his sake done and borne,
God bade the peasant of the Velais mourn,
Mourn for thy loss.
Oh, great St. Regis, pray
That we, thy brothers, in our meaner way
God's work may do: from many a soul to burst
The glittering fetters of the king accursed.
Teach us to share thy burning, melting love
For Him who on the right-hand reigns above,
Yet hides upon our altars. Oh, great heart!
In thy rich treasures gain for us a part: -
The meekness of thy strength, so gay, so sure -
Thy wistful fondness for God's outcast poor -
Thy yearning for the sinner, hate of sin -
Thy filial pride in her whose breast within
Thy boyhood and thy manhood calmly sped.
Ah! may she lead us on as thou wast led.
She is the same great Mother still; but we,
St. Francis Regis! are not like to thee.
source: Madonna: Verses on Our Lady and the Saints, by the Rev. Matthew Russell, S.J. 1880
St. Lutgarde, VIRGIN, A.D. 1246.
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 16, 2024 at 01:00AM in Saints
"In her youth she was of a vain and worldly spirit, and thought of nothing but, as her father had promised, of being honourably married. But he, being disabled by great losses, could not accomplish what he designed; and she being disappointed, by her mother's importunity, entered into a monastery. There, not at all changed, she still found the same inclinations, as formerly to the world. But God at length giving her a true sense of her follies, she changed so truly to the other extreme, that she became an example of all virtue; which being found solid by the proof of twelve years' practice, she was chosen superior. This charge, however, not agreeing with her humble spirit, she removed to another house of the Bernardins. She made it her grand object to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ, and conform herself to it, as much as possible. Wholly occupied on eternity, she gave herself up to mortification, fasting, and the closest retreat. She lived in so perfect disengagement of spirit, that she had no care for her body; so that she was an example of every virtue of a true religious. Pouring forth floods of tears for the conversion of sinners, she lost her sight, and continued blind eleven years. On the day of her death, she opened her eyes to look towards heaven, to which she was then called, in the year 1246.
If that which Lutgarde esteemed her misfortune, was the first
step to her becoming a saint, ought not you to be moderate under all
that which seems your unhappiness; hoping that God has a design of hidden
blessings, and that this is a preparation for them? Adore Providence,
and peaceably submit to all its appointments, without any curiosity to
discover its counsels. Thus will you be prepared for its greatest
favours. Her first step out of the world was very imperfect, and yet how good was the effect!
Be not then too severe in your reflections upon those, whose beginnings
are yet weak. But if it be your case, that you were not sincere in what
you have undertaken, make now amends for all such weaknesses, by a true
conversion of yourself to God." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
