“Desperate times call for desperate measures. Would you consider prayer a desperate measure?” I wasn’t expecting that question at the start of this interview on “prayer in desperate times”! Ben Akers, who is Director of Formed at the Augustine Institute in Denver, invited me to talk on Formed Now! about how the Psalms teach us to pray when times are rough. The […]
ROSH HASHANAH, A CALL TO REPENTANCE
I’ve heard it said that the shofar (ram’s horn trumpet), with its curving shape, represents the way a repentant heart “bends” before the Lord in supplication. When it’s blown, it has a unique sound that can trumpet victory or a mournful wail. In the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah, today’s Jewish “Feast of Trumpets,” three types […]
THE POWER OF PERSISTENT PRAYER: ST. MONICA
“Pray without ceasing,” St. Paul urged his fellow Christians in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Today we honor a woman who did just that: St. Monica, who prayed through years of tears and against all odds for her pagan husband and wayward son. That son, who became Saint Augustine, later wrote gratefully of his mother: “She said […]
HOW TO GROW AS A DISCIPLE WITH SCRIPTURE
All over the world this week, Scripture is being specially celebrated by Catholics in the first-ever “Sunday of the Word of God.” Parishes will mark the day in various ways. Many will enthrone the Bible in their churches. They will honor and pray for people who teach and translate and study and proclaim God’s word. […]
THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, & WHY OF POWERFUL PRAYER
Have you ever been so buried with worry or sadness that you couldn’t move? I guess some people go running, or chop wood, or get busy doing anything to take their mind off their trouble, but I tend to freeze. My mind shuts down except the part that circles around the problem, and around, and […]
RECEIVING THE GAZE OF JESUS: an exercise in visio divina
Let’s “come into the Word” today by doing a little visio divina — reflecting on a painting of the Word-made-flesh. It’s getting close to Christmas, and I don’t know about you, but my brain is too full to read another thing. There is something about a quiet gaze that speaks to my heart right now. […]
MOVIE NIGHT: A Lesson in Prayer from “Little Big Man”
Near the end of Little Big Man, the 1970 film with Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, and Chief Dan George, the aged medicine man—who has survived the massacre at Wounded Knee and seen victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn—prepares to die. On a high, lonely mountain he sings and dances before the god he […]
SCRIPTURE & SONGS TO THE RESCUE
“Put your hand in the hand of the man who stills the waters . . .” It’s been decades since I heard that song by Ocean, but the snatch I caught took me right back to seventh grade. I was riding the after-school bus, sitting not with the cool kids in the back; not with […]
GOD WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU: How to Hear Him
Sometimes I think my cell phone is possessed. Little burps and chirps and whistles come from it at the oddest times, for no apparent reason. There’s no new text, no new email. Someone is trying to reach me, I think. But who? If only I was better at figuring out technology. The Bible is like […]
WHEN GOD SAYS “NO”—Psalm 38 and a lesson from David
What do we do when God does not answer our prayer? I know they say he always answers – just not necessarily as we would like. So what do we do when God answers “no”? This week I’ve been meditating on Psalm 38, the third of seven “penitential psalms.” It’s a psalm of David, […]
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