JULY 7, 2013 l 14th SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
NOTES FOR TODAY'S HOMILY
No. 1: "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."
— Luke 10:2
No. 2: "human life without prayer, which opens our existence to the mystery God, lacks sense and direction"
— Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, May 4, 2011
No. 1: "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest."
— Luke 10:2
No. 2: "human life without prayer, which opens our existence to the mystery God, lacks sense and direction"
— Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, May 4, 2011
No 3: "Many Christians are aware of the necessity and the beauty of contemplative prayer and have a sincere yearning for it. Yet, apart from tentative efforts soon abandoned, few remain faithful to this mode of prayer, and even fewer are really convinced and satisfied by their own practice of it. ... We would like to pray, but we cannot manage it. … Our time of prayer passes leaving us distracted, and since it does not seem to yield any tangible fruit, we are tempted to give up. From time to time we take up a book on 'meditations' which presents us, ready-made contemplations we ought to produce ourselves. ... Often fear robs us of the confidence to take steps on our own."
— Hans Urs von Balthazar, Prayer
No. 4: "He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'"
— Luke 11:1
#1: THE FIRST KEY TO PRAYER: ACKNOWLEDGE GOD'S PRESENCE
No. 5: "God calls man first. Man may forget his Creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2567
No. 6: "A step or two before the place where I am to contemplate or meditate, I will stand for the space of an Our Father and, with my consciousness raised on high, consider how the Lord my God looks upon me. Then I will make an act of reverence or humility."
— Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, no. 75
#2: THE SECOND KEY TO PRAYER: START WITH A BIBLE PASSAGE
No. 7: "Through his Word, God speaks to man."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2700
No. 8: Lectio Divina is Latin for "divine reading"
No. 9: "I would like in particular to recall and recommend the ancient tradition of Lectio Divina: the diligent reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer brings about that intimate dialogue in which the person reading hears God who is speaking, and in praying, responds to him with trusting openness of heart (cf. Dei Verbum, no. 25). If it is effectively promoted, this practice will bring to the Church—I am convinced of it—a new spiritual springtime."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Congress of Biblical Scholars, Rome, September 2005
No. 10: Finding the right Scripture passage:
> Use the Scripture readings at daily Mass
> Use the Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday Mass
> Pick a Psalm
> Read the Gospels: Mark, Matthew, Luke, John
#3: THE THIRD KEY TO PRAYER: BE HONEST
No. 11: "To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. … To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2716
No. 12: "Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from life"
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2727
No. 13: "Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2562
#4: THE FOURTH KEY TO PRAYER: TALK TO GOD
No. 14: "in learning how to speak to him, we learn to be a human being, to be ourselves."
— Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, June 22, 2011
No. 15: "What is contemplative prayer? Saint Teresa answers: 'Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends.' … In this inner prayer we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself."
— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2709
#5: THE FIFTH KEY TO PRAYER: LISTEN TO GOD
No. 16: "God speaks in silence, but we must know how to listen."
— Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, August 10, 2011
No. 17: "Always expressed in every prayer, in fact, is the truth of the human creature who on the one hand experiences weakness and impoverishment, who therefore addresses his supplication to Heaven, and on the other is endowed with an extraordinary dignity, so that, in preparing to receive the divine Revelation, finds himself able to enter into communion with God."
— Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, May 4, 2011
> To learn more about prayer check out Oremus: A Guide to Catholic Prayer. Click here for more information.
Special thanks to the Institute for Priestly Formation. "ARRR" © The Institute for Priestly Formation.
© Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
© Fr. Mark Toups, 2013
