Pastor’s Corner — January 23rd, 2022
Growing in Prayer
Hello St. Patricks!
Fr. Mathias is back now from his vacation, but during his time away I had the opportunity to write for this week’s bulletin article.
These last two weeks both myself and Fr. Mathias preached about our identity as beloved sons and daughters of the Father, and the importance of living in that identity. We also encouraged prayer as a way to deepen our relationship with God from which we receive and stay rooted in our identity.
However, prayer can often be difficult for many of us. At times it may seem as if we are speaking only to ourselves or continually distracted with wandering thoughts and ideas.
However, the things that may seem to us as hindrances to our growth in prayer are actually meant to be included into our prayer. To explain, I offer the following quote:
“We pray as human beings. This statement appears obvious, but it points to what can be a stumbling block for us when we try to pray. . .Much of the time, we are disturbed by distractions, temptations, tiredness, sadness, irritation, and other foul moods! These seem to get in the way of prayer, and we get discouraged. Fortunately, these are not actually obstacles to our prayer–they are simply part of our humanity, and we must learn to incorporate them into our prayer.
The actual obstacle to our prayer is when we try to be angels by rejecting these aspects of our humanity as if there were something wrong with us. Rather than His being displeased with these aspects of our frail humanity, God intends them as part and parcel of our relationship with Him and as the very way by which this relationship deepens in prayer.”
This passage is from a book titled, Personal Prayer: A Guide for Receiving the Father’s Love, by Fr. Thomas Acklin, OSB & Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB. Fr. Mathias has personally endorsed this book and I am currently reading through it myself. I highly recommend this book to anyone who truly wishes to enter more deeply into a personal relationship with their heavenly Father.
Blessings!
Fr. Miguel Colunga