Christian call to prayer

Dear parishioners,

For those of you who were at my first weekend Masses in each parish, you will remember that

I gave some “homework” as a way for me to get to know you. The homework was to send me an email or letter with a photo and introduction of yourself followed by telling me one way I can pray for you and how I can help you grow in your faith. I’m grateful for the many messages I’ve received from people in response—I still haven’t caught up with responding to them all! This has been a great way for me to get to know a lot of you and gain some insight into your lives. I thought I would share some of the things that I’ve learned from these messages.

First of all, a number of people shared how important their faith is to them, and how they desire to continue going deeper and growing in the spiritual life. The more we grow in our faith, the more we realize that the little buckets we bring to the shore can’t contain much of the ocean. We become increasingly aware of the greatness of God in comparison to our little selves. Interestingly, this often stirs up a desire in our hearts for more—to be able to know God in a real and living way and to continue to receive as much as we can in the spiritual life despite the fact that we know that most of the ocean is going to stay in the ocean. My hope is to do what I can to help us continually increase the size of our bucket and grow little by little in relationship with God through prayer, the sacraments, and the many other ways the Lord calls us into the depths of the spiritual life.

Second, I received numerous requests to pray for your family members who are away from the faith. In the world we’re living in, there are a large number of people who have walked away from the practice of the faith. An analogy I once heard is that living the faith used to be like floating a canoe down a river.

When the culture used to be rooted in Christian values and a large percentage of people practiced their faith, people would more or less go with the flow and live the faith. However, since we no longer live in a time and place that culturally upholds Christian values and the practice of the faith, if a person doesn’t intentionally paddle against the flow, they’re going to get swept away downstream with the flow of the culture. This is a real call for us to pray with persistence and perseverance for our loved ones who are away from the faith. St. Monica is often the go-to saint to turn to for intercession for our loved ones who have strayed from the faith. She prayed and fasted for many years with countless heart-felt tears for her son to have a conversion and come to the faith—which he eventually did.

The most important thing we can do is to repent of our own sins and then seek to live a life of prayer and fasting for the conversion of our loved ones. The word ‘pew’ can be a helpful

acronym when seeking the conversion of family members. P stands for prayers. E stands for example. W stands for words. Through our prayers, example, and words, we hope for God’s grace to touch others’ hearts and lead them back to a pew at Mass.

There were many other things I learned from this homework assignment, but I’m almost out of space in the bulletin. Please know of my continued prayers for all of you. If you haven’t sent me an email or letter, I would gladly receive it yet. Also, feel free to continue reminding me of your names when I see you—hopefully I’ll get many of them down eventually.

May God bless you today and always,

Fr. Patrick