Praying and Running

John 6:53-69 Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever" These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he ...

At the beginning of this year the priests at our parish challenged us to "read the Catechism in a year." Much like their challenge that we "Read the Bible in a year" the previous year, I have found this practice to yield much fruit. Many times I have finished a paragraph or a section and thought to myself "where has this book been all my life?" Tonight as I was reading through part 4 "The Revelation of Prayer" Section 1 "Christian Prayer" and paragraph 2729 in particular struck me and provided a "where has this book been all of my life?" moment. "The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we are praying, in vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: fo...

Christian High : Parishioner St Joan of Arc, Catholic Church, Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana. this is just one of my many titles in life. We all have them, titles that signify our relationships and roles in life; husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, employee, boss, etc. Our titles and roles dictate how we live our lives. Our titles and roles provide us with motivation to get out of bed in the morning. Our titles and roles guide where we go and what we do with our days. Our titles and roles are always before us. Yet it dawned on me the other day that if someone were to ask me to list all of the titles and roles that apply to me I might not think to add parishioner to the list. I feel like I try pretty hard to keep faith at the forefront of my life. Even still, I didn't immediately recognize this title as applicable to me. But it is and thank GOD that it is. Because in this title is reflected my membership in the Church. Which is to say my membership in the Body of Chri...

I heard in a homily once something like this; “If you feel like you are disconnected from GOD don’t think that GOD has left you because he is always right there. Instead, look for and put in their proper place the things that you have replaced HIM with. Then you can feel HIS presence in your life again.” From my own experience these “things” don’t have to be big, bright or shiny. These “things” can just be “life” accompanied by a sort of spiritual sloth, neglecting to make time for the LORD. This advice came in handy for me lately and I thought I would share it in case it might come on handy for you someday as well.