Amidst the Chaos - Pray

    The world outside is frightful.  The agents of chaos are legion right now.  Mass destruction warfare is now more possible than ever before, because courageous men did not act when the opportunity was present.  In our country, agents of anarchy want to use their evil to deliver tyranny on the masses through imposed Marxism.  In our church, the evil theology of modernism is encased in prelates unfaithful to the unchanging magisterium of Christ's bride on earth.  Inside family life we also have the chaos of too much noise competing for the attention of us parents and our children.

    Now is the time to pray.  Pray for a moment of silent reflection amidst the storms, war, noise and chaos.  Find your moment and ask to be the instrument God needs you to be to bring the world back to him one soul at a time.  Now is the time to become the missionary of his word, to create safe havens for our families to make the new missionaries, and to remember this struggle is an eternal one on God's timeline not ours.

    Like everything else the Lord teaches...what seems hopeless by the world's terms is actually the situation where we can use his power working through us for miracles in our time to flow.  It all starts with a prayer to beat back the chaos.  The call is now out there...what do you say>

-ehw

The Prayerbook made for you!

   Do you need someone to pray with you?  For you?  The prayerbook above is meant for you! 

    How did this happen?  (This is the hardest post I've composed over the last four years!)

    In 2014, after much introspection, I realized a need for more consistent personal prayer in my life.  Prayer with God needs to happen in good times, meditative times, times of discernment as well as times of need.  A year ago I failed in most of those areas by being hit or miss.  On cue, God sent my son to me with a book about St. Dominic and the rosary.  A year of growth started in earnest as I devoured the book.  As I wrapped up the first year of work, I noted progress in many areas and several continued shortfalls.

    Prayer from others literally kept me upright following our two 2014 miscarriages.  Since then I made it a point to let others in need know I will pray for them as well.  The opportunity to pray with others had two incredibly powerful moments this past year.  One with close friends as we prayed over their sick child in the ICU.  The other was with a co-worker recovering from a heart attack in a different ICU.  In the second case it was special as we prayed with his wife and another friend from work.  

    I know God was listening, and I am grateful he supported full recovery for both requests.  I don't want to sound crazy, but God's grace was so present in each moment I was shaking afterwards.  The realization God was amongst us in those moments, tending to his children, left me feeling rather meek.

     This year I wanted to be more consistent in fulfilling prayer requests as they came in.  So I picked up a spiritual diary to catalog the requests over the next year.

    I publicly announced this year's prayer campaign on St Dominic's feast day at John Paul's baptism. Current requests recorded so far include needs of friends for their parents, the manager of a transmission repair center fighting liver and pancreatic cancer, young men discerning their future vocation, our school's success at its mission, a friend's child with the same risks my wife had in pregnancy, a young priest at his parish, a new widow and her family, and two co-workers with heart ailments to mention just a few.   I also have some for people who never asked, but just have an obvious need for someone to requests God's intercession on their behalf.

    Each night I review the prayer requests, hold it close, and pray for those inside.

    Prayer is the only thing I can do for most people I know in need.  I have no worldly riches, and little spare time in my days to travel and be with the many I know in need. 

    So you can see, this prayerbook is for you.  Please help me direct my prayers to God to help you, and I what I pray will be our collective journey to sainthood in the Kingdom of God.

-ehw

P.S.  Reply to the post, shoot me an email or better yet give me a call!  I'll add you to the prayer rolls!

Pray-The Timeless and Priceless Tradition

    Today our parish celebrated four men from our parish, and are working their way through seminary discernment of their vocation.  It was a wonderful moment to see the men up there.

    One of the seminarians reminded us we were a parish of 4,000 families, and many more vocational discernments exist in a parish that size.  He asked us to pray for vocations from the men and women in the pews to continue filling our seminaries.

    I remembered what good priest told me about a year ago regarding discernment.  He told me all the hectic activities we do today divert both adults and children from prayer time.  Just think of the distractions we all face: secularized schools where God is forbidden up to ten hours a day, too many sports, too many dance classes, entertainment celebrating drunken and drug filled activity on every station and TV show.  Every marketing company seeks to get you attention with each second of your day to sell their wares though logos, tunes, and embedded messages on other media.  It creates a mess for forming individual prayer life.

   The challenge to each of us is to create the space and habit to pray in the midst of this clutter.  We need to pray in silence at first.  In a world filled with so much marketing this is actually the greatest challenge.  Adding sacred music and art in our prayer time later is a bonus, which when used properly, will draw our minds up to God.  From these mountains of life we can feel and see the glory of the Lord.

    When the valleys of life come our way (say a 3AM infant which does not want to sleep or the 3 year old having a really challenging day I am talking to between sentences) we can always fall back to our basic memorized prayers bring our daily life back to focus on God.  Using these prayers we still remain connected with God despite the noise around us.

    Whether we are young or old, we must learn the timeless and priceless traditions of prayer.  I am finally understanding this, at the age of 43. So there is hope for us all!  John Paul seems to prefer the early morning Rosary already...he made it a point to schedule me in three times already!  The boys have me each night for boy prayer time, and my big daughter seems to live her life as a prayer.  This is all just wonderful...and I hope a set of traditions we continue through thick or thin.

-ehw

P.S.  This photograph is a real challenge with my camera in one hand and three limbs trapped by a semi-sleeping baby.  Battery box attached to my forehead, changing apertures with a loose thumb...it was definitely not a textbook solution.   It worked though. 

Calm in the Storm

    The four hour trip, planned afternoon meetings, getting a work out....the plans of man.

    The morning storm in the nation's capital...three inches of snow...two cancelled flights (one after I was on board!), the broken luggage carousel adding over an hour to bag recovery, cancelled meetings and arriving after thirteen hours in the dark on a cold blustery night revealed the plans of nature.

    I kept my calm...almost completely...read two good books by Scott Hahn and most importantly when I thought I was just going to be beyond frustrated for the day found the place to say my rosary.  See I needed calm, and the big glass windows overlooking the tarmac and runways called me.  There I stood in the long Atlanta winter sun, the warmth making me relax, and my rosary called. 

   Today I said the Sorrowful Mysteries (Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crown of Thorns, Carrying the Cross, and Death on the Cross) and it put me right into my place.  I thought I had a bad day?  That was a bad day!

    Suddenly tonight as I was preparing for bed I knew Christ had provided my daily photography inspiration.  I could not pass it up, or fail to share right away.  It was the what the spirit wished me to do to give back some glory to the Lord for my safe travels.  

   Vivat Jesus!

-ehw