Sunday, March 15, 2009

Looking Ahead: A weeklong reflection on prayer


During the season of Lent, the Church asks us to keep especially in our minds 3 things: Almsgiving, Fasting, and Prayer. You can say that my reflections on Social Justice were reflections on a type of almsgiving--of promoting the giving and the service of others.  

I don't think I will have a weeklong reflection on fasting, but I would certainly like to take this upcoming week to reflect on prayer (I have the time--Spring break baby!). Specifically, I will talk about different ways of praying, methods that I have learned since I was a novice. This will probably be one of my more longer running reflections, as I will probably have more than 5 days worth of material.  So, you might see 7-8 consecutive reflections on prayer.  Maybe even more! 

Ideally, Jesuits are men of prayer--our entire lives flow from our relationship with Christ. I say that as someone who, by no means, is an all-star at prayer and slips in its practice from time to time. For me, I find prayer to be like exercise--sometimes it takes a lot of willpower just to begin, dragging my feet along the way, but I know it is time well spent. As exercise is health for the body, so is prayer health for the spirit. 

So, this week will be as much to share my reflections on prayer as it also will be to inspire my own prayer life through its writing. I invite you to join me this week, and I hope that your own prayer life may be inspired through it as well.   

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