Ralph Martin and Personal Prayer

Yesterday I had lunch with a dear friend of mine, Ralph Martin. It is always special to have time with Ralph, we've know each other for 38 years! Ralph lives in Ann Arbor Michigan so we don't get to see much of each other, but recently he has been finishing up his Licentiate in Sacred Theology in Washington, D.C. So Ralph drove up to get a chance to see our ChristLife offices and for some time to catch up with each other.

Back in 1971 I attended a workshop on Union with God in

Prayer, that Ralph was presenting. That workshop inspired and instructed me how to begin the discipline of a daily personal prayer life that continues right up till this morning! Ralph has written two incredible books on prayer: Hungry for God- Practical Help in Personal Prayer and, The Fulfillment of All Desire.

I want to encourage anyone who would like to establish a daily personal prayer life, which is so crucial to living as a Christian, to get hold of Hungry for God. It will be life changing.

lent Podcast, fasting, Your Love Never Fails

After about a month or so, we released our latest podcast today, CL55 - Lent is Here! Yes, were in the great season of the Church that orients us to encounter Jesus Christ anew and ponder his AMAZING love he displayed for us through his cross and resurrection. So check out our podcast, it's short and includes a bit about our meeting with the Archbishop and a few more updates!

Another Lenten resource I wanted to share is a sermon from St. Peter Chrysologus on fasting. It's excellent. He talks about the three things the Church calls us to do especially during Lent:

They are prayer, fasting and mercy [or almsgiving]. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives.... When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy... If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery...

Finally, I watched this video today, it is a live music video of a song called "your love never fails" by a group called Jesus Culture, who is doing some great things in the non-Catholic Christian world to bring youth and young adults closer to Jesus through worship concerts. Enjoy the video, very powerful lyrics, inspiring if you are in a time really needing His love!

Set apart a day of praise and thanksgiving to God!

In 1863 during a time of severe human tragedy and division within the United States, President Lincoln called the nation to stop everything and set apart a day to remember with thanksgiving and praise the Father from whom all good gifts come. Really! That is exactly what he called for.

This proclamation is one worthy of reflection precisely in the times we are living in. In the midst of conflicts and shaking throughout the world and here in the U.S., we would do well to again set apart a "day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens."

Lincoln's Proclamation of a National Day of Praise and thanksgiving to God.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln

there are no atheists in foxholes...

In light of the Church celebrating "All Souls Day" yesterday, Fr. Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Papal Household, gave an excellent homily on life after death.

In talking about how we as believers still experience physical death, yet hold on to the hope of immortality, he included a moving testimony in that regard from Russia. Its a prayer that was found in a jacket pocket of a Russian soldier, Aleksander Zacepa, composed just before the World War II battle in which he would die...

It says:

'Hear me, oh God! In my lifetime, I have not spoken with you even once, but today I have the desire to celebrate. Since I was little, they have always told me that you don't exist. And I, like an idiot, believed it.

I have never contemplated your works, but tonight I have seen from the crater of a grenade the sky full of stars, and I have been fascinated by their splendor. In that instant I have understood how terrible is the deception. I don't know, oh God, if you will give me your hand, but I say to you that you understand me...

Is it not strange that in the middle of a frightful hell, light has appeared to me, and I have discovered you?

I have nothing more to tell you. I feel happy, because I have known you. At midnight, we have to attack, but I am not afraid. You see us.

They have given the signal. I have to go. How good it was to be with you! I want to tell you, and you know, that the battle will be difficult: Perhaps this night, I will go to knock on your door. And if up to now, I have not been your friend, when I go, will you allow me to enter?

But, what's happening to me? I cry? My God, look at what has happened to me. Only now, I have begun to see with clarity. My God, I go. It will be difficult to return. How strange, now, death does not make me afraid.

Call to prayer for our Nation & Video

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him. (Isaiah 55:6,7 see also vs.8-11)

We are, I believe, at a pivotal time in the history of the US and the world. Here in the states we are approaching a very significant presidential election, we are faced with very troubling economic issues and, with the nations of the world, face multiple serious threats to humanity.

The Christian people have the responsibility and the power of prayer to effect change. To cry out for mercy not judgment to come upon our country and the nations. We desperately need God's intervention. We need an explosion of forgiveness and grace bringing about what only He can do- change us from the inside out. Heartfelt change. Beginning with His own body, the Church, who are called to give a counter cultural witness of what it means to be fully human, fully alive, at- one-ment with our Creator and Redeemer. Not conformed to the patterns of thinking of the world systems that are opposed to the Lordship of Christ and, which tell us right about now is the time to live in fear and anxiety. Rather St. Paul tells us at times like this we are called to live in the peace of God which transcends all human understanding and to pray! See Phillipians 4:4-7

I urge you to commit to pray on behalf of our country at this time. Pray for mercy and not judgment to come upon us. Join with others to earnestly seek the Lord.

Pray for the election.

AND exercise your responsibility to vote!

Take a look at this inspiring video from CatholicVote.com Pass it on to all of your friends!

earthen vessels

God is amazing. I'm really convinced of it. He really uses each of us, despite our weaknesses and insufficiencies, to restore people's hearts to friendship with Himself...

I got a call last Friday from a lady, for privacy purposes, named Leah. Leah explained she is homeless and on disability, but she was approved for section 8 housing recently. She went on to tell me, however, that she needed nearly $1600 in less than seven days for a security deposit - and the county government couldn't help her with this particular amount - so they told her to call churches and ministries. So she was obviously looking through the yellow pages making phone calls asking for money. She did have about $200 towards it and explained she is desperate to get into a place - her van or homeless shelters are rough on her, and her disability.

I responded telling her we at ChristLife don't give out funds for the poor, but, that I would ask around the office to see if anyone had cash. Well, that day only three young adults were in the office. We only had a few bucks.

Leah was so grateful I even asked others to personally give. Then I asked if she would like to pray over the phone. A pause goes by, and she answers "yes." I began to pray and invite the Lord Jesus to show her how much He loves her and to provide for her. After a tangible sense of God's presence, we ended the prayer with a hearty "amen." Leah then expressed her gratitude and gave me her number and said she would really love to help out some time.

Over the weekend that followed I prayed for her and then called her on Monday to see how the fundraising for her security deposit was going. Well, I didn't get a hold of her - and was worried that I wouldn't because she said her phone was going to be turned off at any point - due to not paying her bill.

But, on Tuesday she called and said, "thank you so much for praying with me, without it, I would have given up all the phone calls I was making." Then with lots of joy she said, "I got the whole amount of the deposit given to me by a local church coalition!" Whoa! I must admit, even during my prayers, I didn't have too much faith about her getting that much money in seven days. Praise God!

And Leah keeps insisting on how powerful praying with her was. Which is amazing because I didn't think too much of it at the time. And yesterday she came into ChristLife and I was able to share with her and pray a bit more... She was visibly moved and full of joy. It was as if I was the one who gave her the money; but rather, more correctly, the treasure.

And the incredible thing is that the Lord Jesus could use me in such a powerful way in someone else's life. All of this happened right in the midst of a season where I feel like I'm trying to do a lot for the Lord - but I don't see big ripe juicy fruit yet... Until this. Thank you Father!

If you feel like you are in a similar season as I was or you feel great weakness in fulfilling the mission the Lord's given us, then definitely read 2 Corinthians chapter 4. An excerpt: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us." (vs. 7) Basically we are called to be common clay pots, so people know that when God uses us - that is not because of our special abilities - but that God is working through us!

Do you have an experience where God used you in the midst of your weakness and insufficiency?

Image credits: The first illustration is by Elizabeth Wang, "True Prayer" (CWC 5930) © Radiant Light 2006. The photo of the clay pot is from umamitv a blog on cooking.

Local day retreat

Hi all. A quick fyi: Ralph Martin, Fr. Francis Martin, and Mary Healy are hosting a one-day retreat on Saturday, May 24 on Contemplative Prayer and the Healing of the Heart. Looks like a great event. A heads up for anyone in the Baltimore/DC area - the event is in Gaithersburg. Check it out.

Prayer and Honesty and Action

At ChristLife we bought the DVD series NOOMA by a Christian speaker and pastor named Rob Bell. Each video is 10ish minutes long and creatively presents a Christian truth. Sometimes his perspective leaves me asking a few questions - but I am happy that he is making a really good effort at engaging our culture with the God of truth and compassion and mercy and justice.

Thanks to YouTube, below is his latest video, Open. It is a very powerful video on "how prayer works" from Rob's perspective. He grapples with the question of suffering and God's response in a very good way. From the NOOMA Web site:

Many of us have experienced situations where we’ve prayed and it felt like God wasn’t listening. And yet other times we’ve prayed or known someone that prayed and the situation changed. Does God answer prayer? Sometimes, but not all the time? Or does God always answer prayer and it's just that sometimes God says no? Some of us are angry with God for not answering the prayers we’ve prayed for years. Why did he answer their prayer but not ours? What if there’s more to prayer than just God listening and answering? Maybe if we understood how Jesus prayed, our concepts and expectations of prayer would change.

Part I:

Part II:

He hits on some real powerful issues here in this video. Especially when it comes to, like the Psalmist, being honest in our prayer. And in following the book of James in the Bible - about combining our faith with works - and therefore our prayer with action.

This takes me to the new evangelization. Pope John Paul II said it must be new in its ardor, methods, and expression. I think NOOMA is a step in the right direction.

Furthermore, when we consider our prayers for "lost souls" or for "conversion" we are in the same breath - challenged to partner with him in reaching out to the lost - this is evangelization.

Your thoughts? comments?

Happenings at ChristLife

Well, all sorts of good things are happening at ChristLife these days. Recently its just been two of us in the office, as one of our co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, is hanging out in the vineyards of Tuscany, Italy. Nice!

So what are we doing? First, we are worshiping everyday to draw close to Jesus and praying that we follow Him where He leads us to go (the picture is of our tiny little chapel in our office where we begin everyday).

Beyond that we are helping people know and follow Jesus through two courses: Discovering Christ and Following Christ. Right now we are hosting Discovering Christ for about 25 young adults at a local university (UMBC) and hosting a small Following Christ course - to follow-up our Discovering Christ Course at St. Agnes, for 10-15 young adults at ChristLife.

Discovering Christ takes its cue from a recent speech to the German bishops by Pope Benedict:

"We must reflect seriously on how we might carry out a true evangelization today, not just a new evangelization, but often a true first evangelization. People don't know God, they don't know Christ. A new paganism is present, and it is not enough just to maintain the community of believers, although this is very important. I believe that together we must find new ways of bringing the Gospel to today's world by preaching Christ anew and by establishing the faith."

Both courses run into mid- to late November. Please pray God continues doing great things among the young adults attending.

Finally, have a wonderful day! I'll close with a random inspirational verse from the Apostle for whom I'm named:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you... Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls!" 1 Peter 1:3-4,8-9

Prayer for Missions

O Christ, help us
to be bearers of
your life-giving
Word everyday.
Send your Holy
Spirit and fill us
with a burning
zeal to carry your
good news across
the nations. Make
us instruments
in bringing your
peace to restless
hearts around the
world. Amen

Prayer for Evangelization

Loving God,

You called us each by name
And gave your only Son to redeem us
In your faithfulness
You sent the Holy Spirit
To complete the mission of Jesus
Among us

Open our hearts to Jesus
Give us the courage to speak his name
To those who are close to us
And the generosity to share his love
With those who are far away

We pray that every person
Throughout the world
Be invited to know and love Jesus
As Savior and Redeemer
May they come to know his all-surpassing love
May that love transform every element of our society

We ask this through Christ, Our Lord
Amen!