A.S.K. = Ask, Seek, Knock = 3 Steps Toward Praying Aloud With Others... a tip for the new evangelization

My latest column over at Patheos is an observation on the active avoidance Catholics apply when it comes to a very basic skill... leading another person in prayer for their sake, or the sake of others. It also offers a brief tutorial with the baby steps on how to overcome it... using a strategy that co-opts some of the words of Jesus: Ask, Seek, and Knock. Here's an excerpt:

I’ve learned that this praying-aloud-thing with another person is a skill that not all Catholics share an enthusiasm for. What I mean is that it is one thing to pray together at Mass, or to pray a rosary aloud with a group, or to pray a formal grace before meals. But it is entirely another experience to pray aloud, somewhat spontaneously, with the people you are with… even when they are Christians themselves, about a subject that is on their hearts and minds. 

Now, I’m not talking about my evangelical Christian friends, who are usually very open to praying-on-the-spot when asked. Their freedom to offer a word of prayer or thanksgiving in-the-moment is something worth emulating. 

Why don’t we Catholics act with the same freedom? 

I hear this thought often: We’re private. My religion is just between me and God. We Catholics love our private prayer… and rightly so. Jesus taught that when we pray we should close our doors and pray to our Father in heaven in secret. And that’s fine. That’s good. Let’s all do more of that, too. 

Maybe all that private prayer is why sharing prayer with another person sometimes feels too intimate… or we fear doing it wrong. But, really, it is nothing to fear because Jesus is there within the breaths of any group prayer… “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Mt 18: 20.)" 

Others have told me praying with others outside of Church is uncomfortable because we Catholics are raised with the formal vocal prayers of the Church -- all of which are wonderful, beautiful, and majestic -- but not with informal or spontaneous prayer -- that we don’t know any other ways to pray. 

Other times, we’re afraid to do something so spontaneous… we don’t want to be labeled as a Jesus freak, or a religious fanatic. 

From an evangelization standpoint, all these excuses are hard to square in front of Jesus who asked us to be active is in sharing the faith, when he said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Mt 28: 19.)

Check out the rest. And if you like the column, you may subscribe by email or RSS here. 

Among Women ReadHer... 6.18.11

Among Women ReadHer

6.18.11

The True Meaning of Marriage -- Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan
As the Governor and New York State legislature move toward same-sex marriage, NY's Archbishop has timely, important instruction and counsel.


He's Just Not That Into You -- Lauren at Sipping Lemonade
A lot of this is common sense, but sometimes it's good to have someone spell it out.

Hallie Lord's blog is host to several engagement stories.

Some real life follow up to Lauren's article above. 

Walking with a Friend -- Susan Terbay at CatholicMom.com
I so relate to this, cuz I have lived it: What it means to a cancer patient to have others make it easy for them. (Read this in tandem with the next piece from Maria Johnson.)


God Wears a Guaybera and Probably Smokes Cuban Cigars -- Maria Johnson at Another Cup of Coffee
Read this if only to learn this: To ask my friends for prayer, then, is to let them love me. 


This Dad Has Always Been Funnier -- Mary Beth Hicks at Family Events
Hicks writes about her husband this Father's Day.


Sharing His Mind with Me -- Danielle Bean at Fathers for Good
Bean serves up rich memories and the solid example of her Dad for Father's Day

Among Women #84- Faith, Fashion, and Modesty

Among Women 84 delves into the question of modest dress for women with writer-blogger Hallie Lord, AKA Betty Beguiles.  Not only that, Hallie shares a bit of her own faith journey and entrance into the Catholic Church.

Also featured is the life and writings of Blessed Angela of Foligno, who has a powerful conversion story of her own!

Finally, we pray the Devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ as a form of intercessory prayer on behalf of others who may be undergoing pain, strife, and suffering.

If you like what we do at Among Women, kindly consider making a charitable contribution to SQPN. Thanks!

This makes me think: For All the Saints, Let Your Life Song Sing...

Catholics understand the saints to be full participants in the mediatorship of Jesus. Their participation no more subtracts from his ministry than the glory that shines upon them subtracts from his glory. It is all his, forsooth.  there is one fountainhead from which we all have drunk and from which we bear refreshment to parched souls...

To ask one of the saints for his prayers is of one seamless piece with our asking each other to pray for us.  The precincts of the Divine mercy cannot be parceled out with addition and subtraction, with my siphoning off this bit of Jesus' priesthood when I venture to pray for you, and you pocketing that much of his merit when you lay your life down for me with such generosity day after day (one is thinking of one's spouse here).  There is only gushing superabundance here, immersing us all, filling us all, and sweeping us along in the tide of that amplitude overflowing from the Father himself.

---Thomas Howard, On Being Catholic, (Ignatius Press, 1997).

And then, there are times when we are reminded that there are even saints among us...