Chuck's Blog

Virtually every morning I am home I begin the day with morning prayer.  There is a white leather wingback chair in our living room I use as my prayer chair.  It’s sort of what I like to call “camping out with the Lord.”

 Every once in a great while, when I take some time for breakfast, I find myself wandering into the living room to eat my bowl of cereal.  Well, a few weeks ago, one of our young granddaughters, Mallory, walked in to see what I was doing.  At the time our son, his wife and their three daughters were living with us, while they were waiting to move into their new home.  Mallory at age seven is the oldest.

 When Mallory saw me sitting in the living room eating my breakfast, she proceeded to tell me in a somewhat scolding, I-know-what-I'm-talking-about kind of voice that I was not supposed to be eating my cereal in the living room.  Admittedly a bit perturbed at her bold tone of voice, I told her (as calmly as I could) that I don't do this very often.  She didn’t miss a beat and went on quickly to tell me again that I should be eating my cereal in the kitchen. 

 So I began to tell her (again as calmly as I could) that this is where I pray every morning and that sometimes it felt kind of good to be able to come in to the living room, sit in my prayer chair, and eat my cereal. 

 I said, “You know, Mallory, it’s kind of like eating with the Lord.”  That somewhat amazingly seemed to satisfy her.  She turned around and walked out.

 It was a few days later…Wednesday afternoon, to be exact.  As an aside, you need to know that I never really know what Wednesdays are going to bring my way, especially during the afternoon.  You see, every Wednesday morning at 2 AM I go up to our local Catholic church and spend an hour in our Adoration Chapel praying before the Blessed Sacrament.  If I don't get back to sleep quickly when I get home, sometimes I get a little tired later in the afternoon.  (Others might tell you that I get a little cranky in the afternoon!)

 So, that particular Wednesday afternoon I was tired and decided I would try to catch a short power nap in the living room.  Mallory apparently walked in and saw me on the couch a few feet away from my prayer chair.  She quickly turned around, hurried in to our family room and proclaimed in a somewhat loud voice to her mother and my wife, Judy, “Hey, guess what?  Papa is sleeping with the Lord.”

 I still smile when I think of her wonderful innocence to see sometimes what we can’t see.  I suppose if you can pray with the Lord and eat with the Lord, then you can sleep with the Lord, too.  Amen +++

The other day on our radio program, The Inner Life, Fr. Mark Baron, MIC explored the healing we all need from the wounds created by our family…by those relatives who are alive today and by those ancestors who have died.  He offered a prayer we can all say, but especially during the Consecration of Our Lord’s Body and Precious Blood during the Celebration of the Mass.

 These are the specific words Fr. Mark said we should pray to break the wounds of our past.

“Go back ten generations.  When the priest elevates the Sacred Host, say ‘Lord, plant your Cross in between the past ten generations of my family tree that your Cross may be planted there and break anything of evil that is being passed down.’  Then when the Precious Blood is offered and elevated by the priest, say, ‘Lord, pour your Blood down, in and through the past ten generations of my family tree that it can be cleansed of any pollution of evil that has been passed down.’  And, just keep on doing that with great faith and love.”

 A powerful prayer for healing the wounds of our family. 

By the way, if you want to hear the entire program, check out the audio archives for The Inner Life from November 17, 2011 at www.relevantradio.com. +++

            Someone once said that in many ways you, as our children, have really only been loaned to us parents. You are “ours” only for a fleeting instance in this adventure we know as life. As we parents enter and prepare to move through the autumn of our lives, you are starting to enter your springtime…the years of great promise and sure hope. You are now shaping your lives to be what you dreamed they would be. And, all of us pray and hope and dream right beside you that life will be full and that it will treat you well…with the gentleness and the kindness you would hope for yourself and, no doubt, for one another. 
            As you probably know, we parents share our lives together in a faith sharing community. We meet one night a week (generally Wednesday, although during the summer our night is Monday). Simply stated, we pray together. We share our lives with one another.
It’s probably something we need, because (to steal a line from “The Road Less Traveled”) life is difficult. The path in front of us is sometimes frightening and steep. The journey often feels treacherous and uncertain. Getting together on a regular basis is probably something we do, because if we didn’t, the loneliness of walking through life by ourselves would be potentially unbearable and only add fuel to our inherent selfishness. We think that having a way to share our lives with one another makes us better people. It gives us courage to know we are not alone in our walk of faith and the struggles of life. 
            So, what’s this letter all about anyway? Quite simply, we wanted you to know that we are praying for you. Every day of every week of every year, someone in our small group is praying for all of you. Whether you may still be living at home or residing in another part of the country or even half way around the world, you are still “ours” – part of our family, part of our circle of concern. Even as our adult children…even through our aging eyes…you continue to be precious to us. The treasure that you are to us has never diminished. It remains constant. 
            One of our prayers is that you may understand the truth of our being. Pontius Pilate asked the question of Jesus before his crucifixion: what is truth? It’s probably a question we all ask in one way or another…and a question we all ultimately will have to answer in one way or another. The reality is that spirituality is the very core of our being. There is a famous quote that puts a lot of life in context. “We have to remember that we are not human beings having spiritual experiences. Rather we are spiritual beings having human experiences.” 
            So, when life for you becomes difficult, 
    when you are faced with the steep parts of your own journey, 
    when you don’t know what to do with your fears, your insecurity, 
    your loneliness, the dark parts of your own life, 
    please remember that each and every day of the week 
    someone somewhere is praying for you… 
    hoping for the best and asking the God who created all of us to be with you, to  bless you, to touch your life with love and hope and the peace of Christ. 
            We also hope that when life feels good and things are going your way (as they often will) that you will pause for a moment to recognize that the Hand of God has gifted you with yet another one of life’s many blessings. God has a habit of doing that, we’ve discovered. He is a good and gracious God and has great plans for all of your lives. We pray you may trust in Him always. 
            We love you…more than you know. May God bless you and keep you always…
and forever.