RBWords - Volume 29 - Number 10: October 2016
Something to Think About
RBWORDS - VOL. 29 - NO. 10 - OCTOBER 2017
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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT -
A student told me a story the other day that I will treasure. She said that I probably didn't remember this but shortly after I came to Lubbock and began my daily morning walk on the Texas Tech campus, she met me and asked me to pray for her because she had a physics test that day and just knew she was going to flunk it! So I said a prayer and blessing over her then and there. When I said in reply, "I hope it was helpful!" she replied, "Oh I flunked the test anyhow, but I felt so much better about it!" Now there's the power of prayer!
On retreats I challenge the participants to do a history of prayer in their lives. What is their earliest memory of praying? Where did they learn to pray (or learn their prayers - not the same thing)? I have a painting on the wall of my room of a boy out in a field with a rock in his hand, ready to throw it at the sky in the hopes of hitting God! This image was given to me by that boy (by then a college student at the University of Arizona) and I mentioned it in a parish mission in Tennessee. An artist in the congregation painted a picture of the scene and gave it to me! That boy was ENRAGED AT God but was also very much ENGAGED WITH God. In short, words are just one way we pray, but the important thing is to know how we pray and what this means to us.
Once we have some notion of this, the ways in which we pray can take on a greater and more intentional meaning. Many of us pray the rosary almost unconsciously, without ever giving those "mysteries" a second thought! Yet, the rosary was developed precisely for the purpose of meditating on those mysteries. I've developed a booklet I hope to publish sometime that offers many other scriptural sets of "mysteries" that open up new possibilities for praying the rosary. (October is the "month of the rosary.") This is just one example, however. For some folks, formal or rote-memorized prayers are the best route. For others, personal discourse works better. But, the power of prayer is always there for us. That co-ed who shared that story with me showed me what a simple pastoral gesture of prayer could do, even if it couldn't answer the questions on that physics exam! IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID:
Tell me the old, old story
of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory,
of Jesus and his love.
Tell me the story simply,
as to a little child,
for I am weak and weary,
and helpless and defiled.
Refrain:
Tell me the old, old story, tell me the old, old story,
tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and his love.
from a traditional Christian hymn
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