UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER

                 UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER                      

Dear Saint John’s School Families, 

On the forty days and forty nights of Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday, we are all called to Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.  Father Frank and Father Sam are leading us in this     challenge.  Our students at Saint Johns were each given a form asking them to promise Jesus to do three things during Lent in these areas of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. 

Father Sam’s homily during our Thursday School Mass specifically focused on Prayer .  He taught us about the different kinds of prayer:  I. Prayer of Praise II. Prayer of Adoration  III. Prayer of Contrition (Penitence, sorrow for sins or faults)  IV.  Prayer of Thanksgiving  V.  Prayer of Supplication (asking earnestly and humbly).  To help us remember, we were asked to use the letters of PACTS ( our agreements or contracts) to pray during lent. 

Today, Friday, our staff development day, Saint John’s faculty attended a catechetical class on the Pillar IV.  i.e. Prayer.  I would like to share some of the nuggets received during this class.

The central question:  What is prayer? 

Some definitions:  “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God”   St. John Damascene, CCC25591.

“For me, prayer is the surge of heart, it is a simple look toward heaven, it is a cry of    recognition of love, embracing both trial and joy.”  (St. Therese of the Child Jesus)

Pray without ceasing-1 Thes 5:17

Yet, we fail to do it-Why?

“Let’s now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day.  We are reluctant to begin.  We are delighted to finish.  While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a crossword puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us. And, we know that we are not alone in this,”  C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

“Man, on the whole, does not enjoy prayer.”  --Romano Guardini

Saints seem to do it effortlessly, right?  Always for joy and consolation, visions and voices-that’s for them and not for me.

Where does prayer starts?    With God, calling us into a relationship with him.

Prayer is a “Hallmark” of Saint John’s Catholic School.

Shalom,

Lois Schmitt