Pope Benedict XVI gave some advice to those of us who struggle in our prayer life:
We want to pray, but God is far off, we do not have the words, the language, to speak with God, nor even the thought to do so. We can only open ourselves, place our time at God’s disposition, wait for Him to help us to enter into true dialogue. The Apostle says: this very lack of words, this absence of words, yet this desire to enter into contact with God, is prayer that the Holy Spirit not only understands, but brings and interprets before God. This very weakness of ours becomes -- through the Holy Spirit -- true prayer, true contact with God. The Holy Spirit is, as it were, the interpreter who makes us, and God, understand what it is we wish to say.
Continuing our series of looking at websites on Wednesday, we turn our gaze to a website focused on praying through the daily mass readings: Pray.nd.edu. Run by the University of Notre Dame, my alma mater, "Pray" includes different content every day, centered around the Gospel for that particular day. Each day, you find the text for the Gospel, a brief reflection written by someone connected to the University, and a prayer.
One of the strengths of this website is the sheer number of contributors. Tapping into the vast resource of Notre Dame students, alums, and friends, Pray has featured past Notre Dame football stars, current students, priests and religious, and of course alumni. Hearing from many different individuals keeps the site fresh. There are "as many ways [to God] as there are people," as Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) once said. The different perspectives allow us to see God with new eyes.
Let's take a look at a few of the other parts of the site.
Seasonal Sections
During Advent and Lent, "Pray" features videos for each week of the season. Each video includes a well thought out, well delivered ~5 minute reflection on a particular aspect that shines forth in that week's mass readings. I particularly enjoyed the one for the 2nd week of Advent:
Free Online Prayer Cards
Ever hit a patch where you don't know how you want to pray, don't feel like you have time to pray, and need to pray something short and meaningful? So do I. The prayer card section on the Pray website is an incredible resource for people in that spot. Each prayer card is a PDF that can be printed out, cut, and folded up to fit in your wallet. Here's an example of one of the prayers, a prayer for healing (PDF):
A great resource for Catholics on the go (they'll send you daily emails) or Catholics not on the go (watching videos), Pray.nd.edu can help you grow closer to God day by day.
If you have a website you recommend, leave a comment or send Isaac an email:
The First Day of the Rest of Our Catholic Lives
Ok, so a little over the top with the header above, but it's true: the First Sunday of Advent, 2011 will be the first day of the rest of our Catholic lives. The words we use to pray together as a community will change. The next few weeks this blog will have a series of blog posts to focus in on preparing us for the weekend of November 27. Hundreds of resources exist to help parishes, parents, teenagers, and teachers get up to speed about the New Roman Missal and its translation. It's my goal to highlight some of the best ones our Catholic churches have to offer for adults and children alike.
Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II before him have expressed their desire to restore greater mystery, transcendence, and reverence to the celebration of the Mass.
To dig deeper, St. Mark's own Mickey Edwards provides an excellent brief history of the Mass in the 20th century in one short article. You can read the whole article in our August/September Maneline (PDF warning). To quote from this article:
In 1982 a second edition of the Roman Missal appeared in Latin, and in 1998 the bishops of English-speaking countries submitted a translation to Rome for approval. But in 1999 the translation principles of Comme le prevoit [nb: published after Vatican II] were set aside by a new Vatican document on translation, Liturgiam authenticam, which rejects the principle of “dynamic equivalence” in favor of “formal equivalence.” Formal equivalence requires that every word in the Latin text be rendered in the translation and it also directs that the vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, and capitalization patterns found in Latin must be reproduced as far as possible in the vernacular translation. Gender-inclusive grammatical forms now commonly used in English are not acceptable.
In 2002 a third edition of the Roman Missal was promulgated in Latin. Guided by the new translation norms in Liturgiam authenticam, the ICEL produced an English translation which was approved by Rome in 2010. This is the translation that we will begin using on November 27th.
Process: How Did This Happen?
LifeTeen has a great video summary of how the translation came into being:
In future, we'll dive into specific parts of the New Roman Missal. Do you have any questions? What would you like to see us cover? Leave us a comment and let us know.
With Halloween candy on the clearance racks today, we Catholics turn our attention to All Saint's Day (the Solemnity of All Saints). Today is a wonderful opportunity for us to gather together to celebrate all the saints who have gone before us, both canonized and uncanonized.
Greeting Pilgrims from his balcony, Pope Benedict XVI had this to say to English speakers today:
I am pleased to wish all of you a happy All Saints Day! This wonderful feast, along with tomorrow's commemoration of the faithful departed, speaks to us of the beauty of our faith and of the joy that awaits us in heaven with our loved ones who have fallen asleep in Christ. Let us therefore pray earnestly that we may all be joyfully united one day in the Father's house. God bless you all!
So what is it about the Saints that captures our attention? Fr. Jim Martin explains how real the attraction of saints can be, and how important they are for our faith:
