from Fr. Romanowski in this week's bulletin.
Jesus spent hours and nights at prayer. This is a clear sign to us to do the same. A useful and imperative way of prayer is meditation. This is easy. We allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our innermost self which is known as the spirit. 'In order to meditate we collect ourselves. That is called "recollection"--the simple way of presenting ourselves to God in order to free ourselves from the burden of our humanity. Pope Benedict spends a long chapter on prayer in which he uses the heading, "The Our Father" which is the same title the Catechism of the Catholic Church uses for one of the four sections in the book. Meditation consists of allowing full entrance of the Holy Spirit--the use of the aspirations: "Through Mary, with Mary, in Mary" and "Through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus." It should always begin with the Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross is a genuine prayer in itself and gives the proper start to our meditation. This type of prayer or rather the quality of all prayer requires a focus on God who directs our thoughts in the proper way. Our minds tend to go in different directions. Meditation places the heart of the individual at the forefront of our quest. In the preface of the Mass, we pray and beseech lift up your hearts and "we have lifted them up to the Lord." When we truly lift our hearts or better allow the Holy Spirit to do so we encounter the Lord once and for all. This experience enables us to see with the eyes of Faith that only God really matters. This is not a put down to ourselves or our loved ones but shows us in an absorbing way the necessity of losing ourselves in Jesus. We know from our intelligence that Our Lord has saved us. Meditative prayer enables us to hear in the heart that He truly is totally concerned with every aspect of our existence. If the method of meditation seems too complicated always remember that children are the best prayers because they are saints. We always learn more about God from them. We teach their minds. They teach our heart. This is the way that Our Lord taught the Apostles and the people of His day! "Let the children come to me for of these is the Kingdom of Heaven." Unless you change and become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. God has spoken. We need more help for the feast! We need more adorers. For the next four weeks--Wednesday 11-12 midnight. Please let us know if you can help us. sell those 50-50s. Save St. Mary's!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Now and Forever.
Fr. Jerome Charles Romanowski
Jesus spent hours and nights at prayer. This is a clear sign to us to do the same. A useful and imperative way of prayer is meditation. This is easy. We allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our innermost self which is known as the spirit. 'In order to meditate we collect ourselves. That is called "recollection"--the simple way of presenting ourselves to God in order to free ourselves from the burden of our humanity. Pope Benedict spends a long chapter on prayer in which he uses the heading, "The Our Father" which is the same title the Catechism of the Catholic Church uses for one of the four sections in the book. Meditation consists of allowing full entrance of the Holy Spirit--the use of the aspirations: "Through Mary, with Mary, in Mary" and "Through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus." It should always begin with the Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross is a genuine prayer in itself and gives the proper start to our meditation. This type of prayer or rather the quality of all prayer requires a focus on God who directs our thoughts in the proper way. Our minds tend to go in different directions. Meditation places the heart of the individual at the forefront of our quest. In the preface of the Mass, we pray and beseech lift up your hearts and "we have lifted them up to the Lord." When we truly lift our hearts or better allow the Holy Spirit to do so we encounter the Lord once and for all. This experience enables us to see with the eyes of Faith that only God really matters. This is not a put down to ourselves or our loved ones but shows us in an absorbing way the necessity of losing ourselves in Jesus. We know from our intelligence that Our Lord has saved us. Meditative prayer enables us to hear in the heart that He truly is totally concerned with every aspect of our existence. If the method of meditation seems too complicated always remember that children are the best prayers because they are saints. We always learn more about God from them. We teach their minds. They teach our heart. This is the way that Our Lord taught the Apostles and the people of His day! "Let the children come to me for of these is the Kingdom of Heaven." Unless you change and become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. God has spoken. We need more help for the feast! We need more adorers. For the next four weeks--Wednesday 11-12 midnight. Please let us know if you can help us. sell those 50-50s. Save St. Mary's!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Now and Forever.
Fr. Jerome Charles Romanowski