Prayer and what to make of it.

The commentary of today’s scripture was:

Whatever you ask the Father, he will give you in my name.

Every time I speak about prayer, it seems to me that I hear in your heart certain human reflections that I have often heard, even in my own heart. Since we never stop praying, how come we so rarely seem to experience the fruit of prayer? We have the impression that we come out of prayer like we entered into it; no one answers us with even one word, gives us anything at all; we have the impression that we have labored in vain. But what does the Lord say in the gospel? Stop judging by appearances and make a just judgment. (Jn 7 :24) What is a just judgment other than a judgment of faith? For the just man shall live by faith. (Gal 3:11) So follow the judgment of faith rather than your experience, for faith does not deceive, whereas experience can lead into error.And what is the truth of faith other than that the Son of God himself promised: If you are ready to believe that you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, it shall be done for you. (Mk 11:24) Thus, may no one among you, Brothers, consider prayer to be a small thing. For I assure you, the one to whom it is addressed does not consider it a small thing; even before it has left our mouth, he has had it written down in his book. Without the slightest doubt, we can be sure that God will either give us what we are asking him or he will give us something that he knows to be better. For we do not know how to pray as we ought (Rom 8:26), but God has compassion on our ignorance and he receives our prayer with kindness. So take delight in the Lord, and he will grant you your hearts requests. (Ps 37:4)

Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and Doctor of the ChurchSermons for Lent, no. 5, 5

To this I would comment as our Pastor taught two weeks ago; in order for our desires to be answered, our prayers have to be made from the center of Gods will for our lives.

Often we find ourselves happily living our temporal lives with the thinking that because of our belief in God ergo we must be in his will for our lives. This thought then causes us to pray “in his name” thinking our wishes will be automatically granted only to find they are not. Why not then? If not in his will are we are asking selfishly; not placing our lives in his great soft powerful hands but rather proudly thinking that we are capable of governing the small ships that are our lives in that great stormy sea of life? While as St. Bernard points out; our Lord still hears our prayers he also in his infinite wisdom knows that sometimes our prayers if answered might or quite possibly would draw us away from his will for our lives. Having our prayer automatically answered might focus our limited vision upon the result of OUR efforts rather than the glory of his kingdom and the portion of his grand plan that we can see in our limited vision.
Isn’t the ultimate goal of our faith one of walking along hand in hand with our Lord, fully trusting in his wisdom to choose the path we tread knowing that he will never guide us into the brambles and rocks?

thought of the day

What is it about the “progressive” left these days? It seems that when ever they cannot find factual rational arguments to use against those they do not AGREE with, they digress to the level of howler monkeys slinging poop at anyone within throwing distance. Is this because they cannot support their thesis with fact or is it because when faced with fact they cannot bear looking at truth. For an example, I submit the latest post on Michelle Malkin’s blog:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005232.htm
As she points out, this is not the first time she has been slandered in an obscene fashion. Ms. Malkin has made a name as a journalist who does not flinch when she reports on issues that are less than popular. Some of what she has said has been controversial but based on fact. Sometimes she is wrong, when erroneous she has corrected inaccuracies or retracted her statements.
Look, if you have a problem with someone’s statements or with their accuracy, write them and point it out in a polite message. Give them the facts necessary for a correction. Referring to her as an “Asian whore” isn’t correcting, it’s lowering oneself to the level of a spoiled 6th grader who recently discovered the shock value of scatology.

And another thing...

(Conjuring an image of Mary Lou Retton strolling among the aisles...I guess you have to be of a certain age to get that joke.)

Wretchard at Belmont Club nails something that has been growing and gnawing at the base of consciousness for a long time.
Go here and ponder: http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2006/05/still-small-voice.html
There is much meat in his thoughts.

If you can read this, go thank yer MOM

The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul….The angels have not been blessed with such a grace.”
Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty (1892—1975):“

A bit of sadness

This is Bailey, she is my wife's baby. She sleeps with us (her) and is pretty much spoiled rotten.
She is about 12 years old, we rescued her from the Shelter in a fit of civic responsibility and soft heartedness when she was about a year old.

She was supposed to be our daughter's dog but quickly became Linda's little puddin-pup.

We took her to the vet this afternoon when we thought perhaps she was having some sort of spring allergy; she usually gets them this time of year. Instead he told us that those swollen glands are probably a form of lymphoma. We will be taking her back on Monday for a biopsy but he seemed pretty sure of the outcome. He's an awfully good vet who has seen us through some hard times with our other pets.

Linda cried all the way home.

God, I AM SO TIRED OF CANCER!

Current Reading

"The Party of Death started with abortion, but its sickle has gone from threatening the unborn, to the elderly, to the disabled, it has swept from he maternity ward to the cloning laboratory to a generalized disregard for 'inconvenient life'"

The first paragraph of Ramesh Ponnuru's new book, "The Party of Death".

I'm not going to say much more till I have read it all the way through but what I have read so far strikes me as Truth. Hard to read in terms of the subject matter but worth the effort.

Back in the saddle... so to speak

The rain held off and a good time was had by all. We spent most of Saturday tramping around the battlefield at Perryville, KY. http://www.perryville.net/
Its a really interesting piece of history. The only major battle fought in Kentucky during the Civil War (or as the south referred to it: The war of Northern aggression - that or the War for States Rights, I can never remember which is the term I'm supposed to use when I'm back home). Anyway, the battle was like many of the early war, two armies stumbling around in the neighborhood when one discovers what it thinks is the other's weakness and commences to attack only to discover that they have misjudged the other and then the two proceed to beat on each other till one decides to quit and run off, the other in hot pursuit.
Approximately 18,000 Confederated attacked almost 60,000 Federals with nearly 9000 casualties. The only result being that the Confederate drive to take Louisville was halted and they were sent back to Tennessee.
After Perryville we rambled about the "Holy Land" and landed in Loretto, KY home of Maker's Mark. http://www.makersmark.com/Home.aspx We stopped by just in time for a tour of the facility. Interesting and well done. I'm going to have to try it again. The last time I had MM I decided it seemed a bit harsh to the palate. I may have to change my mind.