27th Sunday "Faith: Don't memorize it, live it!"

What an impressive insight from a largely unknown prophet of Israel. Habakkuk, having come to his wits end in the ensuing tumult of the nation, cries out in anguish to the LORD asking “don’t you see what’s going on? Don’t you care about us? Why are you not doing anything?” The prophet receives an answer that we deep down know to be true, but too often do not want to admit for we it’s losing control of our wills and lives.

The LORD tells the distressed prophet, “I see what’s going on. In fact, I see it and understand it more that you will ever know in this lifetime. I see the pain, the destruction and the sin – and I’m using it for my purpose.”

Today we could add to that, “Didn’t I send my Son to die for you? Didn’t I take your sin and conquer it by death? Didn’t I rise from the underworld for you? Don’t I extend to you my Mercy in every confession? Don’t I offer you my Body and my Blood at every mass? Don’t I sit on your altar so you and I to gaze upon each other in adoration? Don’t I send legions of angels every day and at every time in history to protect you, my beloved creation? Don’t I give you the example of the saints to follow as guides and intercessors? I do all this for you without asking anything out of you, but that you trust me, that you love me, that you seek me.”

This is the reminder Habakkuk received quite poignantly from the LORD – there is no need to wonder what the LORD knows and sees – he’s quite keen and astute to the topics of earthly and temporal affairs.

The key here is that we find within our faith the protection and strength to meet all life’s battles and tumults.

Faith, along with the word Love, is perhaps one of the most watered down  and misrepresented words within our language. Faith cannot be seen as merely having some set of codes and creeds in our back pocket to pull out and offer to the pagan, atheist, protestant, Jew, Muslim who differs from our way of thinking. If you’ve ever tried to convert with a battle over facts and ordinances, you know what a waste of time that really is. You can’t reason someone into a conversion of the heart, if you think you can, then I’d like to witness what other divine acts you can do for us!

No, faith is not a set of codes and ordinances of a Church or religion. Whenever it’s reduced to that, we encounter a dying religion. Not because our laws aren’t interesting, but because it gets off track and ineffective. That is not faith, it’s merely the context and the earthly way of living it out and understanding the theology of God and Church.

Faith is not the theology – theology is theology. Faith is an act of the will – Faith is a verb! Faith is coming before the LORD in the Eucharist and falling to your knees because you realize that on your best day, you can’t even begin to fathom how that bread becomes the body of your GOD. Faith is waking up each morning and realizing that you have been given another day on this earth, not because of your great healthy living tips, but because the LORD has a will for you to live out. Faith is taking the rosary in your hands and gripping them in utter surrender to the beauty of a life lived in the Blessed Mother and realizing that She and all the Saints are gazing upon the face of God and are intimately connected with you and never ceases to pray for you. Faith is looking at your family, your friends, your loved ones and realizing that God has given you a precious gift that nothing can ever replace – and sticking close by them and sacrificing for them so that you go without so they can have. Faith informs us that the posture of a Christian is the cross, and if you aren’t living your life in cruciform obedience, then you aren't tapping into your potential. Faith is everyday recognizing the incalculable beauty that’s penetrating your heart and mind, and it’s beckoning you to bask in the light of that beauty.

When our lives are this, when our lives look like this, then we have found the pearl and the essence of faith. Faith, reduced to some facts and figures is not faith – it’s exactly that: facts and figures. But a life conformed to the Mysteries and abandoned to the arms of our omnipotent God – that is faith. When our lives are built upon the essence and practices of God, and not merely our minds to the theology of it, then we find contentment in the will of the LORD. Then we understand, not Habakkuk’s desolation, but the consolation of the LORD he received.

If everyone lived the cross. If everyone surrendered to the Mysteries that penetrates the cosmos. If we surrender to the magnitude of what has been done for us, then we have begun to understand what faith really is – and it’s joyful! That is how we convert by our faith. In the freedom we have found in the arms of a GOD who loves us, we bring a new tinge and hue to the world. If all of us did that, if all of us were to live cruciform lives, what a different place this would be, what a vibrant Church we would have. The laws, ordinances and codes and creeds of the Faith – those are easy and will naturally follow – don’t obsess about it or make your faith about it. If you aren’t living it first, you’re life will be like a 9^th grade research paper instead of an intoxication of Divine Love!

This is achievable in everybody. Why? Because we are all made and destined for the same God! So believe and abandon yourselves into God. Make your faith first about that, then everything else will fall into place, you have my guarantee.

Only then, and I mean only then, will our lives really ever make sense. Only then will we ever begin to find meaning in our sufferings and death. Only then do we begin to finally live and live life to the fullest! If you do not find yourself coming before the mysteries of God everyday, you have not begun to understand what Faith means. You have perhaps grasped doctrine, but not what it means to have faith. Or you just really haven’t thought about it all together, and thus you really have no idea what you’ve been missing!

So go out today and be like our beloved saint, Saint Francis who, as the prayer attributed to him asks, making us instruments of God’s peace – becoming vessels and agents of the LORD and allowing the Spirit to grip hold and make amazing things happen!

Proof of the Trinity is in the mythology

A proof for God that I have mulled over in my head for a few years now is the reality of ancient mythologies and the polytheism that wedded together the people of primitive times.

Consider this...

From the very beginning of human history, for as far back and as detailed as we can get, people have been sensing 'gods' - that there is something more than what meets the human eye. With no prompting from established religions, from no cultural norms, from no real divine inspiration, people were sensing that that there must be gods at work here, and created their magnificent mythologies that still enthrall us to this day.

Mythology, magic, wizardry, spirits, pantheism, energies...they all point to the most basic human reality that we were made to be attuned to, interact with and connected to things higher and greater than ourselves. The ancients manifested that reality through their myths and practices, we, as Christians, have come to know this as The Trinity.

I believe that we are truly impoverished in our scientific, technological, post-modern industrialized world because there are so much subtle muting and pronounced distractions that hinder us from being as richly insightful as our prehistoric and ancient brothers and sisters.

Whenever we turn to the technology or science or industry or popularized culture to find meaning and answers, then we are truly worse off than the cavemen.

We cant say that what they believed was just as good as the Trinity, but we can say that they, in their limited resources and the void of Sacred Scripture and Divine Revelation, did a pretty good job at probing at the Truth.

I know this isn't one of the great proofs for the existence of God you may find in Anselm or Aquinas, but for a guy who appreciates and loves the beauty of the story and the pursuit for Truth, this is proof enough for me. Everything else is grace!

Let this Trinity Sunday prompt us to consider how we can make God as central and natural in our lives as the early polytheists and pagans wonderfully did. As they found fullness and completion in their mythologies and gods, let us do the same with our God, the Holy Trinity.

Baptism of the Lord homily

As you know, I returned last week from a pilgrimage to Rome. If you have been there, you can surely testify along side me the immensity and the breadth of the beauty that paints the streets, churches and history of that Eternal City. It really is an overwhelming endeavor to take in and process everything that surrounds you and that is overflowing your senses; it will take me a lifetime to reap all the fruits of such a trip. You can take a square inch of almost everything and extract that as a piece of priceless art worthy of thought and contemplation to appreciate its immense beauty and eternal refulgence. 

Rome is a place where the human mind, senses and spirit are lifted higher and you are helpless against the desire to see, know and experience more because, frankly, you feel united to God, history and the saints. You’re lifted to higher places because you’re around and presented by beauty that desires to do just that, history that ties you into eternity. With so much of your surroundings being priceless art and beauty, you need the time to appreciate it and to digest it and find its meaning and message. That is what true art does, and Rome specially affords the opportunity with being immersed in it.

These past six or seven weeks since the beginning of Advent, we have not been passively engaging in events past, reading about and recalling something that happened to and with people a few thousand years ago. No, we have been present with them and have been journeying and contemplating what has been revealed with them. That contemplating is what has been so essential and what truly reminds us just how real and active this has all been, from the lighting of that first candle to the Baptism of the Lord that draws to a close this Christmas season.

Consider the shepherds in the fields. They were simply doing their tasks of watching the sheep and warding off predators. But, from a distance they saw angels and as the angels drew closer, they began to stop and wonder what they were and what purpose they had for being there. Then the angles announce “Glory to God in the Highest” the savior is born! They go then to see this baby laying in the soft glow of perhaps an oil lamp in the coolness of the darkened stable. They gaze upon him and wonder, contemplate who this is and the angels’ message.

Consider the three kings, the wise men who traveled from countries far following a star. The star appeared and, in their wonderment and desire to see their King, they follow it, not knowing where it would lead them, but trusting only in the power of faith and the existence of this star in the heavenly cosmos. Their hearts are restless, they travel with no regard for what’s easier and what’s more convenient or without thought of the possibility that this could lead them nowhere or to their deaths. They travel and contemplate the meaning of this star. Then, they arrive to the humbleness of the manger and present this baby the gifts of a king, a man and a God. Not fully aware what had just transpired or what this baby would become, they go back and contemplate Him on their journey.

Consider Mary, the Blessed Mother. She, if anyone should have had all the answers and understanding of the Messiah, of her baby, but she doesn’t! Yes, she could tell us he weighed 8lbs 4ozs at birth and was 20” long and about his first words or how he would cry all night or when he would have gotten sick and she had to care for him, or when she had to go call him in for supper, or how he struggled with his math and everything else a mother can tell you about her son, but she too had to contemplate her son, God. Scripture tells us she kept these things in her heart and contemplated them. She was in the same boat as us in needing to seek the face of God and to gaze upon Him in the silence of the heart so as to know Him as He reveals Himself to us.

Today we remember the baptism of the Lord when His cousin John baptizes Him in the Jordan and Jesus is set now for His entire public ministry once the Father  reveals Himself that Jesus is the Christ. Again, we need to have Him revealed, we need to have our hearts and eyes set in Him so as to see Him and know Him and ultimately Love Him. Like Rome which requires a lifetime and then some to take in and process all the beauty and holiness draping every corner to fully appreciate and see all that’s there, so too does it take that long and even more to see Him and know Him and have Him reveal Himself to us.

This is truly the vocation of every Christian: to contemplate the presence and the beauty of God so as to have Him more revealed to us so as to know Him and love Him greater. Just as the beauty, history and holiness of Rome leads the human heart mind and soul to transcend itself and attain something higher, so too do the revelations of God pull us to transcend ourselves and fly into His embrace.

This is the message and meaning of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and The Baptism of the Lord- these last seven weeks of liturgies. Let us take this knowledge, insight and excitement into this brief period of Ordinary Time and seek Him, follow Him and contemplate His face, the very face of Love.

26th Sunday, OT year B

So often, we become over zealous in pointing out and scrutinizing the faults of others, the differences among us and segmenting each other into artificial categories. We do this all the while proclaiming our excellence and making our lives the marker for others to follow. This is such a prevalent and easy habit to fall into in our culture, and perhaps for many cultures over many millennia.

What makes this such an issue, especially in light of this weekend's readings is that this attitude towards life is the direct result of sin and thus perpetuates sin among our brothers and sisters. This leads us to not uniting in Christ, but instilling hate and resentment and setting people up to hate each other and themselves - this is not the message of the Gospel.

The first reading and the Gospel give us episodes of people running to Moses and Jesus reporting about others preaching in God's name. Both Moses and Jesus gives sort of a "don't worry about it" response and sends the message "worry about getting yourself to heaven with your brothers and sisters"and a little less critiquing.

Jesus goes further and hyperbolically exclaims that it is better to cut off our limbs and enter eternity maimed than to enter Hell intact.

If you don't believe that we do this, just examine every institution, media outlet, chamber of government, workplace and household - it happens all the time. From instead of debating the various philosophies of governing, conservatives are told to hate liberals and liberals hate conservatives. Instead of people of different faiths and creeds dialoging to come to a fuller understanding of their purpose in the mind of the universe, we're bread to hate and sometimes kill them. Instead of having a family meeting to discuss an issue in the household, we create divisions and factions to the point of exponential divorce rates and domestic violence.

Sin, at its very root, is turning in on ourselves with little to no regard for those around us, our brothers and sisters, the ones we love.

Scripture is clear that conquering sin, living for God, leading others to the Truth of God, establishing a world aflame with Love is our primary focus and mission. We are responsible for the salvation of those we minister to and are in contact with. It is not just the job of the priest to get us to heaven, but it's everyone's. Husbands are responsible for the salvation of their wives and vise versa. Family members, siblings, friends, loved ones, colleagues, strangers: we are responsible for their salvation. Failure to do so makes amputation of our limbs more desirable.

Scary? Sure. Real? We better believe it. Christ has won for us eternal life - the door is open. But we need to live lives worthy of that victory Christ won on the cross. We need to follow the path to that portal by living lives of virtue and bringing others along with us.

Looking back...

This is my final week in the seminary.

In a way it is a time for rejoicing and celebration for I had completed this assignment, this phase of my life. At the same time, it incites a lot of self-reflection and examination on the past 8 years of my life.

I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to experience phenomenal opportunities and meet some extraordinary people. I have had the opportunity to minister on an Indian reservation in SD, work in a soup kitchen in the heart of the Bronx. I have been assigned to two hospitals, two nursing homes, two youth programs, and a mental hospital as apostolic ministries. I have had the opportunity to go on pilgrimage to NY to be with the pope on his US visit and to Rome where I had the opportunity of being an acolyte at mass with him in St Peter's. I had the opportunity to not only go to Rome, but to Ars where I went to confession in the confessional of St John Vianney, followed by my acolyte installation at the tomb of St Vincent de Paul in Paris and serving mass in Notre Dame Cathedral.

Then there have been the innumerable day-to-day encounters and experiences that are the brick and mortar to the whole edifice of the seminary experience.

I have met some outstanding individuals - fellow students, priests, laity - who have impacted my life in ways many of them will never know and who some have become lifelong friends.

The formation process is so massive and weaves itself into every dimension of the man who goes through it. To synthesize and do a total reflection on it as a whole is a near impossible task for every aspect of your life and faith is affected by the experience. But I want o give a few thoughts on the spiritual and vocational growth I've experienced over the last 8 years.

Firstly, the sense I had of who God was when I first began and the sense of God now is miles deeper. My faith formation growing up was largely rooted in my 12 years of Catholic education and going to church on most Sundays - I was left with many more questions and vague notions of God than I would have preferred. It was in the process of these past years that I have taken ownership of, not only my knowledge of God, but my relationship with Him, and that is the most important element. I entered seminary with a feeling and a desire to discover what the priesthood meant while believing I had a grasp on God, but 8 years later I realize that I was very young and unspecific in my faith and didn't know a lot about what it meant to truly know God.

Secondly, it is the relationship with God that has come to define me. I am in no way holy and saintly, but I work on and desire a relationship with God so as to have everything about me reflect in that relationship. In all my weaknesses and struggles and challenges that I face in myself and in this vocation, I (try to) recognize them in the context of enduring it with God. God is not an idea that I can pray to in time of need, but an intimate friend whom I converse with all the time, any place and anywhere. It is that constant awareness of being in the presence of and in relationship with God that has truly been the most distinguishable touchstone of growth for me.

Thirdly, it is the overall sense and understanding of prayer and how powerful and effective it can be in our personal lives, but in the lives of those around us. It think this flows from the previous two points, but if you know what it means to know and you build a relationship with that person, then communication becomes enriched, deeper and more meaningful. The same goes with God. Even though we can't communicate the same as with a friend, we can still communicate and we do so through, not only through our senses, but also our souls and hearts. Communication with God is what it is all about - no matter the devotion, the words or actions - it is all about communicating and getting closer to the God. I think I was far more prone to pray to fulfill a sense of obligation to say words, but now I still have an obligation and bound by promises to my bishop to pray, but it is to enrich my life and the life of the whole church. This God that I pray to is the same one you and everyone else prays to - there is only one God! The more I can pray and love God, the more I am connected to the God who loves all humanity which leads me to being more connected to them in love.

It is a huge web and nothing is autonomous or isolated from another. My prayer life cannot not affect my relationship with God. My relationship with God cannot not affect my relationship to humanity. My relationship to humanity cannot not affect my relationship with God...and so on! (I know I used double negatives... I can't not resist)

I hope that wasn't too broad or too much, but my early reflections on this past phase of my life has made me initially see that fundamental growth and awareness has taken place.
As I move forward, especially in these next four weeks before priestly ordination, I will be reflecting a lot on what all this means to be called to the priesthood and to grow in maturity within the context of God...

third sunday of easter, year b

We are called to be witnesses to the Risen Christ...
witnesses of the one who has forgiven us of our sins
witnesses of the one who said death is not the end
witnesses of the one who said there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend
witnesses of the one who endured the cross because he was deeply in love with us

We have been called to believe, even though we have not seen, and bring His entirety to all peoples

But none of us can begin to do this if we do not know Him, the one we are called to witness.

This probably sounds like common sense, but it is so essential. And to know Him is so simple, yet incredibly difficult.
What many or all of us do is demand too much, to expect too much or put unrealistic expectations on those we are in relationships with. Think about any number of relationships we are in - spouse, friend, sibling, classmate, colleague, brother or sister in Christ - and consider what expectations or demands we put on them either subconsciously or directly.

Do we demand love? Do we want to be comforted? Do we demand acceptance? Do we demand attention? Do we demand proof of love?

It is a symptom of our humanity. We are fallen creation inclined to sin and corrupting perfect relationship with self serving desires and demands. If we really think about it, we can all in some ways see ourselves falling into this with at least some of our relationships.

The same is with Christ...

How easy and how common it is for us to demand love, comfort, acceptance, attention and proof from Christ. After all, He is a real person and how else are we to relate to Him than how we know how to relate to other persons in our lives? Then we are faced with the reality that we can't interact and expect synonymous responses from Him as we would, lets say, our spouse. When we make identical expectations on Christ as we do others and then faced with the reality He does not respond as they do, we are left in doubt and frustration and faith in God is something we resign as something superfluous or impossible.

I am the first one to admit my guilt with this. There are some days where it just 'clicks' and there are others where I'm too stuck on myself and I make demands on God to make Himself more known or to do something for me - I put very finite and human expectations on an infinite and mysterious Being!


What does this have to do with being a witness? Everything.

If we are to be witness of the Risen Lord, if we are to have the fire of faith and the martyrs zeal, then our hearts cannot be in the wrong place and stifling that flame. We need to be aware of what it means to know Christ so as to be His witness.

Knowing Christ is a lifelong process and we can never fully comprehend the depth and breadth of the mystery of God in this life, but we need to get ourselves on the right track.

The mystical and other worldly experiences of God that many of us perhaps demand of God can only be possible once we simply acknowledge Him. To be consumed by the flames of the love of God is only possible once we set before us His commandments. To release a sigh of joy in the mercy of God is only possible once we acknowledge our  own sinfulness. To be deafened by the choirs of angels is only possible through a  simple recognition of the need for something greater than I.

To know our Risen Lord is to simply acknowledge Him and an honest desire to serve Him.

It is our constant struggle to let go of those demands and expectations and just let God BE and let Him take you by the hand and lead you to places and experience things that our minds can only scratch in imagination.

We are called to be witnesses to the greatest mystery in the universe - let's not hinder that by our own weakness and sin.

4th Sunday Lent, Year B

With the dawn of digital photography and as photographers perfect the art, we have the ability to create some stunning photography and cinematography. What is amazing to me, and something I find fascinating, is the whole process of colorization to black and white or sepia photography. I’m not a photographer. I am still in the $60 GE point and shoot phase of photography, but I really admire those who do it well. What is so neat about colorization is that you see a deeper reality of the image – you see its true self.

I think many of us have seen digitally re-mastered movies that were either once black and white or antiquated looking and now is bright, bold and crisp. Actors and scenes we only knew through a colorless lens, now takes on a whole new personality and presence. Pictures of people like Abe Lincoln and others who only had their portraits taken before the dawn of color photography now are truly known to us in a whole new context. If you have never seen a color image of Abe Lincoln, look it up online, it really in neat.

What is also a fascinating technique is the contrast of black and white with color. There are black and white images of flowers with one flower in yellow petals. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of this technique is from the movie Schindler’s List where we see a little girl at the concentration camp wearing a red coat walking with her family. It’s a black and white film and the only color we see is that red coat. Sadly in the end, we see the red coat of the girl again, but among the deceased.

The use of color and non-color is powerful to us and can convey greater emotions, truths and realities about the subject. Adding color or partial color to a photograph of film brings it to a new context for us and we see it and experience it in new ways.

“The Light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to Light, because their works were evil”.

John is telling us this weekend that the Light has come into the world to shed its rays in the darkness of our lives and to illumine and bring hope and meaning to the darkness we inhabit. The Light came into the world to save us from our darkness and bring us into the warmth, security and hope of His Light.

But, as Chronicles laments, we kept adding infidelity to infidelity and rejected the Light and remained in the darkness.

What does this mean for us?

The Father sent us His only Son into the world to save the world through the Light of His Love. This Light is to illumine all our sinfulness, our waywardness, our grief and our doubts. His Light is to be the source of knowledge, truth and wisdom. His Light is to bring us hope and joy in the midst of a troubled world. His Light is to bring new meaning and depth to a seamlessly cold and black existence.

The Light came to color our world, to color our lives, to enhance our relationship with our God.

All of us experience ‘black and white” I our lives quite often. In the midst of so many challenges, sorrows and hardships, life appears rather colorless and bleak – anything but hopeful or meaningful.

But what Christ has done for us is come into the world to bring us His Light and all that it entails and means for our lives. His Light was brought into the world precisely so our lives will no longer remain black and white images, but colorful and powerful expressions of the Love of God!

Is it always easy? Certainly not. Will we always see the Light? Probably not. Is the Light always there? Absolutely. It is always there waiting to break through the darkness of our sins, our grief, doubts, despair and hardships.

If there is Light, there must also be darkness. But, we do not have to let the darkness conquer or snuff the Light. It is our challenge in our relationship with God and as pilgrims on the journey to color our hearts and lives with that Light of the Son.

This Lent ought to be a time where we purposefully endure and experience the darkness. We are called to be out in the desert thirsty, hungry and alone so that we can come to know the power and our dependence on the Light. I challenge each of us to let us enter more and more into the Lenten sacrifice so that when Easter comes, we will glory in the Light of the Son!

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

(title of a sermon by an American Colonial minister, Jonathan Edwards)

I am slacking in regularly posting on here. It has been an irregular past several weeks and I have not had a lot of time to devote to my blog, sorry. I would like to pick back up with some thoughts on some aspects of being ordained.

It was a great summer, my first summer ordained. Having been ordained a transitional deacon on April 30, I have had continual encounters that have been new, exciting, scary and challenging.

My parish I was at for the summer, and all school year, has a lot of masses so I was able to preach almost everyday and a couple of the Sunday masses. Preaching is something that I have been wanting for so many years. I have envisioned being up at the pulpit (or ambo) and giving fiery and inspirational homilies for many years. Now, it is a reality, sort of. At ordination, you are entrusted with the awesome task of being the caretaker and voice of the Sacred Scripture. It is I, the ordained deacon (or priest) that proclaims, teaches and preaches the Word of God - I am who the Church has bestowed this responsibility upon - this is REAL. What I learned quickly is that the Church did not entrust me because of any intelligence, savviness, eloquence or persuasiveness I could apply, no, the church has entrusted me with this responsibilty because God has chosen me to do it. I have done nothing and am nothing that deserves or qualifies me to do it - I have been called by God and answered the call. God has given me graces, graces that no one can truly understand unless they are themselves ordained and in need of relying on them.

What I quickly learned is that I know very little. I really am not an expert in any particular field of theology. I know the foundations and I understand how the Church thinks, but I am not endowed with any special knowledge that allows me to do this task. I have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks through my words, fills in my gaps, rests in the hearts of those who hear me and is the one who truly decides what I say.

This is why I say my desire to be an amazing homilist is sort of realized. I can now preach and do all the preparatory work involved like prayer, meditation and study to prepare for it, but it is God who is the one preaching. If someone says "nice homily, deacon", take it as a compliment and it is encouraging, but I know that I was only an aspect of that homily, God was the other and larger one speaking.

This is something that I probably had a head knowledge of prior to ordination, but now my heart has truly assented to that truth.

I have also come to see that preaching is a challenging task. The Holy Spirit is my guide and inspiration, but I still need to be knowledgeable in the ways of God, of Scripture, of humanity and of how they all interact. I need to continually learn and all my learning needs to have as its aim "How does this relate to the relationship of God and man?" and "How can I teach this to those entrusted to my care?". My existence is and has to be that of a person who has been entrusted with much, as a person of whom much is expected and of a person truly in love with God and all he does and creates in the world.

This is what I have come to learn, so far, from my task and ministry of preaching.

Thursday Eleventh Week Ordinary Time, 1

The Our Father

Just like us, the people in Jesus' time desired to know how to pray. They diligently and faithfully offered sacrifices, stopped throiughout the day and prayed, visited the Temple - they did a lot of stuff trying to find favor with God.

We are no different. We too desire to be found favorable with God so we 'say our prayers', go to mass, do acts of charity and whatever else we find time to do. There is nothing wrong with any ofthese, for we need to do these things - but, Christ teaches us something in the Our Father that we cannot forget.

When the disciples ask Him how they are to pray, Jesus gives them, not a technique or formula, He gives them a short 55 word prayer. Within these mere 55 words though is the essence of what prayer is and needs to be.

We come to realize in the Our Father that we are totally dependent on the Father. Without the Father, we do not have our daily bread. Without the Father, we are prone to temptations and evils that pull us away from a life of faith. Without the Father, we do not have forgiveness of our sins nor do we have the ability to forgive others. We are totally dependent of God the Father adn without Him, we are nothing.

The Our Father teaches us that prayer has to be us becoming little. We are not capable of anything without God. We are little children who needs our Father to give us life, to give us safety and to forgive us of all our sins.

In praying, we need to 'say our prayers' as the saying goes, we need to maintain a sacramental life and do acts of charity and self sacrifice. It all needs to happen though with the undercurrent of our total dependence on the Father and that without this life of prayer, we are nothing.