Today I'll direct you to Dorothy Pilarski's article in the Catholic Register.
Could not have said it better myself.
Have we taught our children to have a personal relationship with Jesus?
Beyond being told, that "Jesus, is your best friend" I don't recall any adult emphasizing this in my childhood/teen years.
Though I do make a concerted effort to teach my boys, that Jesus wants to be their friend and we very often compare how we treat our human friends to how we treat Jesus.
Dorothy does an awesome job of breaking that down in this article.
Children Need to Have a Relationship with Jesus
Showing posts with label Why Do We Pray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Why Do We Pray. Show all posts
Monday, June 21, 2010
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Part II: Why Do You Pray?
Part II: Why Do You Pray
Certainly to acknowledge the purpose and need for prayer we are recognizing that our faith is a supernatural faith. God is an invisible reality. However, many of us at some time or another have fallen into the notion that God is a distant God; believing that he is looking down on us from heaven with scorn and condemnation, so we are afraid to pray. If you can relate to this, I implore you to watch Rob Bell’s Video: LUMP which is linked on my blog.
We must come to a place where we understand God is a personal God – that Christ is a person who is alive and with us all the time as he promised.
When we reflect on the gospels one that comes to my mind very often is the time when Jesus healed the young boy who was tormented by an unclean spirit. When the father of this young boy approaches Jesus it is clear that his faith was not very strong. On some level he understood that Christ had the capacity or ability to cure his son, but his request is worded as “if you can do anything to help him” Christ’s response to this man, could be very similar to what he says to us many times in prayer. When we pray for something, with little faith and he must be thinking “If I can? Certainly, I can.” Therefore, we must approach prayer like this father approaches Christ: “I do believe, help my unbelief.” Mark 9: 20-29
Certainly to acknowledge the purpose and need for prayer we are recognizing that our faith is a supernatural faith. God is an invisible reality. However, many of us at some time or another have fallen into the notion that God is a distant God; believing that he is looking down on us from heaven with scorn and condemnation, so we are afraid to pray. If you can relate to this, I implore you to watch Rob Bell’s Video: LUMP which is linked on my blog.
We must come to a place where we understand God is a personal God – that Christ is a person who is alive and with us all the time as he promised.
When we reflect on the gospels one that comes to my mind very often is the time when Jesus healed the young boy who was tormented by an unclean spirit. When the father of this young boy approaches Jesus it is clear that his faith was not very strong. On some level he understood that Christ had the capacity or ability to cure his son, but his request is worded as “if you can do anything to help him” Christ’s response to this man, could be very similar to what he says to us many times in prayer. When we pray for something, with little faith and he must be thinking “If I can? Certainly, I can.” Therefore, we must approach prayer like this father approaches Christ: “I do believe, help my unbelief.” Mark 9: 20-29
Monday, November 23, 2009
Part I: Why Do You Pray?
Why do you pray?
Part I
Can you answer that or does this question stump you?
I think awhile ago I would have been stumped by this question. My response might have been something like: “I pray because it helps me through difficult times, to remember that I am not alone, or in control.” In itself I don’t know that this response is incorrect or unreasonable, however there is much more to the reason we pray then just petition and consolation, I hope.
I will be responding to this question in a series of blog posts, otherwise I fear this post would be too long.
First of all, what is prayer?
Prayer is when we turn our heart and mind to God. When we address God and give Him praise, thanksgiving; we ask for help and ask for His mercy in our failings.
If you are reading this, then it is safe for me to assume that you agree that we are all on a journey, while we may be at different stages of our earthly and spiritual journey, the fact is we are all on a journey.
Now I take this a step further, we know God is the supreme creator of the whole universe, and we as human beings are His most prized creation, as we were made in His image and likeness. We also know that we were initially made to live with Him in paradise; because of sin we have been separated from Him.
Being separated from Him doesn’t change the fact that we are all physical and spiritual beings. We were made for heaven; we were made to live outside of time, therefore when we pray it’s like calling home.
Prayer essentially is a gift that God has given to us, even though we were forced to leave paradise because of sin, He invites us to call “home” often in order to connect with Him.
Christ is a prime example of this; He left paradise to come to Earth, and He took on a human body, while he walked among us his apostles found him rising early to pray; before he made any major decisions, he would pray, when he lost his cousin, John the Baptist, he wanted to go off to pray. If Christ, who would have been very close to His father needed to pray so often, how much more often to we need to pray?
Part I
Can you answer that or does this question stump you?
I think awhile ago I would have been stumped by this question. My response might have been something like: “I pray because it helps me through difficult times, to remember that I am not alone, or in control.” In itself I don’t know that this response is incorrect or unreasonable, however there is much more to the reason we pray then just petition and consolation, I hope.
I will be responding to this question in a series of blog posts, otherwise I fear this post would be too long.
First of all, what is prayer?
Prayer is when we turn our heart and mind to God. When we address God and give Him praise, thanksgiving; we ask for help and ask for His mercy in our failings.
If you are reading this, then it is safe for me to assume that you agree that we are all on a journey, while we may be at different stages of our earthly and spiritual journey, the fact is we are all on a journey.
Now I take this a step further, we know God is the supreme creator of the whole universe, and we as human beings are His most prized creation, as we were made in His image and likeness. We also know that we were initially made to live with Him in paradise; because of sin we have been separated from Him.
Being separated from Him doesn’t change the fact that we are all physical and spiritual beings. We were made for heaven; we were made to live outside of time, therefore when we pray it’s like calling home.
Prayer essentially is a gift that God has given to us, even though we were forced to leave paradise because of sin, He invites us to call “home” often in order to connect with Him.
Christ is a prime example of this; He left paradise to come to Earth, and He took on a human body, while he walked among us his apostles found him rising early to pray; before he made any major decisions, he would pray, when he lost his cousin, John the Baptist, he wanted to go off to pray. If Christ, who would have been very close to His father needed to pray so often, how much more often to we need to pray?
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