Prayer is the answer..

It is Jesus who stirs in you a desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal. -- Blessed John Paul II

So I was thinking recently about what motivates me to be more then I could ever imagine for myself.
I was thinking why do I all of a sudden desire to serve in a bold and dynamic way? Honestly, where did this boldness come from? The answer: Prayer!  Prayer is my way of connecting with God.  It is my way of staying connected with Him. It's interesting because I hear a lot about how do we do that? How do we connect with God? I always say, just do it. Maybe I make it seem too simple, but it is just that simple.  I do not believe that God makes getting in touch with him difficult, but we as humans do.  "I am too busy, to pray." "I can't get to mass on Sunday, that is the day I rest, God will understand if I don't show up." St Padre Pio once said, "If you eat everyday, then receive our Lord everyday." Now i know he is speaking of the Eucharist, but in another way we can take this phrase as speaking to the heart of each one of us and saying, make time for our Lord everyday.


I see, day in and day out people who long to make a difference in the lives of others. Why? Well the altruistic answer is, because I have been blessed and so I will go out and do the same.  The answer you hear most of the time is, well it makes me feel good and well that is what you are suppose to do..give back. Now weirdly enough both of the above answers are correct.  It is good to give when you have been blessed because you can only keep what you give out to others, and also that giving does feel good and there is nothing wrong with feeling good about having given of yourself to others.  The problem is though a lot of the times we end up doing more for the way it makes us feel then anything else. We wonder after a while, am I doing this because I am being called to serve God's people or am I doing this because people tell me I'm a great person when I do. I think service is a key to healing and having an encounter with Christ, but if we have no Christ to give to someone that we serve, what source are giving from?


I was talking to someone a couple of days ago.  We were discussing community at a meeting and I said to him: you know where community starts? Its starts on that altar at mass--when I receive Christ, I can then give him to you, and when you receive him at mass you can then give him to me and to others. Community is not about a fundraiser or clothing drive or who you sit by at mass...or even if you know every single person's name in the parish. Community is our encounter with Christ being put to action in His very body and world. Community is our participation in a relationship or life of prayer that calls us to be Him to others. Community is drawn out from a relationship we nurture with Christ, prayer!!! 


Community can start from jumping right into ministry; truly God can use any means to bring us to himself.  I am a firm believer of getting involved--I am also an even firmer believer of relationship with Christ. A daily prayer life will change everything from the inside out.  I believe that people fear the change. They fear what might come out.  They fear that all the stuff that caused them so much pain will finally come out and free them from the chains that they have grown accustomed to.  They fear that they will be asked to do more--they minister from a place of woundedness and not a place of relationship or encounter with Christ. When I say a place of woundedness I mean do we serve others to satiate a wound, but not necessarily heal it? Do we serve kids in youth ministry so that they may look up to us because no one ever did?  Do we serve to gain, or do we serve to give?


If we take the Annunciation for example, Mary encounters the angel. The angel explains to Her that she would be the bearer of Christ. After getting over a couple humps and asking some important questions, she says yes!!! At that moment Christ is conceived in her virginal womb. She not only encounters Christ, she now bears him within her very being.  What is the next thing she does, she goes out to be with her cousin Elizabeth--She goes to serve and Bring Christ to Her!!! 


Mary is a beautiful example of service to us--she receives Christ and then goes out to be him! Awesome!! The key questions to ask ourselves is this and this is actually something  I heard recently by Mark Hart was one phrase "do we serve because of a promise we made to God, or the promise He made to us." Mary served from a place of promise that God made to Her.  She had no idea of what was to come, but she trusted it would.  She continued to pray, as she held all these things in her heart!! She continued to rely on God and all that God gave her to serve.  She did not serve from a place of woundedness, as if she was receiving any sort of glory.  She gave God all the glory and kept none for herself.  


Let us look to Mary as our example as we learn to encounter God in prayer. Let us make it a priority to cultivate a prayer life. This prayer life will carry you more then you could ever imagine.  May we learn to take time to be quiet in a noisy and self-centered world. Prayer is simple and does not need to long and calculated.  Do you try to always figure out the best ways to talk to your friends, or do you just talk to them? Are you real with the people you love in your life? Do you make time for the people you love?   May we make time for God as he continually makes time for us.  May we make him a priority as he did on the cross for us!!!