Father's weekly message
January 5, 2025 – Sunday After New Year – Feast of Epiphany — Prayer as Conversation (1)
In last week’s meditation on prayer, we learned that prayer is a mystical longing. It is the meeting point of God’s longing for man and man’s longing for God, reciprocal longing. In prayer, God’s cry for man and man’s response to God come together. Prayer is a call of God to man for unity with him. This longing and earning of God and man for each other shapes a conversation. So, we can say that prayer is a conversation or a dialogue between God and man. This prayer-conversation is not simply any ordinary form of conversation, but it is a special kind of conversation which involves the invisible world of God, angels, and saints. Of course, conversation happens in two forms: 1. self-conversation (soliloque), in which a person dialogues with himself. But true conversation (colloquy) always requires two individuals. Therefore, if prayer needs to be a fruitful and genuine conversation, there are a few necessary conditions for prayer-conversation: 1. Two persons – there must be a presence of two individuals (God and man) for prayer. Prayer is not a one way talking. We must learn to talk with God in our prayer. 2. Time is another necessary condition for prayer. Often people say, “I am busy, and I don’t have time to pray.” I think it is a big lie, because we always take time to do what we want to do. Isn’t that true! We must set reasonable time to enter into conversation with God and the invisible world of angels and saints. 3. Awareness of the other person’s presence. We must become aware of God’s presence; without the awareness of his presence, we cannot pray well. 4. Attention requires bodily movement of turning oneself toward the other person. Prayer calls for being in the presence of each other and being attentive to each other. Bodily presence and attentive-listening heart are necessary for prayer. 5. Sharing is another element of prayer. We share our sentiments, desires, wants, and needs. We show our gratitude, praise, thanksgiving, and love to God for his benevolence and goodness to us. God shares his grace, love, mercy, and gift of himself through his Son. 6. Faith is an important condition for prayer. Prayer depends on the liveliness of our faith. Without faith there is no prayer. … Those who believe, pray; those who do not believe, do not pray. Those who believe much, pray much; those who believe little, pray little. Those who believe deeply, pray deeply; those who believe weekly, pray weekly. We pray as we believe, neither more nor less. (Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.- Theology of Prayer). Therefore, during this week, let us try to pray Psalm 63 and ask God to fulfill the longing of our soul for him. - Fr. Jesu
Announcements for January 5th
Please pick up your contribution envelopes as you exit the church today. They are in alphabetical order. Please contact the church office if you do not have envelopes and we will issue some for you.
Por favor recoja sus sobres de contribución al salir de la iglesia hoy. Están en orden alfabético. Comuníquese con la oficina de la iglesia si no tiene sobres y le entregaremos algunos.
Our next Bible Study, “Mary, a Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother” begins on Monday, January 27th at 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Please register by January 12th. Cost is $30.00.
El Estudio Bíblico (solo en español) comienza el martes 7 de enero a las 6:45 p.m. en el Edificio de Educación. Por favor hable con Andrea Galván (469) 260-2231 si desea inscribirse.
The Poinsettias in front of the altar will be placed outside the church on Monday and are available to take home first come, first serve. If you would like to make a donation for the poinsettia, please use the flower envelopes in the Narthex.
Las Poinsettias frente al altar se colocarán afuera de la iglesia el lunes y estarán disponibles para llevarse a casa por orden de llegada. Si desea hacer una donación para la flor de pascua, utilice los sobres de flores que se encuentran en el Narthex