Category: acedia

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Quarantine and Acedia

Our soul waits for the Lord,
  who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us
  who have put our hope in you.   Psalm 33:20, 22

Here in the State of Maine, it has been five weeks since public Masses were suspended.  It has been three weeks since Governor Mills issued a stay-at-home order for the residents of Maine.  Some people are working at home.  Others who have “essential” jobs continue to go in to work.  Still others have lost their jobs, at least for the time being. For Catholics, we find that our weekly routines have changed.  Going to Mass on Sundays is no longer on the schedule.  Masses are live-streamed from many parishes, and efforts are being made to reach out to people in various ways.

Early on, when all this was new, some people (at least) may have felt some excitement about it.  There may have been the novelty of seeing our parish church and our pastor celebrating Mass on TV or on one of our digital devices.  But the novelty has worn off, at least for some.  I hear of a growing hunger for the Eucharist itself, a feeling that “this can’t go on indefinitely”, a desire to go to Mass and celebrate the sacraments.  Some people now find the live-streamed Masses insufficient.  A few even say that they prefer the emptiness of not watching Mass than the sense that watching Mass may give them that “everything is okay”. Continue reading “Quarantine and Acedia”

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Praying With Persistence And Confidence

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C):  Luke 11:1-13

“Lord, teach us to pray”.

Jesus’ disciples, seeing Him praying, make this request of Him. They do not ask this because they have never heard of prayer.  The Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, are filled with example after example of prayer.  The disciples, as sons of Israel, would have been taught various prayers from the time they were first able to speak.  They would have seen their parents (and other people) praying at home, praying in the synagogue, and praying in the Temple.  Prayer was a vital part of the Israelite’s daily life.  Jesus’ disciples have been praying all their lives. Nevertheless, they ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Continue reading “Praying With Persistence And Confidence”

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Faith: PSA or Fire Within?

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: Matthew 25:14-30

Submitted for our consideration this week is a parable of Jesus known as “The Parable of the Talents”. Because we use the word “talent” to refer to a personal gift or ability one of us may have, it’s easy to assume that this is what Jesus is talking about in this parable. Jesus, in this interpretation, is telling us to discover and use our talents as best we can.  Continue reading “Faith: PSA or Fire Within?”

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Check The Oil!

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: Matthew 25:1-13

I began my study of theology at St. Paul’s Seminary in Ottawa, Ontario in 1982. As was the custom in this diocese, I was given a parish assignment for the first time after my second year of theology – the summer of 1984. The diocese made arrangements with a car rental company to make cars available that summer  for any seminarian who did not have his own. Accordingly, when June came around, I made my way to Rent-A-Wreck in Westbrook, ME, and was issued a yellowish Ford Escort that had seen many, many trips around the barn. Still, it ran well enough, so I was good to go.  Continue reading “Check The Oil!”

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Waiting in Hope

Tuesday of the Octave of Easter

Our soul waits for the Lord,
  who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us
  who have put our hope in you.   Psalm 33:20, 22

 

With the coming of Easter, our Lenten observances are completed. During Lent, we may have given up something we like, or we may have taken on some additional devotion or charitable work. Or perhaps we have tried to correct some bad habit, or do something that expresses Christian faith and love in a concrete way. Lent may have been for us a time for repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Continue reading “Waiting in Hope”