"A Living Prayer," Alison Krauss and Union Station: Wonderfully Catholic Sentiments

Here is a beautiful ballad, "A Living Prayer," sung by Alison Krauss with her band Union Station on the Tonight Show. The song was written by Ron Block, the man playing the guitar over Alison's left shoulder.

I can't help but think as I listen to the lyrics of this song, how Catholic it truly is.The sentiments behind wanting to be a "living prayer" to God as we go through life and wanting to live "inside the love the Father gives," are deeply Catholic. One could meditate and pray over these simple words with much benefit. Indeed, may we all strive, by the indwelling of the Spirit within us, to be a living prayer to the Father, learning to live inside His love in the way we care for others. The feeling behind these lyrics goes beyond seeing the loving deeds we do for others merely as a confirmation of the authenticity of our faith. These are the expressions of a heart that understands, on some level, that by being a living prayer in the way we give ourselves in love for other people, not only do we truly bring Christ to others through our own loving actions, as we do so, we ourselves also grow closer in personal intimacy to His heart.

Cistercian monks on video

Here is a short (7 min) video about life at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, located in Wisconsin. The PBS show, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, featured them on September 11.

They did a nice job giving a flavor for monastic life in the contemporary world. Do take a look if you are at all curious about monasticism and its valuable place in the world. We benefit much from the prayers and example of dedicated monks and nuns who pursue a special closeness to God for the sake of the Church and for the whole world.



[HT: New Liturgical Movement]

Family headship; dryness in prayer

I would like to give accolades to a very good blogger I have come across recently. She is Jennifer Fulwiler and her blog is Conversion Diary. She used to be a feminist atheist and is now Catholic and married with children.

On August 12 she wrote an insightful post, "Why it makes sense to be obedient to my husband." In it she describes how her thinking has changed from being against the idea (as it would be contrary to woman's equal value) to being in favor of it. She approaches the subject from several angles including leadership, limitations, equality, fairness, motivation, providence, and love. If this subject interests you, it is well worth reading.

I would also like to highly recommend an excellent post Jennifer wrote, "The greatest nothing I ever felt." She writes about the issue of emotionally intense prayer as compared to more spiritually quiet, dryer prayer, and how God helped her realize during adoration that a close relationship to Christ does not always have to translate into intensely moving prayer experiences. Here is an excerpt:

Other women began to sniffle and lean their heads on the pews, and I grabbed a couple Kleenex from the box next to me for when my own powerful experience began. As regular readers know, God rarely speaks to me so clearly as when I'm in Adoration, . . . and it seemed inevitable that going to Adoration in such a beautiful chapel surrounded by such God-loving women at such a Christ-centered retreat would leave me open to the Lord's promptings as never before. I crossed myself, prayed, gazed at the monstrance, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Jennifer addresses a subject that is very relevant for many Christians striving to grow closer to Christ--especially for those whose personalities tend to be highly passionate. Later in her post she writes,

I realized that this relatively new understanding of God gave me a certain kind of joy. It wasn't a shout-from-the-rooftops, overwhelming kind of joy borne of a powerful visceral reaction to some event; rather, it was the calm, steady, quiet joy borne of knowledge of the truth.

If you sometimes struggle wondering why the Lord does not always grant the consolations in prayer that you desire, do check out Jennifer's comments in full.