Tag Archives: prayer

Ask and you will receive

Posted on March 3, 2009 by | 2 Comments

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

John 16:24

Today in reading the Liturgy of the Hours, this verse “spoke” to me. My wife and I have been struggling for some time with our jobs: me, in a part-time job as a newspaper correspondent; she in a full-time job as a surveyor for a moving company. Just this past Sunday we discussed about praying specifcally for what we want: a new job. This Scripture seems to be a confirmation of that.

For me: a writing instructor at the collegiate level or a writer/editor in a field besides newspapers. For her: a licensed nurse practitioner, with a job that can lead to that.

We really haven’t asked for anything — until now.

Lord, help me to make the connections necessary to become either a writing instructor at the collegiate level or a writer/editor in a field besides newspaper and help my wife to get a job in the medical field where she can earn credits toward becoming a LPN. Amen.

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Sleeping with Bread: I’m good enough. I’m smart enough…

Posted on March 2, 2009 by | 11 Comments

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.”

Linn, Dennis et. al, Sleeping with Bread

Each Friday, I participate in the meme Sleeping with Bread, started by Mary-Lue and based off the book. As Mary-Lue describes it in her introduction, just as “the orphans held on to what nourished them and were thus able to sleep peacefully at night, the examen, based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff.”

So with that in mind:

Instead of backdating as I have done in the past, today I am just going to be honest and start from where I am. Or like Stuart Smalley, I’m going to turn to the mirror and say to myself, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” Or “I am a worthy human being.” Or “…and that’s…okay.”

For what I am least grateful this past week

1. Procrastination. No, not just for blogging, but for more important things. For example, last week I finished a  project for a newspaper for which I write on Friday. While the deadline was technically yesterday, but editor asked for it on Friday. Instead of working on the project the previous week, I waited until the last couple of days last week to write it. If I had done the work the previous week, I would have had a better story than I did.

2. Continued wasted time on the computer. This weekend, with my wife away for the weekend, I became addicted to another online application, blip.fm (I’m not going to provide the link, you can go there to get addicted for yourself if you’d like). Anyway, as a result, this morning I woke up and organized my online application time. I belong to too many online groups and applications from Facebook to Twitter to just reading blogs on my Google Reader. This way by organizing by days, I can more effectively manage my time online. At least, this is the plan. Day 1: so far, so good.

3.  Lack of sleep. Because of 2, I have slept in too late and not done things I need to do, like continue searching for a full-time job and also getting up earlier in the morning to run. This morning in relation to the latter, I have set up a schedule to get me prepared for the 25K  trail run/hike I am doing on April 19. Now to stick to it.

For what I am most grateful this past week

1. My wife. After returning home from a business trip downstate (Pennsylvania, I live in upstate Pennsylvania) and a visit at her mother’s (in New Jersey) last night, my wife not only cleaned the kitchen floor on her hands and knees (from a spill I had earlier in the weekend, but did a half-assed job at cleaning up), but also then sat down at the kitchen table with me and talked honestly about our need for Lenten devotional time together. We also talked about our job situations and what we can do to seek God’s direction in those areas, namely pray, but also actively work with others toward that end: me as a writing instructor in a college setting and she as a licensed practitioner.

2. I think that’s plenty for this week for which to be grateful, don’t you? Well, I do.

Lord, thank you for my wife, Kim. Help us to find the jobs that you would want us to have and in which we would be the most satisfied, because where we are now, it isn’t working. Also help me to be better about my use of time in all areas so that I can get done what I need  to get done daily. Amen.

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Posted in Flashback Friday, Soul

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Sleeping with Bread: Looking toward Lent

Posted on February 20, 2009 by | 2 Comments

During the bombing raids of WWII, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.”

Linn, Dennis et. al, Sleeping with Bread

Each Friday, I participate in the meme Sleeping with Bread, started by Mary-Lue and based off the book. As Mary-Lue describes it in her introduction, just as “the orphans held on to what nourished them and were thus able to sleep peacefully at night, the examen, based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff.”

So with that in mind:

For what am I most grateful this past week?

1. Registering for the Hyner View Trail Challenge, a 25K trail race in the Sproul State Forest, Hyner View State Park, near Lock Haven,  Pa. (more on this in an upcoming Motivation Monday post).

2. Being able to visit with friends. On Saturday, my wife and I will be going to dinner with friends from where we used to live. As we don’t have a lot of friends where we live, it is good to be able to get out of the house and spend time with friends. Being that my wife and I don’t have children and many of the people, for example, in our parish have children, we don’t have a lot of common ground with them. Also with children, the people at church often are understandably busy with doing things with them.

3. That said, being able to reconnect with friends online via such applications as Facebook has been a good thing– even if neither one of us (me or my friends) always do a good job of keeping in contact as well as we should even with the tools at our disposal.

For what am I least grateful this past week?

1. Not progressing on a story on which I’m working for a daily newspaper for which I work as a correspondent. I made no phone calls for the story and didn’t do one thing for the story besides get a list of photos of businesses that I need to take next week. I really don’t know what happened, but my motivation went out the window somehow.

2. Not sticking to my commitment to not be on the computer on Wednesdays each week, except for work-related (newspaper-related) things. Sometimes I just need to be away from the computer, because I’m either blogging myself or reading other blogs or playing games on Facebook so much that it’s almost like information overload. As a result, I don’t make time for most importantly my wife, reading books like I want to do or even myself, just being able to think about life, for example, a change in my career, which brings me to…

3. Not progressing on a change in career by pursuing anything to that end. For the past 12 years, I’ve been working in the newspaper field. However, it’s more than time for a career change, not just because newspapers are “going under,” but also because it’s just not where I want to be. Where I want to be: teaching writing at a collegiate level or being a writer/editor in another capacity besides newspapers.

I’ve also considered trying to work toward becoming a librarian, even though like newspapers, libraries are dying too, especially for lack of resources. One silver lining: this past week, I did talk to the head librarian at the local library about talking to her about what she does, and what I would need to do to pursue a career as a librarian.

Lord, first, thank you for friends that we have and also for enabling me to enjoy running (something I have been negligent in my training, but that I know you will assist me in the upcoming weeks and months).

Second, please help me cultivate those friendships we have and look to develop new ones that we might have thought of previously.

Third, help me to stay focused this week on those things which I need to get accomplished: the story and photos for the paper for the special assignment with which the editor has entrusted me; my quest for a new career, especially in setting up a person weekly to contact to help hold me accountable.

Fourth, help me to keep my commitment to stay off the computer this Wednesday, unless necessary for the  paper. With Wednesday being Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent, let this be part of my fasting this week and in the coming weeks of Lent.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. †

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The influence of gazing, listening and contemplating

Posted on January 25, 2009 by | Comments Off

…my atheism is far from devout, but a rather lazy halfhearted form of the creed, tinged with what the French call la nostalgie de la croyance. It is that nostalgia for faith that has led me into any number of monasteries and churches to seek out the company of the pious. Nor am I so uncertain of the inefficacy of prayer, but am beginning to suspect that gazing, listening and contemplating may influence the material universe.

…so writes Richard Selzer, retired professor of surgery at Yale Medical School in his autobiography Down From Troy: A Doctor Comes Of Age.

I was especially struck by that last sentence. I know in my own life that “gazing, listening and contemplating” on the mysteries of God in the morning definitely does the material universe, in how I approach the rest of the day, the week. I become centered and my life flows from that center. If like me, you want to believe that center is God, so be it.

I believe just the act of contemplation of something, someone outside yourself brings you more in tune with the universe. It sounds paradoxical. Focus outside yourself and inside yourself you become more focussed than you previously were.

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