We Weren't Spiritually Prepared **warning**this might disturb you

So the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare.
Prior to the decision the US Bishops called for fasting and prayer.
It was way too little and way too late.

The reality is--The Roman Catholic Church is not spiritually prepared to do the battles.

Their spiritual balance is off.

We have forgotten fasting and prayer and confession.
Somehow during the past 30 years we focused on social justice issues and policy--to the point where the spiritual balance was upset.  Instead of peace marches and sit-ins complementing spiritual and religious practices, they replaced confessional lines and Friday fasts and daily Mass.

Just last week I heard a homily where the aging priest listed what he decided were prophets of his time.  And then he likened them to St. John the Baptist--yep the cousin of Jesus Christ the Messiah.  I must have heard a homily like that once or twice a year for the past 40 years.  I even preached homilies like that (my belated apologies to those congregations).
The balance is so off that even our language has become nothing more than politically correct crap which skirts the real issues and has the potential to confuse the congregation.  When the preacher discussed recent church scandals he avoided the use of words like; evil, demonic, and satan.

We don't even use the language that clearly describes right from wrong. How can we even be expected to awaken ancient spiritual practices?

So when the Bishops called for fasting and prayer they were expecting the clergy and people to practice something that isn't even preached--I wonder how many clergy and laity really did fast--yes physically fast.  I wonder how many Roman Catholic Church's offered an evening prayer service or conducted novenas. 


The Bishops expected the people to do something that hasn't been promoted, practiced, or preached for years.


"Only by fasting and prayer can these demons be expelled."
-Jesus Christ.

Search Keyword

St. Michael the Archangel...defend us in battle

...be our safeguard

...against wickedness

...and snares

...and temptations

Most likely because of the title Praylium and a page entitled Satan's Pings this blog receives alot of 'hits' from people who type a variety of searches using keywords like;  temptation, evil, demons and satan..  I am not sure if they are looking to align themselves with darkness, or for information, or a way out of their present condition.
Not a day goes by where this website isn't hit by some searching soul.

Yes, it is a spiritual battle out there, in there, and everywhere---for your soul.

Where you at?
It takes work you know?  Work and prayer.  Whatever works for you--find it and stick with it.  Never let up...cause darkness always comes around and takes advantage of every moment.  The 'father of lies' will mask himself as good and rational.  satan preys on transition times in our lives.  Those are the times when we excuse ourselves more readily.  satan preys on times when our hearts ache and are broken, when we are depressed and when we are anxious.

Give us this day, our daily bread.
Free us from anxiety as we wait in joyful hope...

So, where are you at?  You doing the work?  You climbing the Cross Mountains in your life?  You praying and fasting?
For those of you who searched a key word and got this site---what are you doing with your soul?
The Holy Spirit lead you here--now it's your turn to do something with it.

And here is the Good News...Really Who are you searching for?
No matter how far off the mark we have been or become---Christ is waiting.
Come home.

pray for all who happen upon this site by 'accident'.

Approaching God

So there I was, sound asleep--which for me is a small miracle.  I never was a good sleeper, but now as time continues its linear march forward--I become less and less a good sleeper.
None-the-less, I was at the hour in the morning when the Trappists had already completed there vigils.
In the echoes of between awake and asleep I heard my wife let the dogs out side.
I fell back asleep before I heard them come back in.

Then, I felt it.
First I felt the warmth, then the wet, then it's presence.
One of our dogs (Benedict is his name), a beefy hunting Vizsla, had placed himself immediately to the right of my shoulder---
started shaking out of excitement.....and then...
urinated.

Yep, that's how I woke up.
Dog urine--on my shoulder, arm and neck.

See. Ben has a bit of a problem.  He really tries to control himself.  But his excitement always gets the better of his entire being, especially his bladder.
Thing is--its every time.
My wife and I can't even hug without him butting in.

Now, I am sure the dog whisperer or someone trained in dog therapy will tell me that he has some issues.
No joke.  Maybe it's the middle dog issue, or the neutered big dog in a pack with a female doberman as alpha dog issue.  Doesn't matter.

Now, I am not assuming the role of "God" in his life, so the following thoughts are not meant to be presumptuous.  Please keep this in mind as you continue.
What it made me think about was simply How am I approaching God.  I mean this dog is this excited every moment he sees us.  How am I with God? Do I approach with Holy Fear and Awe?  Am I aware that I am in His creative hands?

So what is your approach to God?  Are you coming to Him with everything you got?
Now, let's go one step further...What is your approach to other people, familiar and non-familiar?

Later in the day, our family was working outside when I heard my lovely wife yell for help because one of the dogs was in trouble.  There is a very old in ground swimming pool that was covered and Ben had fallen through.  In my rush through the woods I re-injured a bum ankle and fell in a patch of poison ivy.

"He's okay." She hollered.

Yes, he certainly is.

Riding the Hills

The other day my son shared with me that my last couple of posts sounded 'angry'.  I prefer to use the term 'spiritually provocative'.  After all, the blog is entitled 'Praylium'
None-the-less I will heed my son's advice for a moment.

Still fresh from me being pulled off my bike by an angry suv passenger a couple of weeks back--our family was sitting around the kitchen table talking about our 'best bicycle rides'.

While I have a few--- here is one that I love remembering.

The ride was one of the shortest of my life-- four or five miles and it was on my wife's birthday.
Since it was winter and the weather certainly was not conducive (20 some degrees in January--but the roads were clear) we took our trail bikes.
We decided to go do a certain hill--just to say we did it.
I rode beside her and at the top we hugged and kissed and she was beaming.

My wife was in the middle of her chemotherapy treatments.

The hill we did that day had seen us through the years--when we first moved to that area, trailer-ing our son up it, barely making it up in the mid day sun, racing up it, and simply meandering up it---but nothing quite like that day.  Weeks earlier we were in the ICU when her heart had stopped--now, well, we were climbing the hill.

I don't mean to preach--but here's a little more for you.
My wife was healed of cancer.
We then went to Medugorje (oh yeah, there's some hills there too--but you and I know what they stand for don't we now?)
And the rest?...well--it's kinda like a bicycle ride.

Thanks for reading.

Spiritual Coma

If all goes as planned I have only a few weeks until I begin a new ministry adventure.  Followers of Praylium may recall that this blog began in the midst an uncomfortable transition in ministry.  The job and contract that I was hired to do changed and I could no longer meet the responsibilities of being a father, husband, and son.  Often times this happens in 'corporate' approaches to parish ministry and I certainly was not immune.   Fortunately within days of my departure a new opportunity was created and Fr. Larry Richards asked me to come on and create a new high school program at his parish.  I ask your prayers (and perhaps even some fasting) for their community--St. Joe's Bread of Life.  I will begin in just a few weeks.

Fr. Larry and I go way back to seminary studies at St. Vincent's.  Only God knows what is in store.

My time away has allowed me to work through a rewrite and editing of The Lost Shepherd--an expriest's journey from sin to salvation. At the moment,  I am not at liberty to share the details of the publication but the release date will hopefully be in 2012.

Now onto the spiritual stuff...

When I was an Episcopal rector I once remarked how the attendance at church was remarkably low during the summer months.  Someone shared, "Don't you know that God loves the Episcopalians the most and that's why he gives us the summer off?"

Right...they aren't the only ones who think that way.

We relax and excuse our spiritual development in pursuit of---what?

During our last pilgrimage to Medugorje, Ivan shared that the "world is in a spiritual coma"

• We live attached to all the wires and 'life' support systems for years.  
• And they feed us, they keep us barely breathing, functioning for years.
• And we do this not even conscious of how we have been existing.
• We've become immune to the deeper realities, to our history, to our future--a future of eternal life or a future of damnation.
• We live attached to the wires that determine how we are to act, be, and live.
• We live attached to our desires, our whims, our rationalizations, our faulty reasoning, our ego, our addictions.
• We adopt the "I deserve it" mentality when we want something gratifying but when suffering comes we immediately cry "What did I do to deserve this?"
• We live apart from God's will and design.
• We abandon the very gifts He gives us in pursuit of something more exciting and glamorous that, in the end leaves the soul empty, lonely, and dark.
• There are families, parish's, priests, communities and religious that somehow have developed and morphed their existence into a societal spiritual coma--constantly feeding and excusing itself.  In the end they will consume themselves.

God didn't become manifest to keep us in a 'coma'

He came to set us free and live and breath--on our own--not attached to some predetermined mode.

So I write these words.  One person, re-iterating what a man who sees the Blessed Virgin Mary everyday, shared.  Maybe it was meant not only for me--but you, and if not you--then someone you know--go ahead forward it.

Are you in a spiritual coma?

It's time to wake up.

Pray harder today.  Don't take a vacation.

Garage Sale

We need to do them.

And they take work.  First the physical, then the emotional....

There's that whole climbing up in the attic, or to the back of the shed, or down in the basement--all those places we 'store' stuff.

You know--those old pokemon cards that your son stopped playing with, the perfumes your wife stopped wearing, the books that have been read, coffee mugs--and more coffee mugs, and of course you can't forget a 22 by 50 foot solar cover for a built in swimming pool that was hotel size, oh and the engagement ring (my lovely wife said we don't need it).

Then there's a rug--5.00--but it's a cool rug---i grew up with it then it ended in our house for the past 13 years--but it has seen better days.

In its' day it held generations of family and the seasons and life of a family--you know from evenings in front of the black and white tv to naps and dogs and twister and generations of parties, funerals, first communions, and an ordination.  It held about 7 dogs and countless spills and accidents.
The rug went quick.  Thanks be to the rug angels because I was tired of moving it.  It wasn't a bad day because we even got rid of a toilet tissue holder.

We need to occasionally have garage sales for our spirit--we need to get rid of all that stuff that just gets moved around and never used.  We need to get rid of what doesn't 'work' any more--only after careful discernment.
Reconciliation is a chance to get rid of the crap we keep moving around in our life.

I don't want to parallel this garage sale/spirituality thing too much--because i don't want to offend the intelligence of the praylium readership.  But you get the idea.
Oh, one more thing.  Remember satan has a very simple goal--to keep your soul away from God--he will use any way, any practice, any sin, and any inclination, usually congruent with your personality, to achieve his end.  So if having too much stuff in your spiritual life is keeping you from progressing--even if it appears to be 'good' --then it's time to have a moving sale.

Spiritual Stalls

It happens to us all.

Spiritual stalls squelch the heart of hope.
Soon questions fill your head and un-certitudes creep in. Bad things happen around you or to you.  You no longer want to be where you are at.  You try to live a good life and you try to maintain your discipline--but all you witness are injustices and greed and more greed and pride and whatever sin you want to name--and they affect you.  You get angry.  All you want is one break..one stinking little thing to 'go your way.'  You are ready and willing to serve God and go anywhere to do it--but there is no answer, no direction, you've waited for years--a true spiritual stall.

It is so easy to rationalize and maybe even fall into despair.
You begin to live in questions that cannot be answered.  You begin to think of returning back to your Egypt where at least your appetites were satiated and your stomach was full.

Spiritual stalls are part of the spiritual journey--if you didn't have them you wouldn't know that you were on the right track.  But heed the moment because satan will use a stall quicker than you can say a Hail Mary.
Spiritual stalls can become spiritual infections that wear you down.  And it is certain death to be have an infection in the desert.

Confounding Spiritual Confusion

My son and I were on our way to a late night swim practice.  We didn't have time to say our prayers at home so we were reciting them in the truck.  Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the direction of my wife we began the spiritual practice of praying the 15 prayers of St. Bridget of Sweden and we started them on January 1.  Just as an aside follow the link and learn a little about these prayers--they are a neat approach to meditating on the Passion of Our Lord.

I passed the Methodist church and noticed the sign "Spiritual ADD"

I agree 'Spiritual ADD'  exists.   It exists because there is very little Spiritual discipline.  Spiritual discipline is lacking because, in the end---people do not want to sacrifice. 
Funny isn't it? Jesus' sacrifice is fundamental to my soul--and yet I don't want to sacrifice.  I don't want to remover any external stimuli that are causal or, (at the very least), contributing to my spritual ADD.  I don't want to do the work of sacrifice and exercise patience.  I want a quick, drive thru result to my overnight pursuit of God. 

Know why money is often an issue in congregations?  Because people don't come to church in order to enter deeper into the sacrificial offering.  They want to 'get' something, not give.  Unfortunately many clergy fall into this trap of thinking they are the ones who have to give the people something.  And, before you know it--another Sunday went gliding by--the sermon was empty but at least the raffle tickets were sold!


When I was a young priest I was into all the new approaches to parish life and formation and leadership.  Workshops and mission statements were where it was at.  Looking back it was nothing more than unfocused spiritual ADD.  I am reminded of one diocesan event where hundreds of people were gathered in a hotel banquet room waiting patiently for the speaker to arrive.  He was going to tell us all--clergy and laity and religious--how to re-do or super imagine,(or something really neat) to the church.  He had a book and everything!  It was the latest and greatest way to re-energize everyone.

He never showed up so some priest from the diocese attempted to lead a group discussion.
Honest.

Satan loves that crap.  That's his approach--confuse and confound and make you think there is 'another way'
There is no other way--Jesus is the Way (remember He even told us!).

Looking back--we should have just celebrated Mass or, at the very least--prayed a Rosary.

So this evening, as my son read the prayers I thought of all the times I failed to do the work of staying focused and disciplined in the spiritual quest. 
I need to go to confession.

Fundamentals



Satan Tried to Tempt Jesus--Tissot

 The following may be miscontrued as an oversimplification of the spiritual life but I believe it is, at its' very least, fundamental in describing the spiritual journey: We were created for God.
Satan wants to keep our soul from returning to God.
Jesus is our Way back to God.

When I was a court appointed family therapist, the majority of my cases involved twisted stuff that didn't stay tucked away in the dark recesses of humanity.  It involved stuff I don't want to remember. After half a year of clinically assessing, diagnosing, and constructing cognitive behavior plans, it hit me--evil feeds on humanity.
People were abusing, drinking, cutting, not eating, over eating, lying, cheating and a bunch of other crap.  Oh, and they were raising their kids in it--just as many of them were raised in it.

The sins of the fathers passed on from generation to generation.

If your nature is laziness--then evil will help you rationalize whatever sin you choose.
If your nature is self loathing--then evil will continue to diminish you.
If your nature is gluttony and lust--then evil will always have you craving more.
If your nature is pride and envy and greed--then evil will make you feel like you deserve something better.
Evil leaves the soul dissatisfied and disrupted.  There is no peace.
It is legion and travels from appetite to appetite.

Some demons, we are told by Christ, can only be cast out through prayer and fasting.

There you go.

My wife and I recently began an exercise program called P90X (my typing is poor due to finger muscle fatigue) 
From the start P90X has the next 90 days planned for you.  All you need to do is trust the program.  All you need to do is bring the desire and execute.

Again--Christ says that some demons can only be cast out through prayer and fasting.
There's the program, trust it and watch Grace build on nature.
Yeh--Lent is coming--maybe we ought to start a Lenten Spritual renewal program through this blog entitled L40X!