Today, St. Anne’s Feast Day. That day, these readings, two thing unequipped for:
- Anne – don’t know anything about her
- Prayer – not good at it
- Here we go…
St. Anne – only one thing know for sure:
- Not birthday; born; prayed; name (Anne picked, needed something)
- 1 thing for sure; Mary (mother of Js) must have had a mom – Anne
- Think – must have been a pretty good mom, Mary turned out okay
- Various legends told much later, architectural work in Nazareth…
- Not bible, historical records: Mary had a mom, worth celebrating
- Significant – St. Anne had pivotal role in salvation, raising mother of Js
- Mary came home, crazy story, angel told her going to have a baby…
- Don’t know how she responded, let Mary visit Elizabeth, marriage w/ Joseph go forward… quiet, faithful support, whatever God was doing
- Anne pivotal role, know nothing about her – symbol of Christian ministry
- Any mission, unsung heroes, unrecognized sacrifice
- work of Christ, this parish, rely on humble service, giving selves, great things:
- not for recognition, love of each other, mission
- Anne – humbly doing our part in great things of God.
Prayer: Prayer is hard – ppl come to priest, mention struggles; my own
- Struggles make time for it; distractions when I do; what to do…
- Short, great passage St. Paul – Great truth remember—only thing remember!
- “We don’t know how to pray… Spirit helps us. Prays in us…”
- For me, not good at prayer, consoling.
- When I remember, pray, ask Spirit help me, good. Helps.
Share w/ you, how I pray. Not bc/ I’m best. Not good, make it easy.
- If you pray regularly, works. Great. Keep doing what you’re doing.
- Struggle w/ prayer, don’t know. Give this try. Spend some time…
How priest prays:
- Take cell phone out of pocket, put it out of reach. Sometimes timer.
- Half hour before Mass in morning, look at phone for time, facebook, gone. Phone far away, timer, pray till goes off, bc focus what doing…
- Ask God for help. Think of passage by Paul. Pray in me, help me pray well.
- Think about breathing.
- First sit down, mind full of problems, ideas, running. Quiet.
- Quiet self, center on God.
- In breath, start to pray. Simple. In Jesus.
- Physically taking in oxygen – like, need to live, w/ me unaware.
- In Jesus. Be w/ me. Help know w/ me, come to me; place self presence
- Breathe out. Breathe out, different things. Things true my life, rel w/ God
- Surrender (my life, problems, struggles, everything.
- Mercy (God’s for me, me for other); Love; Courage (something hard); Trust
- In Js; Out something connects my life to his
- In Js; Out love – Suddenly Blue Jays, what make for supper
- One: Let them pass by. Don’t get excited, worried – bubbles on river. Sit at river, bubbles go by. There it is, Blue Jays, let it go, Doesn’t matter now.
- Two: Sometimes pray about distraction, part of my prayer
- Blue Jays, hard to pray about – Batista grumpy
- Supper: ppl visit food pantry, extra help; farmers; Malawi
- Distractions – either pass by, don’t matter; bring to Lord, content for prayer; back to breath – in Js, out surrender – matters now
- That’s it. Make prayer complicated. Not good at it, keep it simple.
- Prayer talking to Js; deeper being w/ him; loving, knowing…
- Good, love relationship – spouse, family, friend – don’t need lot of words, being together
Please do this; pray daily – as pray, pray for me; for each other, this parish
- Say this a lot – want those we love to love Js, what we do here matters a lot. We can’t bring ppl to Js, good followers of Js ourselves w/out prayer.
- So pray, for, each other, parish we love
- Make this easier, wrote a prayer for you. Take this, pray it faithfully, yourself, as family; ministry group here, pray at meetings.
- Staff every morning: Let’s lift each other up to Lord.
- Think of St. Anne Saint: Pray for parish, service not for recognition, love of each other, mission;
- Humbly doing our part in great things of God
- Won’t know if you pray – prayer is essential.
- Pray together now, please keep praying…
