Prayer Warriors

Prayer Warriors?  Certainly not me, I am a stay at home mom with three small children.  How could I possibly have the time or energy?  How wrong I was to ever think that!!!  As a mother, I have the opportunity and calling to be a prayer warrior and here is why:

I was listening to Catholic Radio a little over a month ago and they were discussing the decline in religious orders.  In our current American culture, very few young men and women discern and choose to live a life of chastity as a monk, priest or nun.  The numbers have declined dramatically in the last 30 years.

According to official church statistics, from 1978 to 2005 the number of religious priests worldwide declined from 158,000 to 137,000, while religious brothers decreased from about 75,000 to 55,000. The sharpest drop was in the number of women religious, which went from 985,000 to 783,000.

The situation is clearly going to get worse in coming years, mainly because of the aging population of the largest religious orders.

There are other problems, too, including the increasing defection rate of new entrants; in many places, 40 percent to 60 percent of those entering religious order formation programs leave before making their final commitment.

Father Lewandowski said his own Crosier order has projected that its membership will decline by half over the next 10 years.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801033.htm

These numbers are concerning.  It caused me to wonder, what is the role of these religious?  They are called to be witnesses to Christ.  By living a life of simplicity, often times poverty, they are a witness to the rest of us, how we are to submit to God's will and live for Him and the good of others.  Our own personal will must decrease, so that God may increase within us.  Wow.....what a difficult thing to do.

How have these religious affected our society?  We have an education system today because of the monks.  We have hospitals and modern day medicine because of the nuns who began healthcare at a time when Government had no desire to help the poor.  Many of the nuns were trained as nurses and started hospitals in Europe and in this country.  Today, about 30% of hospitals are still Catholic.

One of the most important roles that these religious have is their prayers.  Often times, we underestimate the power of prayer.  However, we all believe that God answers prayers, so why are we not praying without ceasing as St. Paul encouraged us to do?? (1 Thessalonians 5:17)   If you look at the Rules of Life for any of these Religious Orders, many hours a day is spent in prayer, meditation, reading Scripture and spending time with God.  It made me wonder why we as the lay members of the church do not orient our days in the same manner?  Most obvious answer, because of our sinfulness.  As a stay at home mother, the other reason is lack of time.  But is there a way that I could be a prayer warrior and in some small way, make up for the lack of religious?

Of course we as stay at home moms can be prayer warriors!  I pray without ceasing throughout the day, but often my prayers are random and apply to whatever the current situation is.  It made me wonder if my prayers and days would have more purpose if there was a daily theme to them.  So, I have sat down and constructed a prayer "theme" for each day.  Every day, I focus my prayers on these intentions and it is nice to have a specific intention throughout the day, in addition to my own personal requests.  So, here is our family schedule:

Monday - Abortion
Tuesday - World Hunger
Wednesday - Pope, priests and other religious
Thursday - American Leadership
Friday - Conversion of Souls to Christ
Saturday - World Peace
Sunday - Domestic Church

This is our schedule for now.  Even small children can be encouraged to pray for these causes throughout the day.  For the first time, I fasted yesterday for the cause of World Hunger.  It was humbling to physically feel hungry and remember what so many people throughout the world go through on a daily basis.  If done properly and with the right spirit, we are able to unite ourselves with Christ, His suffering and the sufferings of those throughout the world.

Our society tells us that as stay at home moms, our role and purpose is minimal.  A career is much more rewarding than raising children to do God's will and strengthen the Domestic Church.  The Catholic Church couldn't disagree more.  As mothers, we have the opportunity to increase our prayer life for the good of others.  While we cannot make up for the declining religious orders, we can offer our prayers daily while we wait for vocations to increase.

And while you're praying, make sure you encourage your children to someday seek a life of commitment to God as a priest, nun or monk!!!!  Those religious orders will only increase in numbers if we as parents, encourage our children to discern if God is calling them to that vocation!

Epiphany - May we never go back!

Today is the celebration of Epiphany!  Many Christians do not celebrate this liturgical holiday but most everyone knows the story of the three kings who came to visit baby Jesus.  There are many beautiful insights written about the Three Kings, who they were and how they found baby Jesus.  Perhaps the most beautiful insight about these men, has come from the late Rev. Fulton Sheen.  The story of the Visit of the Magi that can be found in chapter 2 of the gospel of Matthew.

The Three Wise Men arrived in Jerusalem searching for the Christ child.  They were gentiles; scientists who came to pay homage to the King.  When Herod heard of their inquiry, he immediately asked that they return to tell him where to find the Christ so that he too could pay homage.  The 3 Kings brought 3 gifts, gold to honor His Kingship, frankincense to honor His Divinity and myrrh to honor His Humanity.  Myrrh was also used at His burial.

After paying homage, God warned the Three Wise Men not to return to Jerusalem but instead go home by another way.  It is in this Scripture passage (Matthew 2:12) that Fulton Sheen has immense insight.  He says "No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way he came."

Of course the Wise Men went home a different way.  What does this mean for us?  It means that when we approach Christ, the Divine Life, we must allow a conversion within our hearts, such that we do not go back to our old sinful ways.  We must allow His presence and His love to change us, to conform us to His Will.  In doing so, we take a different path with our lives.  It is our response to His grace and love that allows God's will to become our own.  These conversions can happen daily, if we allow it.  As Catholics, we don't believe that there was one conversion that has achieved us Salvation.  Though you may experience a great conversion that forever changes you, we all experience many conversions throughout our lives that help us to become more Christ-like.  It is our response to His love that allows us to change the path of our life; resisting the temptation to return to our sinful habits.

This is why a strong prayer life is so critical.  We must humbly approach God each day through his Word, through daily Scripture reading.  When we read Scripture, our hearts and minds are hearing the Truth.  Reflection on these holy words allow us to incorporate these Truths into our daily lives.  We must listen with an open heart, one that is willing to hear things we may not want to hear, but we know that it is Truth.  We must then take these Truths that God reveals to us, examine our own life and then commit to change our own actions.

I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of "Life of Christ" by Fulton J. Sheen.  Fulton Sheen was the bishop of Rochester and lived from 1895 to 1979.  He was a great man of immense faith and wisdom who is without a doubt, a Saint.  His canonization by the Church is under consideration.