“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9) The readings for this Sunday have a theme of prayer. We all know we could improve our individual prayer life. It is my shared vision for Prince of Peace parish that we develop a deep culture of prayer as a parish. By “culture”, I am not meaning a superficial thing or surface-level practice like “casual Fridays” or even a program or a best practice. Instead, culture is how we think and act—how we live out each day. It is who we are and is lived in all we do.
A parish should be a place of joyful, unceasing prayer. Prayer is not an agenda item, something we check the box for and then move on. Instead, prayer should happen at any moment because we need it all the time. Instead of making a plan and then asking God to bless it, we should pray that God shows us the plan and then after carefully listening and discerning, we unveil the plan, and continue then to pray for grace to carry it out. We should pray for each other often. The most common phrase we speak should be, “How can I pray for you?” And if possible, we should immediately pray for that intention with the person we ask of it. We should keep our eyes open to those around us, and if noticing another who looks burdened, we should approach with the offer to pray for them.
A culture needs to be lived by everyone, but has to start with your leader. I’ve been trying to pray more in meetings, discern more, and pray more for my staff and parishioners. I find it challenging because I’m busy and want to just get stuff done. But, I also find when I do live this culture of prayer, it makes a difference to those who I pray with and for. Prayer always makes a difference! Prayer has to be the most important thing I do. It’s great that I can do lots of work as a priest, but when I pray, God works, and God can get a lot more things done than I can!
So, please let me know how I can pray for you, and please pray for me. Right now I’d ask you to pray for me in my efforts to work on my leadership and pastoring, also that I grow in my prayer life which has grown more sluggish than I’d like to admit, and also for my aging parents. I pray for your intentions, for the parish, and for good recreation in our remaining summers.
I’ll also plug seminarian Benjamin who is offering a time where he prays for anyone who comes—Monday through Thursday 9am-10am in the Church (by the St. Joseph statue).
Let’s strive to live a culture a prayer at Prince of Peace!
Peace,
Fr. Greg