A Deo et Rege

Fundamentally, Christian prayer is communicating with The Lord. There are many types of prayers in the Christian tradition, which include intercession (praying for other people), thanksgiving (giving thanks to God in prayer), and penitential prayer (expressing sadness for your faults). Yet another major kind of prayer is meditation, in which a person contemplates some aspect of the life of Christ, or upon a quality of The Lord God. This can also consist of serenely listening to God’s will. Since the advent of the world wide web, there are even many locations where you can discover online prayers. This has given a new generation of believers access to not only classic prayers, but modern prayers too. One source of spirtuality is traditional Catholic prayers.

Some ways of praying are more organized and done in public, such as the Catholic Eucharist, which is highly organized, and other prayer is informal and done privately. Saint Paul commands us to “pray continually,” which means our lives needs to be infused with prayer!

While the evidence is somewhat conficting, some scientific proof suggests that prayer is effective at making individuals more relaxed and aware. Also, a few research studies even have shown that intercessory prayer helps hospitalized patients have better outcomes post surgery. While Catholics do not need modern science to “prove” that prayer works, nonetheless, science is exploring what manner, if any, prayer can be verified by science.

The public prayer of the Church is often called liturgy, which comes from the Greek term meaning “the work of the people.” This kind of prayer is called as such because God’s people come together to offer their sacrifices of gratitude and praise to God, all together, in communion. Catholics are expected to gather for prayer every Sunday for Eucharist, and on every holy day of obligation. There are not that many days of obligation besides Sundays, but a few include Mary, Mother of God and the Assumption of Mary.

Some of the most popular types of Catholic prayers relate to the liturgical year. This is why there are a lot of prayers related to the Church seasons, such as Christmas, and Lent. Another standard one, one of the many traditional Catholic prayers, is the Our Father, also known as the Lord’s Prayer. This is the form of prayer that Jesus Chist himself gave us when his apostles asked him how to pray. This has been the most prayed prayer throughout the Church’s history, since it is often said during Catholic worship and in private.

One of the most popular Catholic prayers is the Hail Mary, which is addressed to The virgin Mary. In truth it is a prayer that petitions Mary to pray for us. Catholics and Orthodox petition the saints to pray for us the same way we ask a friend to pray for us, except we understand the saints are in heaven near to God.

Lastly, another valuable type of prayer is the Novena. It is a 9-day time period of prayer, in which an individual prays the same prayer for nine days straight. This symbolizes devout and continual prayer, and is based on the nine day period between the Ascension and Pentecost Sunday. Many Catholics will pray novenas to their most well-loved saints, or choose a novena based on a pressing need that they have (such as cure of an illness or difficult situation).

There are a variety of prayers that have aided many people, and these prayers are freely available on the Internet for all to enjoy!

The author suggests finding and looking for prayers online in order to deepen your relationship with Jesus.

Lent is a fantastic season of strict fasting and spiritual growth in the Catholic Church and other Christian churches. Many, however, still wonder what is Lent? Lent comes from the Germanic word that means springtime, reflecting the season when Lent occurs in the calendar. It started in the early Church when clergy decided that a preparation period before baptism on Easter was essential. The forty days fit with the fasting patterns of Elijah, Moses, and in particular Jesus, who fasted forty days in the wasteland. In addition, the number forty also recalls the number of years the Israelites wandered in the desert.

The Lenten Season starts on Ash Wednesday and lasts for forty days. However, in the contemporary liturgical season, Lent actually becomes forty-four days, but Sundays don’t genuinely count as fast days. Lent ends during the Easter Vigil. Ideally, a pleasant Lent permits the person to be spiritually stronger and best able to celebrate Easter in the correct way.

Worship services throughout Lent are typically humble and sparse. Penance and lack of celebration are primary points. It begins with putting ashes on the forehead during Ash Wednesday. The Sunday services omit certain celebratory prayers and music such as the Gloria. Also, the morals prohibit saying alleluia. Unique lenten prayers are sometimes said. The color in Lent is purple, symbolizing both royalty and penance.

One traditional tradition throughout Lent is fasting. Fasting can come in various varieties. In the Catholic Church, adults ages 18-59 are allowed to consume one filled meal and two little dinners on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, both fast days. Fridays in Lent are abstinence days, which means not eating meat, although fish is allowed.

Sometimes individuals will give something additional up for Lent, such as sweets, coffee, or alcohol. This is a widespread custom, but is not mandated by any Christian church. Other individuals will genuinely try to do something positive instead, such as increasing volunteer efforts, going to church more frequently, or attempting to become more kind to acquaintances and family. After all, Lent is a season for complete spiritual transformation, not simply giving up something.

Another major discipline throughout Lent is prayer. The Church has several Lent prayers that it encourages individuals to pray, such as unique confessions of sin. The Penitential Psalms are widespread also. The rosary is prayed a lot throughout Lent and the person praying chooses the sorrowful mysteries. In most cases, the prayers are more somber, less joyful, and even more or less negative, focusing on the death and pain of Jesus.

The third traditional routine is almsgiving, which is giving to charity. This can include giving money to the poor directly, volunteering time, or even working for social justice in some capacity. Sometimes churches will organize food drives or go to soup kitchens during Lent to make sure they fulfill the obligation to give alms to the poor.

Although it’s not a traditional practice, many people find reading the Bible or the essays of the Saints to be beneficial for spiritual advancement throughout the Lenten season. Reading the Gospels or the prophets would certainly fit with the topic of the time. From the essays of the Saints, the amazing sermons of Leo the Great or the devotional writings of St. Therese would be helpful.

The writer writes frequently on Lent topics and Lenten Prayers also.

-A “catholic” diocese is attempting to leave the wider denomination- schism, how very catholic

-The inclusive, tolerant, and exceedingly liberal Episcopal leadership will most likely sue the crap out of said diocese to keep the expensive buildings- legal browbeating to keep property; how inclusive, tolerant, and liberal

These are indeed strange times for the Anglican Communion. Separations are messy. Just ask Henry VIII (or better yet Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard)

The premier “reasserter” Anglican blog, TitusOneNine has a new home. Have a visit.

I generally have avoided linking to or addressing Anglican disputes. But since it seems that a lot is going on, I figured one link to the current primates gathering wouldn’t hurt:

Dar Es Salaam 2007

I’ve been listening to a few Taizé songs lately and am quite impressed. They are simple, scriptural and traditional, often in Latin, and beautiful. For a few samples, visit their MP3 and Audio Page.

It seems that liberals in the Church of England are unhappy with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s defense of 2,000 years of Christian tradition. So, they are now looking for closer ties with liberal, American bishops in the Episcopal Church. It’s not just the conservatives in Anglicanism who can "network" and possibly seek some kind of alternative oversight. Maybe two Anglican communions will simply happen organically, rather than through some sort of legislative fix.

The Episcopal General Convention of 2006 is over. I didn’t follow the resolutions closely enough to make any definitive conclusions about most of them. I’m not even sure if most Episcopalians and worldwide Anglicans can make many definitive conclusions right now. Finding clarity, I think, will be the primary issue in the next few months for Anglicans. The main question will be: did the Episcopal Church go far enough in its apology or will some sort of "Anglican re-alignment" be necessary? I guess the Anglican primates, including the Archbishop the Canterbury, will have to sort a lot of this out.

On the other hand, a few clear things happened that are worth noting. First, the convention declared the Christian Scriptures to be anti-Semitic. Given that the New Testament was largely written by Jews, I find this somewhat odd, to say nothing of a denomination slamming its own holy book. Second, the convention elected a liberal, pro full homosexual inclusion, woman as Episcopal Presiding bishop. This move will surely inflame the divisions among Episcopalians and heighten the tension with Anglicans around the communion. It will also seriously hamper ecumenical efforts with the Orthodox and Catholics. At least they can’t say Cardinal Kasper didn’t give a fair warning. Third, the convention refused to affirm Jesus Christ as the only name by which a person may be saved. That this could not even make it to the floor for a vote should be perhaps the biggest scandal of General Convention 2006. Whatever nuances the Church may add to our theology of salvation (like invincible ignorance), the affirmation of Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life and the sole way to the Father, is a statement of "mere Christianity" not uniquely Catholic or Protestant. The Presbyterians also couldn’t muster the will to affirm Jesus as the only savior awhile ago. The biggest danger in mainline Protestantism may not be homosexual activism, but the more foundational issue of the person and work of Jesus Christ, issues which for Catholics, the Orthodox, and classical Protestants were settled ages ago and are not up for debate.

Here are some links related to the Episcopal General Convention 2006:

Episcopal Split All But Certain
General Convention Adopts Vague Resolution
African Primates Statement on ECUSA General Convention

To give an idea of classical Anglicanism, Derek has a good post on Christian identity.

Also, I’ve included a Catholic perspective by friend and blogger Dave Hartline. It also has many good interviews:

Final Report at the Episcopal Church

Dave also makes some great points about how some leaders in the Catholic Church, especially in America, wanted to take us down this path (and many still do, but they’re in a dying minority). We should be grateful for the work of John Paul II and Benedict XVI in keeping the Catholic Church Catholic. So, rather than react with schadenfreude towards the Episcopalians, we should rather pray for them and remember how close to the brink we came in the 1970s and that we still have our own who want to take us down the failed path of liberal Protestantism.

"We are deputized to follow the Holy Spirit, not the wishes of the folks back home."

Rev. Canon Elizabeth Keaton- ECUSA minister from the Diocese of Newark (source)

After commenting on how local parishes may not favor abortion, this lady made the above quote. I must say that associating the Holy Spirit with abortion rights is a new low and also quite blasphemous. I believe the spirit she’s referring to is the spirit of the age (or far worse).

Sadly, it appears that the Episcopal Church is going to keep its affiliation with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a "religious" abortion advocacy group, as well. If the convention refuses to repeal the executive decision to affiliate with the RCRC, it would make the Episcopal Church de facto pro abortion.

I know, I said I wasn’t going to comment on the decisions of the Episcopalians until after their General Convention, but I think this one is worth mentioning. The Episcopal General Convention has elected elected Katherine Jefforts-Schori as the first female primate of an Anglican Communion province. I did predict this to friends earlier in spite of her lack of experience (e.g. she was never a rector). I didn’t think the current Episcopal Church would ever turn down an opportunity to be the liberal "first" at anything, even if it meant causing chaos in the wider communion, hurting ecumenical efforts, and driving more traditionalists out.

Other sources/reactions:

Anglicans are close to "anarchy" in dispute over female bishop (timesonline)
Diocese of Fort Worth wants "primatial" oversight (titusonenine)- ok, this is a new one, "primatial" oversight.
Forward in Faith Weighs In (titusonine)- for the record, Forward in Faith is the Anglican group that opposes the new Episcopal innovations along Catholic lines. This includes being against the ordination of women.

I am not going to wade into the Episcopal General Convention news this week until after they make (or not) their decisions regarding their place in the Anglican Communion. However, I am following the whole thing with interest and pray for the triumph of basic Christian orthodoxy and morality at the very least among our American Anglican brothers and sisters. Here are a few resources for those interested:

Resources Page 1
Resources Page 2

Generally speaking the following places have good commentary:

Titus One Nine (thoughtful, orthodox, and genial commentary by Episcopal priest Kendall Harmon)
Virtue Online (hard hitting, much maligned, occasionally wrong, but still worthwhile)

Finally, blogger (and friend) Dave Hartline at the Catholic Report gives his perspective on a day at General Convention.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that ecumenical talks
with Lutherans had run into new challenges and called for greater
efforts at dialogue in the years before the 500th anniversary of the
start of the Protestant Reformation.

Continue Reading Pope Urges Better Dialogue With Lutherans (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

[This is good news and above all it's honest ecumenism. Let's pray for unity.]

When lacking in ideas, link to others…

Kendall Harmon at Titusonenine reports how Gene Robinson Grinds Axes and Promotes Agendas while naturally claiming to do no such thing

Al Kimel asks what’s so catholic about Anglicanism?

Robb wonders about the value of a D.Min degree

Enbrethiliel asks What’s In A Name?

Katelyn Sills reports on a new lawsuit by the teacher fired from a Catholic school for helping women procure abortions

Charles proposes a new interpretation for Guy Fawkes Day

Jeff Miller discusses text messaging of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines

Carmel has some good quotes and a funny cat picture

The holy fool writes about Baptists Confessions on Bibles and Catholics

David on new liberal church architecture (parody)

That about does it for now. God bless.

The Pontificator weighs in on evangelical Anglicanism, especially the writings of Dr. Paul Zahl, dean of Trinity School for Ministry (Episcopal). As always, from his points and the comments, I’ve learned a lot.

As a side note, I always wondered where the true Anglican evangelicals were in the USA. England is full of them and so is the rest of the world (you know, the ones who hang up the 10 Commandments in the sanctuary). I used to laugh when liberal Anglicans would refer to the more conservative Anglicans as "fundamentalists." I have never met a truly evangelical Episcopalian in my life, let alone a fundamentalist. Side note ended.

PS- Look at the painting of the cathedral the Pontificator has included that was "Calvinized." Awful, awful.

Catholic World News is reporting that The Pope May Travel to Istanbul to have an ecumenical summit with the titular head of the Orthodox Church, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

We need to really pray for these kinds of meetings between the "two lungs" of the Church to be more frequent and to bear fruit. The division between Catholics and the Orthodox in such troubled times is well, troubling. The East and West need to respond with a united voice in the midst of the strife and confusion present in the early 21st century.