Category Archives: Meditations

Meditations on the Catholic faith by Father Flader

Mental prayer

 

 

It has often been said that the quality of our interior life is the quality of our prayer. In this meditation we use especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church and St Josemaria’s book The Way to consider how we can improve our personal conversation with God in mental prayer through such means as:

  • Saying slowly and with attention the words of the Introductory Prayer
  • Responding promptly to the initiative of God, who invites us to pray
  • Engaging in the “battle of prayer”, whether we feel like it or not
  • Committing ourselves to regular times for prayer and being faithful to them
  • Fighting the distractions which inevitably come

 

The meaning of Christmas

 

Everyone loves Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. In this meditation we use the Catechism of the Catholic Church and texts of St Josemaria to pray about why God became man and the consequences this has for us. According to the Catechism, God became man for four reasons:

  • to save us by reconciling us with God
  • so that we might know God’s love
  • to be our model of holiness
  • to make us partakers of the divine nature

The Communion of Saints

Pope Francis called the Communion of Saints one of the most consoling truths of our faith. Indeed it is. In this meditation we use texts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, St Bernard, St Therese of Lisieux, St Josemaria, Pope Francis and Kimberly Hahn to pray about this union of the saints in heaven, the souls in purgatory and the faithful on earth, all helping one another on the way to heaven. We consider how:

  • The Communion of Saints is both communion in holy things and communion of holy persons.
  • We should endeavour to grow in holiness and increase our desire to be one day with the saints in heaven.
  • We should pray much for the souls in purgatory.
  • We should pray for those on earth and help them to come close to God so that they too may be one day in heaven.
  • By our good deeds we contribute to the Communion of Saints and by our sins we withdraw from it.

Stand up for the faith

Christ teaching the apostles

Jesus warned his followers on one occasion that they would be hated and persecuted for the sake of his name. Today this is happening on a grand scale, in part because the Catholic Church is the largest single religion in the world and in part because the Church stands firmly for what the world is against: the sanctity of life and of marriage, the importance of chastity, the rights of parents in the education of their children… In this meditation we use Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate to consider how:

  • The Church is being attacked for its stand on many issues
  • The world needs what the Church teaches in order to find the happiness and peace it desires
  • We must learn what the Church teaches and defend this teaching with charity and strength
  • We must seek holiness, “the most attractive face of the Church” in order to show the world the beauty of our faith and to avoid being swept along by the current of the world

Growing in hope

We all have situations in which we wish something were different but we are not in a position to change it by ourselves: our job, finances, health, relationships, etc. In these circumstances we can sometimes become discouraged. It is then that we need to grow in hope, to trust more in God. In this meditation we pray about this important virtue, drawing on Scripture, the Catechism, Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi  and St Josemaria’s book The Way to consider:

  • The nature of hope
  • How God is always with us and will give us what is best
  • How we should know that God is close to us especially when we are suffering
  • How we can grow in hope especially through prayer

Discovering our calling

Jesus told the apostles in the Last Supper that they had not chosen him, but that he had chosen them for a particular mission:  to go out and bear fruit. God has created each individual for a purpose: to fulfil some definite part of his plan for the salvation of all souls. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture. St John Henry Newman, Pope Francis and St Josemaria to see how:

  • God has a particular plan for each of us, which only we can fulfil
  • To fulfil this plan we must first seek holiness, love for God which consists in doing his will
  • If we think ourselves unworthy and incapable, so were the apostles
  • Many great things depend on whether we fulfil the mission God has planned for us

Sacrament of joy

 

The parable of the prodigal son is mercy perosnified.

The sacrament of Penance is truly a sacrament of joy, a sacrament of mercy. In this meditation we use texts of Scripture, St John Paul II, Pope Francis and St John Vianney to consider how:

  • Christ gave the sacrament of penance  to the Church on the very evening of his Resurrection
  • The sacrament corresponds to deep-seated human needs
  • We obtain many benefits when we go to Confession
  • We do well to receive the sacrament frequently
  • We should do all we can to take others to Confession