Category: Meditation

Categories
Meditation

Radical Gratitude and the Examen Prayer

TRANSCRIPT:

I’ve been listening to Father Gallagher’s podcasts on the Examen- St. Ignatius’ approach to the evening examination of conscience. And in particular, Father Gallagher was talking about gratitude. I’m ashamed to say that sometimes it’s late at night, I’m doing my examen, and I prompt myself to think, “Well, what am I grateful to God for this day?” and I don’t necessarily always have that immediate answer right at the tip of my tongue.

So, what I’ve done is I’ve developed this approach to what I call ‘radical gratitude’ where I start to just list the basic material things that I enjoy: my lifestyle, indoor plumbing, hot water, electricity, heating and cooling, water that’s been treated that I know is not going to make me sick, and so on and so forth, right?

And as I’ve shared this with some men, I found that for some of them even that is as difficult. Maybe they’re just not living a life of gratitude. And so just thinking, “Wait a second, hot water? I mean, the Romans had that, right? Everybody enjoys that today, essentially, in the developed world.”

And so my response to that is to think about all the luxuries that you’ve enjoyed in your life that Our Lord never had: indoor plumbing, a mattress to sleep on, exotic foods from all over the world, pain medicine. Basic things. And hopefully this gap between the luxury of your own life and Our Lord’s will help to foster that sense of gratitude; at least, that’s the approach that I have taken in my personal life. And this begins to form the basis of a life of gratitude in just our material things that will allow us to become more grateful when it comes to the spiritual things and foster that lifestyle of gratitude. I hope this has been helpful to you.

Categories
Meditation

The Prophecy of Diabolical Disorientation

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon. Today I want to chat about diabolical disorientation. Now, I first heard this term when I was very young, probably 30 years ago, and it was used by Sister Lúcia of Fátima fame and some of her writings.

I never really understood what ‘diabolical disorientation’ might mean until very recently. I was thinking about our world that we live in today in 2020 with the Wuhan virus, with the economic collapse, with the shutdowns that have affected everything from school to work to church, the situation of our Church with poor leadership and mass apostasy. Even now, churches are shut down, in some places communion is not available or people are even banned from kneeling. So there’s enormous suffering, confusion, and an overwhelming sense of fear in our world. It seems to me that this is diabolical disorientation.

So what do we do when we are disoriented? Well, I think the first thing we do is ask for help. We ask for help from someone near us, someone we trust. “Help me out, I’m disoriented.” And so in a spiritual sense, we’ve got to go to our guardian angels first, we’ve got to go to our patron saints, to Saint Joseph and, of course, to Our Lady and ask for help constantly throughout the day as we’re feeling the effects of this disorientation.
Secondly, when we’re disoriented, we flee to safety. We want to go back to some place that we are comfortable and we know is safe. We might need help getting back there. So in our spiritual life, what does this mean? We’ve got to flee from sin and temptation- even of the most minor kind- and we’ve got to get back to the basics of our prayer life and to fasting and those disciplines.

And the final thing, it seems to me- if we’re truly disoriented, if you’ve ever been sick, if you’ve ever been nauseous and you get dizzy and so forth, what do you do? You go find that favorite chair that you’re comfortable in, and you just want to sit still and just regain your senses. And it seems to me that in this time where we might be tempted all sorts of new and exotic things, especially if we’re trying to grow in our spiritual life, if we’re dealing with that anxiety and fear, we’re starting to feel that pressure, then maybe it’s just time to get really simple go back to our mental prayer. Perhaps even just meditate on the words of the Our Father one word at a time, like St. Therese did, and spend that time in that simplistic, quiet prayer, opening ourselves up to the grace and influence of our Lord. We’ve got a double down on the simple stuff during these difficult times, and let’s regain that piece of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our souls and our lives so that we can be a good example to others.

Have a great day.

Categories
Meditation

Your Road

Categories
Meditation

Saint Paul and the Dead Man

Categories
Meditation

Married to the Daughter of the King

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, for my insight for this week I want to talk a little bit about the feast just yesterday on the Traditional Calendar: St. Elizabeth of Portugal. The readings for this feast were from Proverbs 31:10-31 and Matthew 13:44-52.

These readings talk about how the Gospel is this treasure we could never pay too high of a price for, right? If you found this treasure, you would sell everything you own and you would rush to buy it. Then you would preserve it, take care of it, safeguard it; you would be thinking about it all the time, and so forth.

This is what the Gospel and this is what salvation, redemption is all about. But on this particular feast, we’re also seeing that our wives are these pearls of great price. And it occurred to me thinking about St. Elizabeth of Portugal, a queen, that our wives are daughters of a king- the greatest King in the universe. I’m just the steward of my wife.

So in every thought and word and deed, how will my life reflect at my individual judgment in terms of my marriage?

If you married a daughter of a king, you would take that very seriously. You would recognize, esteem, and honor her position. But being married to the daughter of the greatest King, it’s a pretty extraordinary thing for me to think about from that perspective and to consider: Am I safeguarding her? Am I treating her, at all times, with the proper respect? Am I acting in a way towards her that at my individual judgment, when I’m held accountable for everything, I will be proud of myself and how I’ve conducted myself?

This is a standard I’ve not always lived by in my life, but it’s one that I’m now committed to, and I hope sharing this concept with you is helpful- in some way- in your marriage.

Categories
Meditation

How To Have A Successful Marriage

TRANSCRIPT:

My insight for this week: I’m celebrating 26 years of marriage this month, and I’m thinking back to before I was married. My dad who, at that time, had himself been married for about twenty-five years told me that if I always put my wife first in my life and she always put me first in her life, then we would get along well and we would have a good marriage.

And you know what? That’s true. The times when we’ve had trouble in our marriage has been when one or the other struggled with putting the other person first. Whether that was forgiveness that was necessary or patience or humility, it was always that challenge with self. 

And of course, it gets back to the Golden Rule. If we treat other people in our lives the way we want to be treated in all circumstances- in good times and in bad, when we’re healthy, when we’re sick- things won’t be perfect, but you will survive and, even better, you’ll have the chance to grow.

So, my insight for this week is thinking about this simple but powerful statement shared with us by Our Lord and put into simpler, maybe practical words by my father about twenty-six years ago. I hope this has been helpful. Have a great day, and God bless you.

Categories
Meditation

How to Defeat Distraction During Meditation

TRANSCRIPT:

In my insight for today that I wanted to share with you- talking about meditation. So, meditation can be difficult for all of us. Some days you’ll do great with meditation, other days, it just seems impossible with constant distractions coming in your mind. Some of those distractions may be worthwhile thoughts, but some of them are just mindless distractions.

So, here’s what I do. Here’s what I recommend: Have a piece of paper next to you when you’re doing meditation, maybe even a Google document, maybe your phone. And when those distractions come into your mind, immediately write them down or put them in that Google document. They might be worth coming back to later; maybe it’s a good idea for work, maybe it’s an inspiration- something you need to work on- maybe it’s a suggestion for your relationship with your spouse or children.

So, write it down, and then give your mind the permission to forget it and then return to the point of your meditation. And after the course of thirty minutes or an hour of meditation, you might have a dozen different things you’ve written down. But by putting those ideas on paper, you’re no longer trying to force a negative. You’re no longer trying to say to your mind: “Don’t think about this idea.” That’s impossible. You’ve made a note of it, and you’ve freed yourself to go back to meditation.

Now the other thing from this week’s call that we were talking about and I was thinking about was the difficulty of meditation for the beginner or the difficulty of extending your meditation. That first five minutes can be very difficult. How do you ever get to twenty minutes or an hour? 

Well, the way I would recommend doing it is just focus on five or ten minutes. And if you get to that point and you’re just done, you can’t force your mind to meditate anymore- nothing’s coming to mind, it’s just all distraction- stop and go back to the material for your meditation. Maybe it’s a mystery of the Rosary, maybe it’s something from Scripture, maybe it’s the readings of that day- whatever the case may be. Go back to that source, read the next sentence, read the next paragraph, re-read what you’ve already read, and then start over again for another five minutes.

So, if your goal is meditation for twenty minutes, then maybe it’s four different five-minute meditations. That’s perfectly fine. So, that’s what I would recommend, and I hope that that’s been helpful for you. This is what I do in my own life. Have a great day.

Categories
Meditation

What Does the Divine Accounting Look Like?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, gentlemen. My insight for this week is based on a meditation from the parable of the talents, and I know you’re all familiar with this. Our Lord describes a parable in which one man gets five talents and goes and invests them and doubles the money, and another man gets two talents and invests and doubles the money, and another man gets one talent and, out of fear, he buries it in the ground.

Now, there are a lot of layers, theologically, to this parable; you can ask Christopher, I’m sure he’ll be happy to tell you about them. But as I was meditating on this and I was thinking about how we will each be held to account for all of the graces and blessings that we’ve received from the Lord, it occurred to me that one of the ways in which we will be judged is how we have used our time. And just as every moment and every thought that we have will be judged and considered, every moment of our time that we have been given by God- it’s like the grain of sand that passes through the hourglass. That is an opportunity that our Lord has given us to repent of our sins, to develop a love for virtue, to spread the Gospel, to show mercy to others, to help others, to form our wives and our children and the people around us.

Every moment of our lives that is not spent in a good way that builds up the kingdom of God, that gets us closer to Heaven, is a moment we’ve wasted, and that’s a terrifying thought for me. So, my insight to share is a deeper commitment to look at every second, every minute of my life and asking myself: “Is this consistent with the mission that God has given me [given you] on this earth?” I hope this is helpful and conducive to your salvation.

Categories
Meditation

What Does It Mean To Love Your Brother As Yourself?

TRANSCRIPT:

Good morning gentlemen. My insight for this week has proved to be very troublesome for me and this is because I was reading the words of our Lord about how we must forgive one another basically in the way in which we hope to be forgiven. And of course, we’re supposed to love one another in the way that our Lord loves us.

And I realize that this means we must sacrifice for others, we must do penance for others, we must suffer and perhaps even die for other people, and not just the people that we love, not just the people who we get along with, that we enjoy, not just our family and friends, but even the people who hate us. We’re called to literally imitate Christ in this way. And the degree to which we love others is basically the degree to which we’re hoping that God would love us. And if we fail at that, what is the message that we’re sending to Christ?

So, this is my insight for the week, something that I’m going to be thinking about and applying to my own life, and I hope it’s helpful to you.

Categories
Meditation

What Happens When You Move Away From a Fire On a Cold Night?

TRANSCRIPT:

Good morning, Jeff here with some insights for the week. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about this holy hour and all the things that Christopher’s been sharing with us about mental prayer and spending that time every day- first thing in our day- showing God that we want to give Him those first minutes of our day, the very best that we can, before our minds are cluttered with everything else in the world.

And it occurred to me that this holy hour, this time of mental prayer that we do every day is really us opening up our souls to allow Christ to fill them with the fire of His divine love and grace. And whenever we stray away from that, if we take the day off for a so-called ‘vacation’ from our prayers and if we make it a habit of delaying our prayers or abandoning them all together, it’s kind of like when we stray away from the bonfire. You know, you’re at a great bonfire in the fall and it’s cold outside and you stay close to that fire to stay warm, and the further you get away, the colder you become. And to the extent that this analogy applies to our spiritual life, what we’re really talking about is that the more often we stray from that fire of mental prayer in the holy hour, the less we resemble the saint that God created us to be, the less of the divine life that He’s given us we have within us to the point where we get completely cold. We’re totally unrecognizable to God when we abandon these things.

I hope this analogy has proven fruitful to you. We need to think in terms of our prayer and our fasting being as important to us as our sleep is, as our food is; most of us probably never go a day without sleep or without food. We need to have that same approach to prayer. I hope this meditation has been helpful. This insight has been helpful to you. I look forward to your feedback.