Saturday Night Thoughts

Book Recommendation #1

I finished reading Life and Miracles of St. Benedict recently. This book is the second of the dialogues by Pope St. Gregory the Great. It tells some of the more commonly known stories of St. Benedict's life, along with commentary from Pope St. Gregory. One of his commentaries ties in with today's Gospel, which was the story of the Prodigal Son. St. Gregory comments that there are two ways to be carried out of ourselves. One is through sin, which pulled the Prodigal Son down below where he was meant to be. The other is through the grace of contemplation, where the mind is drawn up to higher things. He gave St. Peter as an example of this 'coming out of one's self' when he was freed from prison by an angel. In the case of the contemplative, coming out of great spiritual thoughts just brings one back down to the normal state.

Pope St. Gregory the Great said it a lot better than I did.

I strongly recommend this book. It was an easy read and full of good spiritual advice as well.

Stations of the Cross, ADHD-style.

Last Sunday, during Holy Hour, I decided to involve the youngest boys in a spiritual and physical exercise to keep them from rioting in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I decided to take them around to the Stations of the Cross and spend a few moments talking about the Station. I took the 7, 6, and 4-year old boys with me.

I was pleasantly surprised how all three of them could tell me the event for each Station. I couldn't talk much to them, because the boys tried to be the first to name the Station. As soon as I acknowledged each of them, the boys would genuflect, whisper the following prayer, and then dash off again:

V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.

R. Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Stations of the Cross in about 7 minutes....

Book Recommendation #2

Last night we went to Mass followed by Stations of the Cross according to the method of St. Alphonsus Liguori in Latin. This was a great way to say the Stations when our pastor was in Dallas, because Latin was the unifying language for both the Gringos and the Hispanic parishioners. If anything, I got the impression that the Hispanic folk could say the prayers better than us Irish folk. Anyway, the prayers were very beautiful and always seem to stir my conscience.

My 6-year old insisted that we pray the Stations of the Cross in Latin from now on.

We did not take his suggestion, but we do have a way to keep the kids on their toes. The meditations are broken up with asterisks, and we assign each part to either the men or the women as we pray in the Great Room of our home. By doing this, everyone(myself included) has to follow along with the readings. If one kid misses out, we can tell right away. It also makes it seem as if we are chanting the prayers instead of mumbling them as fast as possible.

Another great book to read. I recommend this book as well, especially during Lent.