A (4:10)

Article three, guides for prayer. A cloud of witnesses. The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially Those whom the church recognizes as saints share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer. Today. They contemplate God, praise him, and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were put in charge of many things. Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world in the communion of saints. Many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for men has been handed on like the Spirit of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit. As St. Basil stated, the Spirit is truly the dwelling of the saints, and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple. Servants of Prayer the Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the sacrament of marriage. The family is the domestic church where God's children learn to pray as the Church and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit. Ordained ministers are also responsible for the formation and prayer of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Servants of the Good shepherd, they are ordained to lead the people of God to the living waters of prayer, the Word of God, the liturgy, the theological life, the life of faith, hope and charity, and the today of God. In concrete situations, many religious have consecrated their whole lives to prayer. Hermits, monks and nuns, since the time of the Desert Fathers have devoted their time to praising God and interceding for his the consecrated life cannot be sustained or spread without prayer. It is one of the living sources of contemplation and the spiritual life of the Church. The catechesis of children, young people and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it in liturgical prayer, and internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a New life. Catechesis is also a time for the discernment and education of popular piety. The memorization of basic prayers offers an essential support to the life of prayer, but it is important to help learners savor their meaning. Prayer groups, indeed schools of prayer, are today one of the signs and one of the driving forces of renewal of prayer in the Church, provided they drink from authentic wellsprings of Christian prayer. Concern for ecclesial communion is a sign of true prayer in the Church. The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good, which is prayer, spiritual direction, men and women so endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer. According to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should take care into whose hands he entrusts himself. For as the Master is, so will the disciple be, and as the Father is, so will be the Son. And further, in addition to being learned and discreet, a director should be experienced. If the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life, he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it. And he will not even understand them.

A (8:13)

All. Right, there we have it, paragraphs 2683 to 2690. So just first thing we have 2683. We're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, right? So there are saints in heaven. This is the Church Triumphant. We already talked about this. We recognize that these saints in heaven, their main preoccupation is contemplating God, praising God, and constantly caring for those whom they've left on earth. So remember what some of the things we do. We glorify God, we bless God, we also intercede for others. These prayers of petition on behalf of others, that is what is so good. That is what the saints in heaven are doing. It says their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world. There's a story of young Saint Therese of Lisieux. You know, she died at only 24 years old. She went into the convent at 15 years old. At one point, Saint Therese, she prayed that after her death she would be able to lead many souls to heaven, that through her intercession before God's heavenly throne, that she would devote eternity or at least the time on earth here to intercede on behalf of those souls here on earth. And that's what the saints do. Saints in heaven are interceding on our behalf as they worship God and praise God constantly. It's incredible. Now, 2684 highlights that. Yes, in the communion of saints, so many various people, there are many. And various spiritualities. I love this, this line. The personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for men has been handed on. Like you remember how in the Old Testament, there's the spirit of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. Something similar happens in the church where there is this incredible gift of when you have a spiritual mentor of some sort, or even not even if know that spiritual mentor. But there's this, a way of praying in the church at times that arises in certain contexts and certain, you know, moments in history, and that gets passed down to the next generation and to the next generation, which is remarkable and it's incredible. It's part of the living tradition of prayer, and that's an essential guide for us on this earth. Now, some of those sources of prayer, or some of those sources of people who are teaching others how to pray, number one, 2685 is the Christian family. It says the family is the domestic church where God's children learn to pray as the church and to persevere in prayer, which I think is remarkable. I mean, think about this. What would it be to be discipled in prayer? Like, to be able to be walked with from someone who's actually been there before? And like, oh, yeah, this is what distraction is like. This is what dryness and prayer is like. This is how you persevere in prayer. I mean, think about this. Here is this community of the catechism in the air. We went through the whole Bible in a year. Now we're going through the catechism. We're learning so much about the faith, and even now in this fourth pillar, we're learning about the mystery and the depth of prayer. Wouldn't it be incredible if families then said, okay, we're going to be serious about this? Yes, of course we're going to know what we believe. Of course we're going to worship the way God wants us to worship and strive to live the way he wants us to live. But also we're going to disciple our kids in prayer. And I don't just mean teach them the memorized prayers, although that's part of it here. It even says in paragraph 2688 that memorization or prayers is good. It offers an essential support. But imagine what if you had someone as a kid, when you were a child, or maybe an adolescent, who showed you, hey, this is how you pray and you're saying, yeah, but I'm really bored. Okay, this is how you deal with boredom. Yeah, but like, I'm really distracted. Okay. This is how you deal with distraction. Yeah, but whatever. And to have someone who just mentored you. Paragraph 2685 highlights the fact that the Christian family is the first place of education and prayer. And it should also teach us how to persevere in prayer. And I just think that's amazing. Wouldn't it be cool if you had a parent or you had family members who showed you how to pray and discipled you in prayer? You are blessed indeed. But if you didn't, you can be that blessing. You can be that blessing. It's just remarkable. We do this thing, we have a camp every summer. It's a couple weeks long and, you know, it's one week installments for middle schoolers. And so if kids have gotten done with sixth grade, seventh grade, or eighth grade, they can be part of the camp in senior high. I think it's. If they've completed 10th grade, 11th grade, or 12th grade, they can be what we call junior counselors. But there's this one grade, right, ninth grade, where they can't be campers anymore, and they can't yet be junior counselors yet. And so what we do is we have. They can apply after their ninth grade year, after their freshman year of high school, they can apply to be on a thing called the prayer team. And it's one of my favorite things of all, because these young people, they go away for a week and they're at our camp, but they're kind of like cloistered off to the side and we see them when we have mass with them and. But they're kind of instructed not to talk to any of the campers, not to visit around with the junior counselors. They can talk to the adult staff, of course, and they can talk to each other. But this whole week is dedicated to discipleship and prayer. And it's. We have a priest come, we have some religious sisters at times. We have a bunch of young adults who themselves have, have been discipled in prayer. And they just walk with them for a solid week and say, okay, this is your basics in prayer. This is how you deal with these things like distraction. Here's how you do intercessory prayer. Here's how you can do meditative prayer. Here's how you can, you know, journal in prayer. Here's how you can pray with scripture. And for one week, one solid week, they get discipled in how to pray. And it's one of the things I'm just most grateful for when it comes to what we do as a diocese, but especially at what we do at this camp, because it gives these young people an opportunity to have what many of us never had a chance to have, the opportunity to have some kind of mentor who shows us how to pray. Now, we don't all get a chance to have a spiritual director. That's just the reality. And yet we all need to be taught how to pray. The role of the spiritual directors is fascinating. Paragraph 2690 highlights this and says that there are certain of the faithful, certain people in the church have been given the gifts of by the Holy Spirit, the gifts of wisdom, faith, and discernment for the sake of the common good. And that's spiritual direction. And so they should be true servants of the living tradition of prayer. And then there's this quote. It's the last quote we Read today from St. John of the Cross. Here's what it says. It Sundays, according to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should take care into whose hands he entrusts himself, Right? So if you're going to seek out a spiritual director, be careful into whose hands you entrust yourself. Goes on to say, for as the Master is, so will the disciple be, and as the Father is, so will be the Son, which is just really, really remarkable. I always think of it like this. This is true when it comes to parents. It's true when it comes to, you know, pastors of parishes like the priests. You have to see yourself in some ways as the prototype in the sense that what we're trying to do in many ways is we're trying to help the young people or the people that we're serving. We want to help them become like us. And you might hear that and go, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want them to be like me. And I understand that sentiment. And yet, if you're in a place of responsibility, if you're in a place of authority, if you're responsible for their spiritual life, the goal should be, okay, I want them to be imitators of me. Like St. Paul says, be imitators of me as I'm an imitator of Christ. What that means is, if I'm not an imitator of Christ, then I need to check myself. I need to stop. I need to pause for a moment and ask, okay, what's the goal here? Ask this of myself, because I am definitely far, far from perfect. And so I asked the question, okay, if my students, if the people that I'm here to serve on this campus, if they lived life exactly the way I'm living, if they prayed exactly the way I pray, if they had a relationship with God the way I have, if they have a relationship with their friends and the people around them the way I have, would they become great saints or not? If they lived like me, would they become great saints or would they just become nice people?

A (15:56)

And that is a really sobering question because, yes, not all of us are called to have a spirit director or to be a spiritual director. But we realize that if I seek a spiritual director, they're not going to be a perfect person, obviously, because no one's perfect. But they have to be striving for holiness. They must be striving for holiness, and they should have some experience. John of the Cross goes on to say, in addition to being learned and discreet, a director should be experienced. If the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life, he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it, and he will not even understand them. And this is often the case. And yet at the same time, there's a dearth of spiritual directors. And so there's so many people who are like, I want mentorship, I want discipleship, I want a director. And yet we don't have them. But we keep this in mind. The Holy Spirit is the director, like capital T, the capital D, duh, director. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual director of the faithful. And so we stay close to the church and listen. Let the church teach us, and we listen to the Holy Spirit, listen to the Word of God, and we let the Holy Spirit guide us and the word of God form us. And when we do that, we know that God is going to provide, whether that is through His Word and through His Church and His Spirit, or even through His Word, church and Spirit in the person of someone who would be a reliable spiritual director. But I would say this. Do not be afraid. Don't be afraid, because there are so many places that we can learn how to pray, so many sources of teaching on how to pray, whether that be, you know, resources online like this, or your. Your local church, or maybe you are blessed enough to get a spiritual director that you can trust. Regardless. Regardless, know this. You and I, we are in the school of prayer and we are lifelong learners in that school. There is no graduation because for all eternity, you and I will be God willing. We'll be with that communion of saints and what will we do? We will spend eternity contemplating God, praising God and constantly caring for those whom we've left on earth. That is our destiny. That is our hope. And that's my prayer. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.