Friday, November 14, 2008

Check-in: week two

Picture source.

Virtual coffee talk time again....

How are we doing, halfway through the month?

Please feel free to share any fruit or struggles from your prayer this week in the comments box.

As we move on:
Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope (1 Peter 3:15).

6 comments:

The Ironic Catholic said...

I've had a good week, prayer-wise (which is good since the rest of it kinda sucked). I'll share later. Anyone else can go first....

Meredith Gould said...

I've had a brutally challenging week on the spiritual front. Loads of junk being triggered by the writing I'm doing about 1st church lunacy coupled with some of what I consider woeful activity on the part of our bishops.

My faith remains strong but not because of the institutional structure(s) of religion. Kind of hilarious, given the big deal I made in my recent book about distinguishing between the two.

As my mother says, "Oy vey, Maria."

Unknown said...

My prayer week has been good. I do find the NaPraGoMo prods to be wonderful for my meditation periods. The bishops got me riled up too, but at the same time, I realize that being in love with Jesus is so much more stronger than anything the institutional church can damage. Thanks :-)

Vicki aka Diva Mom said...

Been getting my prayer on, thanks to seeing the daily 'NaPraGoMo 2008' reminder in my Google reader.

Found that most of my prayer this week as been to ask, "Why?" Why did our country just elect the most pro-abortion President? Why did half the Bishops (reportedly) vote for a pro-abortion candidate? Why am I having to defend my McCain vote to other 'Catholics'?

Thank you for this challenge!

The Ironic Catholic said...

Vicki, I would take the 50% of bishops voting for Obama with a grain of salt. I seriously doubt any bishop is making public his vote, and that seems really speculative....

Well, folks, the problems in my life have been more local than what you post...but the beauty of the past week has been a kind of completely new relationship (at least on my end) with the Blessed Mother. To make a very very long story short, I have always felt a sense of conviction before Mary--the perfect woman, mother, and disciple--as I am none of those things. With the help of a spiritual director, who led me through a conversation that ended with his comment "Maybe...she could protect you as a mother would against a spirit of self-judgement", I feel like I made a breakthrough in praying with Mary. Really, God made the breakthrough. But I feel like I have a new friend, and I am enjoying that, as well as enormously grateful to God.

Helen said...

The reminder and commitment to pray has been good for me. Sometimes I use the prompts. Sometimes I say a rosary. Sometimes I use an aid from your sidebar. Shamefully, I usually mean to pray, but get caught up in stuff and say a tiny tim prayer at the end of the day. Committing to 15 minutes daily has been good for me. Keeping promises is important to me. I plan to do 15 minutes during advent as well. Then, hopefully, I will have developed prayer as a habit, and not use the tiny tim prayer as a crutch.

God bless us, everyone!