Preparing to Pray

"Although prayer is a habitual action for us, it needs preparation...If we sit down to read and write we do not do so suddenly, we first get ourselves into the mood for what we are going to do. This kind of preparation is all the more necessary before we start to pray, particularly if our occupation immediately beforehand was very different from prayer.

So, morning or evening, immediately before you begin to repeat your prayers, stand awhile, sit for awhile, or walk a little and try to steady your mind and turn it away from all worldly activities and objects. After this, think who He is to whom you turn in prayer, then recollect who you are; who it is who is about to start this invocation to Him in prayer. Do this in such a way as to awake in your heart a feeling of humility and reverent awe that you are standing in the presence of God. It is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the complete task."

-- St. Theophan the Recluse

Kierkegaard's View on Worship

I was a philosopy major in college and one of my areas of interest was existentialism. Interestingly, my favorite existentialist philosophers were Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre. What I loved about Kierkegaard was that he was a Christian and spoke to the issues of existentialism as a Christian. Here's one of my favorite quotes from Kierkegaard:


"Worship is a drama in which each week is re-enacted the story of redemption."
- Soren Kierkegaard

Contemplating the Trinity

"No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One. When I think of any One of the Three, I think of Him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking of escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided Light."
-- St. Gregory Nazianzen

Vessels as Vessels

Whatever definition one wants to use for the word “vessel” it will indicate that a vessel carries something. The word came across my mind right after I said Mass the other day. The communion vessels (chalice and ciborium) do, indeed, carry something. They carry the most precious things of all…..the body and blood of Christ. They are temporary containers because they only hold our Lord’s body and blood for a very short time until they reach their proper destination…..US.

When the body and blood of our Lord enter us we also become vessels…vessels of Christ. What a great thing to be his vessel; him dwelling in us and enabling us to minister to others. We are vessels in a different way, however, because we contain Christ, but it’s a two way street because since “…he dwells in us and we in him…” we are more than just vessels. Generally a vessel is a lifeless, inanimate object that simply carries its cargo to a place. When Christ enters us we are miraculously changed…unified with him in every way through the miracle of the Eucharist. We are not just the vessel, but we are also the destination. As both vessel and destination we are ourselves one with Christ, but we also have the responsibility for living the Gospel and carrying it to others. Think about that the next time you're about to receive our Savior at Mass.