
Everyone likes a good story, you’ll like this one from Fr. James Martin’s Facebook page, and also a good video with him answering the question, “Who Cares About the Saints?”
Even if you’re still on the journey and don’t yet fully embrace the idea of God and prayer, I’ll bet there are times in your life that you wish you believed. Times that you could really use a little help from above. Everyone is either going through a tough time now, or will at some point in your life. Will you “act as if” you believe it all, just for a little while? There are many people out there who have big hearts and would like to pray for you if only you ask. God might surprise you, too.
The video below from August of 2008 isn’t something I’m sharing just to draw out your emotions, even though it definitely will. I’m posting it because there is a great message here about how our faith isn’t always free of the “whys” in life. I’ll be sharing more in future posts about my faith journey recently and some of my own struggles, but for now watch and hear how one family learned that faith is living with the questions we have, and that death doesn’t have to be the end. Instead we can grieve with hope.
It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s and converted to the Catholic faith (I’ll tell you more about that someday) that I even heard the word, “Novena”. There’s nothing mysterious about it, though, it’s just a nine-day prayer. The novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all novenas since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost…