Prayer

This year has been pretty messed up so far. Well, not all in a bad way, but messed up nevertheless.

For one thing, we have spent more time on the road than at home so far. Don’t get me wrong. We visited some amazing places and spent time with good friends and family. It has been pretty intense, though. Some of our friends and family members are in difficult places doing difficult things for the Lord.

Then, for the last month we have been involved with our grandson’s hospital stay and now with his recuperation. This has involved numerous trips to Seattle. He just turned 4 and in his short life has had 3 open heart surgeries. This should be the last one.

I guess that explains why I’m kind of exhausted!  That and the birthdate on my driver’s license.

Now the part about prayer. On Pentecost Sunday  I was able to attend Mass at St. James Cathedral in Seattle. It is a beautiful, even heavenly place.

The cathedral is a place of pilgrimage for this Year of Mercy. I didn’t  complete the series of prayers and devotional exercises suggested in a little brochure provided by the church.  Maybe I can do that another time before the jubilee ends in December.

The people there were very nice. Funny thing was that neither the altar boys I talked with nor the priest himself seemed to know much about the Holy Door thing. That made me feel less clueless, somehow. I was in good company.

I finally found the brochure which explained it all very well. Here is the online version of the printed brochure. Well, click on the word “here.”

While I was wandering around, trying to figure out what I should be doing,  I met this young homeless man.  He was sitting at the back of the church.

He said he was born in Turkey and from a Muslim background. He said it was the first Mass he had ever attended.

Well, not sure how much of what he told me was true. He did have a slight foreign accent in his otherwise almost perfect English. So, maybe it was all true. What made me think he might have fudged a bit when he said he had never attended Mass before. Fact is he was wearing a crucifix around his neck. He also seemed to know quite a bit about Catholicism.

I showed surprise at what he said about never having been to Mass. He responded by saying that he had been inside the church before, but had never stayed for Mass. That made sense. He is a seeker.

He asked me some questions, and I gave my best answers. He seemed satisfied with what I said. He seemed especially interested in knowing what prayer is. He wanted to know how to pray.

I told him some stuff.  He told me some stuff. We had a nice conversation. It was mutually edifying in fact. He said several times how peaceful he felt inside the cathedral. I agreed. It’s the presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Real Presence of Jesus.

Later in the week I got to go to a weekday Mass at the Blessed Sacrament parish in the University District.  The priest spoke about prayer. He encouraged us to go through Scripture and do a study of the subject of prayer.

I thought that was a good idea. Twice in the same week the subject of prayer became the focus of my attention. Hmmm.

What will I do about it?  Well, for one thing, pray! I might blog about it as well. In fact, because of the trips we have made this year and because of our grandson’s health problems, I have been praying a lot.

The travel has taken us halfway around the world and back again. It has taken us across our great state several times, and even to Texas. As I think about it I see that prayer is what has made this year great, really. It has not been nearly as messed up as it could have been given what we have experienced.

I wish I’d told the homeless guy that during the Mass, he could get in line with the other worshippers and receive a blessing from the priest. Not everyone can eat the body and drink the blood of Christ, but anyone can receive a special blessing.

I encouraged him to take the RCIA class and become Catholic. Then he would understand better what was going on around him.