One thing I have questioned in the past, and had friends mention to me as odd is the idea of praying to Mary. Talking to some priests, and fellow Catholics, it seems many people are confused or also worry about this.
The key is that we are not praying for Mary herself to make the changes. We are asking her to pray for us. In the same way that we would ask a friend to pray for us if we are sick, or for our fortune if we are having difficulty with work or other issues, we can ask Mary to pray to her son Jesus for us. From the Bible we know that Mary was a loving person, and as the one that raised Jesus, and is in heaven with him, who better to be an advocate for us in our need. She is even known to have interceded at the wedding feast of Cana where she tells Jesus they are out of wine, and then orders the servants to listen to what he tells them.
I know this barely touches on the full relationship of Mary with the church, but to me it simplifies the issue of praying to Mary incredibly. She loves us all. She is willing to be an advocate for us in our times of need. Thus to me, it only makes sense to pray to her with our concerns and ask for her to intercede and be our advocate.
Anyone have any thoughts or questions about this that I have missed, or am wrong about? Please comment.
-Nathan
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Feb Week One done
Well, the first week in February is done. (pretty much) I am getting low on intentions, so anyone that has one, please speak up. As always, comments here, Facebook, or messages here or on Facebook work. Email also works just as well.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
One month down
Well, January is over, and I am still going strong. I have not been blogging much, but I have been keeping up with the Rosary. I missed one day during a Snow-in, but made up for it on the next day. So far, I am feeling good.
I have decided to make this blog more public and link to it from Facebook. This is for a few reasons. First, I don't want to constantly be asking for prayers there, and because people may be uncomfortable putting there prayers up there. I will still ask there occasionally, and people can always message me if they don't want things public. The blog however lets them see others who are interested in the Rosary, and may give them a place to see a bit of my thinking.
Second, while I feel I am not a horrible Catholic, I still have questions about many things. I hope that by putting my thoughts here, it might start some discussion, and possibly even answer some questions. To this end, I will be inviting some of the priests I have attended church with to stop in. Assuming their emails still work, and they have the time to stop by, they could give some good insight into things I am doing right/wrong, or maybe just make suggestions for improvement.
Well, in closing, as always, I can use more intentions to pray for. I have less than a week of intentions I have not yet prayed for. After those, I will repeat intentions for the sick that people have asked me to pray for. Comment here or message me if you have anything you want me to pray for.
God bless you all.
I have decided to make this blog more public and link to it from Facebook. This is for a few reasons. First, I don't want to constantly be asking for prayers there, and because people may be uncomfortable putting there prayers up there. I will still ask there occasionally, and people can always message me if they don't want things public. The blog however lets them see others who are interested in the Rosary, and may give them a place to see a bit of my thinking.
Second, while I feel I am not a horrible Catholic, I still have questions about many things. I hope that by putting my thoughts here, it might start some discussion, and possibly even answer some questions. To this end, I will be inviting some of the priests I have attended church with to stop in. Assuming their emails still work, and they have the time to stop by, they could give some good insight into things I am doing right/wrong, or maybe just make suggestions for improvement.
Well, in closing, as always, I can use more intentions to pray for. I have less than a week of intentions I have not yet prayed for. After those, I will repeat intentions for the sick that people have asked me to pray for. Comment here or message me if you have anything you want me to pray for.
God bless you all.
Friday, January 7, 2011
1 down, 51 to go.
Well, today being the 7th, I have finished my first week. Instead of praying after dinner as I have been, I prayed today's at lunch. Friday evenings can become too hectic if we go out to the bar, and I didn't want to risk missing a day.
Anyway, I am happy with things so far. It has not been easy to break my routine a couple times this week, but once started, the rosary is never hard to finish. The worst was Wednesday, because I was so tired I worried I might drop off. I stretched and did some quick exercise beforehand, and was able to stay pretty focussed.
I am a little under a third of the way through the intentions I have gathered so far. This means I have a little over 2 weeks buffer left. Tonight I plan on asking on Facebook again, and I may post a link to this blog. I have spoken (messaged) a couple friends who contributed, and they all seem okay with me posting about the effort, as long as I leave out anything personal. As such, I may actually go public with this blog. Scary, but if it helps me find intentions, then it could be worth it.
Guess we'll see next time I post on Facebook.
Anyway, I am happy with things so far. It has not been easy to break my routine a couple times this week, but once started, the rosary is never hard to finish. The worst was Wednesday, because I was so tired I worried I might drop off. I stretched and did some quick exercise beforehand, and was able to stay pretty focussed.
I am a little under a third of the way through the intentions I have gathered so far. This means I have a little over 2 weeks buffer left. Tonight I plan on asking on Facebook again, and I may post a link to this blog. I have spoken (messaged) a couple friends who contributed, and they all seem okay with me posting about the effort, as long as I leave out anything personal. As such, I may actually go public with this blog. Scary, but if it helps me find intentions, then it could be worth it.
Guess we'll see next time I post on Facebook.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Cancer
Well, I am now on day four, and going strong. One thing I noticed is that of the intentions dealing with health, half of them specifically mention cancer. It is definitely something that I have feelings about, and can relate with. I know its kind of dumb to say it, but cancer is scary stuff. We all know that at some level. For some of the other intentions, I cannot fully relate, having no similar experience myself. For cancer, it seems like I have more examples in my family every year. My grandmother died of cancer, and maybe one of my aunts. In the last 2 years, at least 3 of my close relatives have fought cancer, with my mother having had breast cancer. Overall my family has been blessed, and people have made some great recoveries after some horrible kemo/radiation treatments. I do know that it doesn't always go that well.
So, when I pray an intention for someone with cancer, I identify with the people who I am praying for. Cancer is scary, and we can all use help and prayers. Those who are close to the person with cancer, their friends, and most off all the person who actually has to deal with it. It is scary, and stressful, and painful. I hope my prayers can help with some of the stress, and that God will hear my prayers and help with the rest.
So, when I pray an intention for someone with cancer, I identify with the people who I am praying for. Cancer is scary, and we can all use help and prayers. Those who are close to the person with cancer, their friends, and most off all the person who actually has to deal with it. It is scary, and stressful, and painful. I hope my prayers can help with some of the stress, and that God will hear my prayers and help with the rest.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
About this blog.
Well, this year, I decided I wanted to improve my prayer life. Initially I had decided to pray the Rosary daily, but knowing myself, I did not think this would last long. After thinking about it for a while, I thought about giving it more purpose than just improving my own spirituality. This would give me more purpose and help me to stick with it even on tough days. So, I posted on my Facebook page asking friends and family to give me intentions. Very quickly I had enough for at least the first few weeks. As the time approached, I gave myself the following rules.
1. Say the rosary daily. This means some time from when I wake up, until midnight. If something drastic keeps me from it one day, then the next day pray twice. (Note: drastic would be bedridden sickness, natural disaster, or things on that level, not a very important raid in WoW.)
2. Always have an intention. If I have no intentions from friends, either repeat major intentions such as serious illness, or find a good intention in the news or on one of the many Catholic general intention sites.
3. When new intentions are gathered, sort them as follows:
- Prayers for the sick, dying, or for the souls of recently deceased.
- Prayers for other time critical issues that are personal. (Someone's job, family issues, social issues, etc)
- Prayers for general time critical issues. (Disasters, important national events, or time sensitive holidays, etc)
- Prayers for improved spirituality. (With specifics pertaining to the person asking)
- Prayers for health. (With specifics pertaining to the person asking)
- Prayers for other issues. (With specifics pertaining to the person asking)
- General prayers for spirituality.
- General prayers for health.
- General prayers for other issues.
- Prayers that people ask me to say for myself and this effort.
4. If something not within the above list comes up, feel free to add it. This could include big events in friend's lives even if they didn't ask, national or international crisis, or any other time sensitive human interest issues.
Having set up these rules, I sorted the prayers into an Excel spreadsheet for ease of reference, and today I started. So far, things are going well. After praying the first Rosary of this effort, I reviewed the Excel sheet, and hit on the idea of this blog. The intention is to put my thoughts about the effort up here, and possibly thoughts that came to me when I was praying the Rosary of the day. I will have to check with my friend's to make sure it is okay to mention things here though, and it will not be updated daily. I know some of the issues are personal and sensitive, so I will not post about them here. Even if I do post, I will keep them general, and use only pronouns.
Finally, this blog may become an other reference to me, as if anyone actually reads it, I may be able to mine them for some intentions. Lets see how it goes.
1. Say the rosary daily. This means some time from when I wake up, until midnight. If something drastic keeps me from it one day, then the next day pray twice. (Note: drastic would be bedridden sickness, natural disaster, or things on that level, not a very important raid in WoW.)
2. Always have an intention. If I have no intentions from friends, either repeat major intentions such as serious illness, or find a good intention in the news or on one of the many Catholic general intention sites.
3. When new intentions are gathered, sort them as follows:
- Prayers for the sick, dying, or for the souls of recently deceased.
- Prayers for other time critical issues that are personal. (Someone's job, family issues, social issues, etc)
- Prayers for general time critical issues. (Disasters, important national events, or time sensitive holidays, etc)
- Prayers for improved spirituality. (With specifics pertaining to the person asking)
- Prayers for health. (With specifics pertaining to the person asking)
- Prayers for other issues. (With specifics pertaining to the person asking)
- General prayers for spirituality.
- General prayers for health.
- General prayers for other issues.
- Prayers that people ask me to say for myself and this effort.
4. If something not within the above list comes up, feel free to add it. This could include big events in friend's lives even if they didn't ask, national or international crisis, or any other time sensitive human interest issues.
Having set up these rules, I sorted the prayers into an Excel spreadsheet for ease of reference, and today I started. So far, things are going well. After praying the first Rosary of this effort, I reviewed the Excel sheet, and hit on the idea of this blog. The intention is to put my thoughts about the effort up here, and possibly thoughts that came to me when I was praying the Rosary of the day. I will have to check with my friend's to make sure it is okay to mention things here though, and it will not be updated daily. I know some of the issues are personal and sensitive, so I will not post about them here. Even if I do post, I will keep them general, and use only pronouns.
Finally, this blog may become an other reference to me, as if anyone actually reads it, I may be able to mine them for some intentions. Lets see how it goes.
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