Wake up!
I can hear the voice and volume of my parents reminding me to get up for school daily.
Advent is like that. It is about the "coming" of Jesus at his Nativity, December 25th. And, like preparing for school - waking up - I want to be ready. Do I!
The hour is urgent each day as one wakes up to news that is far from good these days. The hope that Jesus offers each of us merit waking up for this moment. The alternative is to walk about numb as over 40 million U.S. residents do daily in addiction, studies show.
Advent is about John the Baptist calling us to repent and turn our hearts fully around.
Repenting reminds me of the story of the painter who waters down the paint that fails to stick for long.
A voice reminds him to "repaint" and to "thin" no more!
Like each of us this trek through Advent.
Awakening to the like of evergreen hope, or...?
Monday, November 23, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Prayer and the Power of Oneness for Marriages, Family
A family that prays together stays together. There is power in praying. Prayer heals. I believe that.
That adage of a family praying together was learned well at home. It haunts me as it reminds me to "pray always," as the apostle of the Gentiles, Paul of Tarsus, is quick to note to readers in the greatest story ever told about Jesus in the Bible.
My family of nine on Detroit's east side walked miles in procession along this City's auto capital of the world's Van Dyke Avenue to our home church of Saint Thomas the Apostle where my six siblings and I went to the parish school where we worshiped in the Romanesque edifice built in 1926.
The power of prayer is always present, thank God. Early on in my childhood, in fact, it was common practice for my mother and father to teach us how to pray while we all knelt at the bedside before being tucked in for the night's sleep.
It seems that mothers are really the center of the family in preparing supper, and, calling us to prayer, cleaning my room, and doing my homework. My dad had multiple jobs also, like my homemaker mom, who reported for his midnight shift to work as a crane operator at the Budd Company. Often, he would report to the nearby junk yard for a daylong job to help make ends meet in our large family.
Learning to pray in communion, ("at-one-ment" - atonement) with the Maker came early in my life. Conventional prayers like the "Our Father," "Hail Mary," and, a Sunday after noon radio rosary recitation of five decades had us all repeating these well-learned verses.
Couple the prayer with our mandatory meals together, and, I experienced the making of an enduring and God-fearing family that was far from perfect. We seemed to accept the happy and sad realities of life's trek like a fast-moving train we boarded. Like praying, a quick-paced walk was a common practice dad taught for our family, the "first school," that taught us the value of hard work, commitment to purpose in serving God and society, and, the "I do" and the duration of their five-decades old marriage that dad and mom promised on their wedding day, and each moment after, "in sickness, and, in health, and, in good times and in bad, 'til death do us part."
Arcola Street was a village of neighbors who looked out for each other in the 1950s. The nurse across the street from our two-story aluminum-sided home, for example, could be called at any hour when one of my brothers or sisters fell on the stairway to our bedrooms upstairs, or, when we descended them. Midway was a radiator that seemed to wait for our feet that tripped up. In turn, bleeding bruises needed special mending.
We seemed to pray more also, then. When death took a neighbor, or a relative, prayer was part of the package in the process. Being poor helped to keep my family dependent on God. I remember praying that the old Dodge vehicle we rode would arrive to our destination since dad did not have a driver's license. His Port Austin, MI., education was limited, while my mother from graduated from the eight grade in Cheboygan, MI., and moved to Detroit as a teen to secure a job to send money back home for her merged family of twelve.
Urban areas across this Nation note a low-rate of children having both parents these days, a mother and a father. Family is fledgling, for sure. "God help us," is a sure prayer that clergy, among other advocates reiterate relying on the Bible's author of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures charging Adam and Eve "to increase and multiply, and have dominion over the Earth." The "first institution" of our society has given way to massive numbers of fracturing marriages, in turn, the trauma that children experience with divorce.
To this end, an inter-religious coalition of clergy, and, other faithful in Macomb County, Michigan, forged a
Community Marriage Covenant Policy in 2009, in collaboration with Defending Our Father's House founded by physician Michael Ross, M.D., calling for sexual abstinence for teens, protection of children from abuse, faithfulness of married couples for the duration of their married living, counseling with mentor couples for young, troubled, and, couples in crisis, retreats, and, regular couple prayer times for perspective, with, sharing of marital resources. Additionally, leadership by the Michigan Family Church, in Warren, MI., namely with the Rev. David Kasbow of the American Clergy Leadership Council, has steered "Marriage Motown 2020" with Prepare/Enrich sessions, Annual Summer Tent Revivals in Dowtown Detroit, Occupying the Corner Chene/Lafayette, and, countless other initiatives to strengthen marriage and family, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim faithful, and more.
In fact, on December 9th at 9 am, Detroit area clergy with Michael McManus, among others will testify at a Michigan legislative committee hearing for longer "waiting periods" for divorcing couples. Clergy aim to use that "waiting" time for pastoral interventions for the couple related to conflict resolving and communication skills. Ever since "No-Fault Divorce," was decreed in the United States of America, marriage and family has been slipping away as the foundation of civilization. France and Great Britain have few divorces compared to the U.S., for example. Clergy hope to launch more marriage covenants across this land, and, to prevent so-called family lawyers from pressing for the onslaught of divorces.
Prayer will heal and mend families with clergy stepping up to the plate to form marital mentor couples, to challenge parents to respect and endure their "I Do," and, to strengthen marriage and family. In turn, the American economy will also benefit. The power of pray and fasting will enable this initiative. God help us!
That adage of a family praying together was learned well at home. It haunts me as it reminds me to "pray always," as the apostle of the Gentiles, Paul of Tarsus, is quick to note to readers in the greatest story ever told about Jesus in the Bible.
My family of nine on Detroit's east side walked miles in procession along this City's auto capital of the world's Van Dyke Avenue to our home church of Saint Thomas the Apostle where my six siblings and I went to the parish school where we worshiped in the Romanesque edifice built in 1926.
The power of prayer is always present, thank God. Early on in my childhood, in fact, it was common practice for my mother and father to teach us how to pray while we all knelt at the bedside before being tucked in for the night's sleep.
It seems that mothers are really the center of the family in preparing supper, and, calling us to prayer, cleaning my room, and doing my homework. My dad had multiple jobs also, like my homemaker mom, who reported for his midnight shift to work as a crane operator at the Budd Company. Often, he would report to the nearby junk yard for a daylong job to help make ends meet in our large family.
Learning to pray in communion, ("at-one-ment" - atonement) with the Maker came early in my life. Conventional prayers like the "Our Father," "Hail Mary," and, a Sunday after noon radio rosary recitation of five decades had us all repeating these well-learned verses.
Couple the prayer with our mandatory meals together, and, I experienced the making of an enduring and God-fearing family that was far from perfect. We seemed to accept the happy and sad realities of life's trek like a fast-moving train we boarded. Like praying, a quick-paced walk was a common practice dad taught for our family, the "first school," that taught us the value of hard work, commitment to purpose in serving God and society, and, the "I do" and the duration of their five-decades old marriage that dad and mom promised on their wedding day, and each moment after, "in sickness, and, in health, and, in good times and in bad, 'til death do us part."
Arcola Street was a village of neighbors who looked out for each other in the 1950s. The nurse across the street from our two-story aluminum-sided home, for example, could be called at any hour when one of my brothers or sisters fell on the stairway to our bedrooms upstairs, or, when we descended them. Midway was a radiator that seemed to wait for our feet that tripped up. In turn, bleeding bruises needed special mending.
We seemed to pray more also, then. When death took a neighbor, or a relative, prayer was part of the package in the process. Being poor helped to keep my family dependent on God. I remember praying that the old Dodge vehicle we rode would arrive to our destination since dad did not have a driver's license. His Port Austin, MI., education was limited, while my mother from graduated from the eight grade in Cheboygan, MI., and moved to Detroit as a teen to secure a job to send money back home for her merged family of twelve.
Urban areas across this Nation note a low-rate of children having both parents these days, a mother and a father. Family is fledgling, for sure. "God help us," is a sure prayer that clergy, among other advocates reiterate relying on the Bible's author of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures charging Adam and Eve "to increase and multiply, and have dominion over the Earth." The "first institution" of our society has given way to massive numbers of fracturing marriages, in turn, the trauma that children experience with divorce.
To this end, an inter-religious coalition of clergy, and, other faithful in Macomb County, Michigan, forged a
Community Marriage Covenant Policy in 2009, in collaboration with Defending Our Father's House founded by physician Michael Ross, M.D., calling for sexual abstinence for teens, protection of children from abuse, faithfulness of married couples for the duration of their married living, counseling with mentor couples for young, troubled, and, couples in crisis, retreats, and, regular couple prayer times for perspective, with, sharing of marital resources. Additionally, leadership by the Michigan Family Church, in Warren, MI., namely with the Rev. David Kasbow of the American Clergy Leadership Council, has steered "Marriage Motown 2020" with Prepare/Enrich sessions, Annual Summer Tent Revivals in Dowtown Detroit, Occupying the Corner Chene/Lafayette, and, countless other initiatives to strengthen marriage and family, including Jewish, Christian, Muslim faithful, and more.
In fact, on December 9th at 9 am, Detroit area clergy with Michael McManus, among others will testify at a Michigan legislative committee hearing for longer "waiting periods" for divorcing couples. Clergy aim to use that "waiting" time for pastoral interventions for the couple related to conflict resolving and communication skills. Ever since "No-Fault Divorce," was decreed in the United States of America, marriage and family has been slipping away as the foundation of civilization. France and Great Britain have few divorces compared to the U.S., for example. Clergy hope to launch more marriage covenants across this land, and, to prevent so-called family lawyers from pressing for the onslaught of divorces.
Prayer will heal and mend families with clergy stepping up to the plate to form marital mentor couples, to challenge parents to respect and endure their "I Do," and, to strengthen marriage and family. In turn, the American economy will also benefit. The power of pray and fasting will enable this initiative. God help us!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)