Colleen Orchanian

I was listening to a podcast with Fr. John Riccardo who was sharing his morning prayer routine. He said that he begins by covering his day in prayer, explaining that he looks at each item on his agenda and prays specifically into the situations and meetings on his schedule. What a great idea!

Have you ever heard of a pinky promise? Kids sometimes do that when they have a little bit of doubt about what the other person is saying. If I pinky promise, I really mean it.

We make promises at different times in our lives, and some of those promises mean more than others. Take for instance our wedding vows. A vow is defined as a solemn promise or an oath. When a bride and groom take their vows, they respond, “I do” to a series of questions.

As a Catholic, there is another time when I will say, “I do.” Every year at Easter Mass we renew our baptismal promises. 

My sister Theresa just changed her hairstyle. A few months ago she got a new car. A couple of years ago she moved into a new house. I, on the other hand, have not changed my hairstyle in 30 years. My car is 8 years old, and I’ve been at the same address for over 20 years. I don’t like change. Theresa seems much more comfortable with it.

That got me thinking about the nature of change – and how willing or unwilling we are to make a change.

I’m teaching 5-year-old Noah how to use the “greater than” sign in math. For some reason, this was a difficult concept for me as a child. I had trouble remembering which side of the symbol went with the biggest number. I understand it now and wonder why it was so difficult before. Obviously, the biggest side goes with the biggest number.

This challenge I faced in my (very much) younger days is similar to my difficulty recognizing the “greater than” concept in my faith life. We all might acknowledge that God is greater than anything or anyone.

Lech Walesa became the leader of Solidarity in Poland and led a successful pro-democratic effort that ended Communist rule in that country in 1989. He was a shipyard electrician, not a politician or a powerful man. But he showed the power of solidarity – coming together as a group. That group freed a nation.

Solidarity applies to our faith life as well. We have strength in numbers.

We all need to feel like we fit in somewhere - but where? Where should a Christian fit it? How do we find the group that accepts us and challenges us to live our faith more completely? 

We read Psalm 44 at Mass the other day and I was struck by the last line: Deliver us for the sake of your merciful love. Another translation says, Redeem us because of your love. I thought about the reason given for God to hear the prayer of the psalmist. It's because of God's merciful love, not because the psalmist deserves it. And that made me wonder how often we think God will hear our prayers because of our own actions – our own goodness.

I am anointed. You are anointed. God has anointed us in our baptism to serve Him and build up the Kingdom of God. How can we live out our anointing every day? 

We often rush through life, through prayer, even through relationships. We try to be efficient with our time, but that's not the way to approach time with the Lord. We should linger with Him. Linger with thoughts about Him. Linger on Scripture. Linger in His presence.

We receive spiritual gifts from God that we are called to re-gift - to pass on to others. What are those gifts and how do we do it? 

"Peace Be with You!”

We say it at every Mass, wishing peace to those around us. We all, I think, want to feel peace in our hearts. But how do we have that? And how do we help others find peace?

A friend's mother is having serious medical challenges right now. She (my friend) woke up with the words "fast and pray" on her mind and asked me how to do that. I'll share some thoughts in this blog that might be helpful for those who are wondering the same thing.

My mother has begun to paint icons, sacred images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the angels or one of the saints. There are many steps in the process, and the teacher provides very detailed instructions that allow anyone to succeed, even someone without an artistic gift. One of the most interesting things about the process is the Rules for the Icon Painter. It is interesting how applicable they are to all who want to serve God.