The awareness of God’s presence, every day and throughout the day, may be the very “thing” most needed in our lives. Prayer offers an oasis in the desert of a crowded calendar. Prayer can intentionally shut out the other voices as we open our hearts to hear the voice of the One who loves us most. Prayer can become God’s punctuation marks in the writing of our life story, pausing for a comma, taking a deep breath with a semicolon, celebrating with an exclamation point, or just coming to a full stop before a tiny dot at the end of the day. Such is the gift and blessing of prayer.
- Deacon Robert
“What does freedom mean? It is certainly not doing whatever you want, allowing yourself to be dominated by the passions, to pass from one experience to another without discernment, to follow the fashions of the day; freedom does not mean, so to speak, throwing everything that you don’t like out the window… Let us not be afraid of life commitments, commitments that take up and concern our entire life! In this way, our life will be fruitful! And this is freedom: to have the courage to make these decisions with generosity.”
~ Pope Francis
