The Urgency of Prayer
Peter Buckley and Mark O'Donnell step off their papal-document series to take up three live headlines: the Lindsay Clancy trial in Plymouth, the arrest of the San Francisco 49ers' owner, and the death of Dolly Parton on the feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta. Mark reads Matthew 7 as the Catholic reply — do not judge, ask in prayer, enter the narrow gate — and holds up Mother Teresa as proof that public credibility comes from a life of prayer and work among the poorest, not from camouflaging what you believe.
Notes
- Peter sets aside the recent papal-document series because three headlines have been capturing people at coffee after Mass, starting with the Lindsay Clancy case in Plymouth: a young mother who murdered her three children. Mark will not relitigate the trial. His first counsel is to build a life of prayer while people are still young, so that marriage and stress do not meet a soul whose only support is medication. He points to the Gerasene demoniac: Jesus' word leaves the man peaceful and wanting to follow. That is the power they will not dismiss as “nice but useless.”
- St. Faustina heard that worry and discouragement are the two great obstacles to holiness. Fr. John Grieco's line: people confuse worry with prayer instead of actually praying.
- the 49ers' owner, a young billionaire with a family, arrested for soliciting prostitution. A line often pinned on Chesterton actually comes from Bruce Marshall's "The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith": the man walking into a brothel is looking for God.
- St. Augustine: our heart is restless until it rests in God. Without that relationship, other ties become utilitarian and we discard each other when we cease to be useful.
- Homework: read Matthew 7 every day for a month. Do not judge; the internet is a rash-judgment machine. Ask, because the Father gives good gifts. Strive to enter the narrow gate and build on rock, not sand.
- Third headline, on Mother Teresa's feast: commentators hunting an equivalent to Dolly Parton's universal affection. Peter distinguishes Dolly's camouflaged beliefs from Teresa leading with the sanctity of life before Congress, the UN, and Harvard.
- Takeaway: make time for prayer. Skip the Sunday-morning game; go to Mass and spend half an hour of mental prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. That discipline is an act of faith, and God answers it with strength you did not think you had.