A few years ago I went to see the tall ships that were visiting Boston harbor. On my way home I stopped at Saint Anthony’s Shrine downtown. As I was walking toward it I noticed a tall, thin man hanging around in front of the church, sort of huddled into a corner wall. Though he looked around furtively through his black-rimmed glasses and seemed a bit timid, he didn't appear to be begging. True to my New York upbringing, I began to walk quickly past, pretending not to notice. As I went ...

The final week in the "Pray to Your Father in Secret" Lenten Book Club.

The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.The concept is tricky: our God is three, but is also one. I remember as a child when my mother explained the classic water-ice-steam analogy to me, describing something with essentially the same properties but that takes different forms. It didn’t exactly clarify things for me; I was left vaguely wondering if God manifested himself differently at different temperatures—in the desert, say, or in Antarctica.B...

Welcome to the Online Lenten Book Club!During these six weeks of Lent, we are reading and reflecting on the classic on prayer, Pray To Your Father in Secret by Jean Lafrance.  For more information about the book club, visit this blog post.  You can find Pray To Your Father in Secret at www.PaulineStore.com . Week 5, Chapter 4 - The Dialogue with GodYour real center of gravity is in adoration, in reaching ever upward. Too many people fall into the habi...

Welcome to the Online Lenten Book Club!During these six weeks of Lent, we are reading and reflecting on the classic on prayer, Pray To Your Father in Secret by Jean Lafrance. For more information about the book club, visit this blog post. Week 4, Chapter 3 - The Working Out of SalvationWe read Scripture to integrate Christ’s life into our own lives, not just to hear his story. Everything we do—reading, praying, working—is to become one with Christ. We don&rs...

Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Lenten Book Club!During these six weeks of Lent, we are reading and reflecting on the classic on prayer, Pray To Your Father in Secret by Jean Lafrance. For more information about the book club, visit this blog post. Week 3, Chapter 2 - The Way of SalvationThe world changed when God sent his son to become part of it; we have, in the process, become part of God, and he of us. We need to focus, daily, on a constant awareness of that presence.Our ...

Welcome to the Online Lenten Book Club!During these six weeks of Lent, we are reading and reflecting on the classic on prayer, Pray To Your Father in Secret by Jean Lafrance. For more information about the book club, visit this blog post. Week 2, Section 1 - The God of DialogueFr. Lafrance urges us to walk in the steps of God’s people in Scripture. As Moses discovered, God isn’t accessible through our minds: he is mystery. Moses, Elijah, and the psalmist all knew ...

Week 1 of the weekly guide to the "Pray To Your Father in Secret" Lenten Book Club: Preface.

Advent holds a very special place in my heart. In the Advent liturgy we are able to experience with all our senses the haunting beauty of this time of ardent longing and waiting. The smells of pine wreaths and burning wax, the plaintive melodies of Advent hymns, the promise-filled prophecies and Old Testament readings, the great Advent figures – they all urge us to focus on what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. In four short weeks we learn to wait, to hope, to be quiet, to prepare. How appr...

Way back in 1959, St. Paul Editions, as our publishing house was then called, compiled and printed a marvelous book: the Queen of Apostles Manual of Prayer. It wasn’t just another prayer book—at that time there were hundreds of those on the market—but literally a manual, a how-to, of conversation with God, learned by…praying. It was reprinted and revised more than once. By the time it received a new title, Queen of Apostles Prayer Book, it contained over 400 prayers and novenas. At least tha...