Princess Bride Revisited - Prepare to Pray

        "Hello. My name is Kathleen Laplante. You killed my Father's Son. Prepare to pray."

That is my spoof on a popular quote from the movie Princess Bride.  I am being silly, but there is some truth to it.  Jesus was killed and we must continue to pray.  In one form or another, our lives can become prayer, especially during Lent.

Prayer is one of the three stabilizing legs of the Lenten season:  prayer, fasting, almsgiving.  “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40) is the famous phrase the disappointed Jesus says to the Apostles, when they fall asleep on Him that foreboding night.  We may fall short like the Apostles, but the point is to strive to make all things prayer.

Monks are familiar with that concept.  Prayer is their life and they have a lot to teach us.  Once a year, the monks at St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, MA, bring in a speaker/leader and go on retreat for a week.  Last October, Fr. Cassian of San Benedetto in Italy was the speaker.  He gave ten conferences which had the common thread of "praying without ceasing".  The list is below.

Please go to CONFERENCES ON PRAYING WITHOUT CEASING for the links.  Fr. Cassain will be revealing one conference per week, every Friday, until just before Holy Week.  The first four have already been posted.

1. 2/7: Praying Without Ceasing (49:00)
2. 2/14: Praying the Divine Office: The Connection with the Desert Tradition (44:12)
3. 2/21: Praying the Divine Office: Nihil Operi Dei Praeponatur (Let Nothing Be Preferred to the Work of God) (45:51) [included handout]
4. 2/28: Lectio Divina (41:24)
5. 3/7: Personal Prayer; St. John Cassian (46:07)
6. 3/14: Personal Prayer; Lessons from the Rule of St. Benedict (36:49)
7. 3/21: The Minor Orations; The Eucharistic Prayer (41:42) [included handout]
8. 3/28: Mass Euchology in the Roman Canon (38:35)
9. 4/4: The Mass Chants (46:37) [included handout]
10. 4/11: The Ordo Missae (The Order of the Mass) (44:00) [included handout]

Wishing you a Blessed and Holy Lenten Season,
Kathleen +



image - http://osbnorcia.org/2014/02/21/conferences