Prayer: “The 5 P’s…”
By: Eric Gajewski
St. Therese explains prayer is an aspiration of the heart, it
is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a cry of gratitude and love in the
midst of trial as well as joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural,
which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus.
This simple yet profound explanation, is most vital, for modern man, to
get reacquainted with, if, we are to become a Christian society once again. Most often we complicate prayer because we
allow the self to interfere with what God Wills for us. Indeed, we have the free will to pray every
day and yet so many do not pray at all or simply pray for the wrong things due
to our strong human nature. However,
today I would like to focus on the 5P’s every Catholic should be praying for (who
and what) daily and then 2P’s by which we can accomplish this.
'He who divides his time between physical work and prayer
subdues his body by labor and moderates its disorderly demands; and since his
soul, working together with the body, at last longs for a rest, it disposes it
to prayer, as to something easier, and brings it to the work of prayer with
fresh strength and zeal. For the soul finds comfort in a change of occupation
and in passing from one thing to another, whereas it gets bored when occupied
for long with the same thing. It becomes weary of monotony, but welcomes
variety of occupations. It seems to it that, by abandoning one occupation, it
is freed of all hardship, and so it comes to another with fresh strength, as
though it were only now starting work.'
Pray for the Pope. Regardless of the crisis we are in charity
would dictate we pray for these modernists who are hiding behind the mask of “Catholic”
We do not need to know whether they are subjectively trying to destroy the
Church or not. Rather we do know that they are doing so objectively speaking. We do not unite ourselves in their errors and
heresies when we do so (as some claim). In
fact we should be praying even more so for these destroyers of the Faith if we
take the Faith seriously enough ourselves.
Just authority will rule on the matter infallibly at the next Great
Council after the chastisements to set the record straight but until then do
you pray daily for the Pope? A growing
number of us think it is Benedict XVI but does that mean we should pray for Francis
as well? Of course! Much like you would pray for your own earthly
father who is sick we must continue to pray for those who apparently don’t realize
they are preaching a new religion wilst calling it Catholic. They are drunk off the “wine of our times”
called Modernism and they should be at the forefront of our prayers. Do we not still pray for conversions amongst the Protestants? In conclusion to the section pray for a
strong Pope who will have to have guts to root out this Vatican 2 disease as
well as to do the consecration of Russia properly as asked by our Queen.
Pray for Prelates. Should we stop in only praying for the
Pope? We must continue to pray for the
leadership within the Church both Cardinal and Bishop. A prelate is a high-ranking member
of the clergy
who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with
ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus,
the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before",
"be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one
set over others. If we as Catholics do not then who exactly is going to? We should all aspire for holiness and thus we
need examples to look to for guidance in this dark hour. Specifically pray for the conservative types
such as Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Sarah and Bishop Schneider who have yet to
take a stand as the St Athanasius of our times did in Archbishop Lefebvre. Can you imagine the damage that would be done
to the NWO if these prelates came out today and spoke as Archbishop Lefebvre
truly did? Down with Vatican II and New Mass!
Those who would identify themselves as traditionalists would be “more
united”. Thus, to not pray for leadership within
the ranks of the Church daily at this point is truly unthinkable and sinful.
Pray for Priests.
Pray just for priests? No, pray for holy priests….YES! We cannot expect to have holy priests just
drop out of thin air in this crisis without prayer. God will not give us (in this sense) what we
do not first ask for and who can deny that Our Lord would not want us to have
holy priests. “Pray as though everything depended on God.
Work as though everything depended on you.” St. Augustine For the sake of this short writing we must
view prayer as a fortress or force shield against evil. We cannot enter the Fortress nor have this force
shield raised if we do not first want it.
Those who do not want God nor holiness nor holy priests to have in order
to be led simply wander through life aimlessly without any true eternal
direction. Praying for priests in the end shows that you love Jesus and His Church. Praying for priests shows you understand how vital the Sacraments are for your soul. Prayer is connectivity with
the Divine and in this connectivity we ought find consolation, solace and
happiness. Prayer is the place of
refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant
happiness, a protection against sadness. Saint John Chrysostom
Pray for souls in Purgatory. Oh my how we forget these poor souls on a
daily basis. If we could audibly hear
their pleas from this side of life’s breath we all would actively get to our
knees and earnestly pray for their release.
How many more sacrifices a day would we accomplish if we could? How many more of our own family members
would be remembered? It is all a part of Selfless
Love’s “circle” that we remember the dead and pray for them that they might be
loosened from their venial sins. But we
have hope and faith still on this side! For if he had not hoped that they that were slain
should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for
the dead. 2 Mac 12:44 Therefore it is not vain to pray for the dead
as the heretics say who have cut themselves of from the Body of Christ in
denial of this place called Purgatory.
Remember daily to sacrifice often and give alms; do those things you
know would please the Sacred Heart of Jesus (quietly and away from the eyes of
men)… this pleases Jesus most. Do we
live for self or the Sacred Heart remains the fundamental question of all our
actions which will first arise in the heart.
Therefore remember your fallen brothers and sisters for one day you may
very well be there yourself.
Pray for Poor Sinners. We all have a common bond in that we were all born into the virus of self…this “disease of me” in which we must receive the daily antidote (grace) if we are to ever achieve becoming Saints (which should be every Christian’s goal). We must stay close to God in prayer; we must stay close as we can to His Sacraments without offending Him. We must be reminded that we all sin and perhaps, some of us, like myself, do not understand the depth of His patience with us nor will we ever. This is because His Love simply cannot be fully comprehended this side of life. Therefore, be resigned in all things to do Gods Will and this alone. How can we forget our brother and sisters addicted to pornography, pills and the party scene? Those who claim Christ by the lip and live a life of mortal sin who go on offending without the least bit of worry. I was once that man, the old self, the man who would control and manipulate like the devils to get an end achieved. I would use young ladies for my own selfish lusts and desires…this is why I keep the Lantern fully lit in this dark night. It is because I had enough of "me" and needed "the Antidote". It was due to the prayers of the faithful that my heart eventually took hold of the Immaculate Heart which at the same time led me deeper into the Sacred Heart. How can I now not remember those who were once like me? Nevertheless we must all stay on guard lest we think we cannot fall off of the Ladder of grace. “Let us all resign ourselves into His hands, and pray that in all things He may guide us to do His Holy Will ... When thoughts of this or that come I turn to Him and say: "Only what you will, my God. Use me as You will”- St Mary of the Cross MacKillop
As I mentioned in the opening
paragraph of this brief writing we must now also consider the 2 P’s in which we
have hopes of daily accomplishing these reminders. It is through persistence and patience that,
ultimately, we have hopes of, not only winning our own soul but also to help us accomplish (daily) these 5 P’s which are so vitally
important to any Catholic. Do you give
up after a week because a family member is not converted or do you turn up the “faith”
button on the stove so God can see your flame rise even higher? Do you back down after a little
adversity? Or do you keep ploughing
forward in faith and hope in this persistence the Saints assuredly
demonstrated. Do you have the patience to
not let “the self” overcome you consistently?
What good is winning the battle if in the end you do not win the
war? You fend off one temptation in the
morning but by nights end your soul becomes darkened by the devils dense “fog
of self” due to mortal sin. Did you pray
in those moments leading up until that mortal sin or did you become impatient
thinking God had not heard you in times of past? Yes that same God which orders all the stars
and their movements that you say "cannot hear you"…. Assuredly if you do not even
care about your own soul you assuredly wont care about anybody else’s soul and
so like a good doctor be sure to examine your own heart today and everyday
consistently so that you can be free of any lingering self that your heart may
still be attached to. We cannot restore the
world until each and every man decides to restore himself and this is a process
and requires much persistence and patience.
Put these words into practice and lets do battle!
