Sampling Prayer: Why Catholic Young Adults Don't Pray

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

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“Why should I care?”, Ben asked about the statement on the billboard. We had been discussing the phrase it advertised: JESUS LOVES YOU.

“Knowing it does nothing for me. People need to stop telling me that Jesus loves me,” Ben complained. He told me that Christians should be more concerned with helping others realize that they are loved by God instead of simply broadcasting it so matter-of-factly. “I want to feel Jesus' love. I want to feel it in my heart. How do I do that?”

I AM who I AM: The Quality of Being

By Brother Daniel Leckman, S.J.

http://breathecast.christianpost.com/

A few weeks ago, in our Mass readings, we encountered the story of God telling Moses ‘I am who I am’ (Exodus 3:13-20). The passage left me rather pensive, with not very much not say about it. It’s only when I connected it with an experience I had as part of my summer program that I gained new understanding into God's encounter with Moses, and my encounter with this passage.

My Eight-Day Retreat: Finding new language for an old experience

By Brother Daniel Leckman, S.J.

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A bit over a week ago, I completed my eight-day Ignatian retreat at Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario. During the retreat, God opened some doors and I was given new language to help me reflect on the mystery that is our relationship with God. One of my more powerful prayer experiences began with a “simple” contemplation on love: What kind of love does God give me? How does it sustain me, shape me, affect my actions?

I spent most of the week discovering what it means to stand before God as “a beloved”, and that alone was an incredibly uplifting. While sitting before a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary one night, the whole reflection took on a whole new meaning. As I engaged in prayerful conversation with Mary, she invited me to imagine what it felt to be loved by my parents. So, I sat with that for a few minutes and contemplated that love. It was a wonderful experience that brought me deep joy. After a few minutes Mary said to me, “Do you understand now? If you think your parents’ love for you is such an incredible gift, imagine how much more God loves you.”

The Journey of A Soul

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

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“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.” This is the way St. Augustine of Hippo described his conversion in The Confessions. He sought beauty, love, truth and joy everywhere, but only found them when he looked within. I have always found comfort and solace in those words. They disclose the journey of a soul as it learns to truly love and to accept True Love.

The parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11–32), chronicles such a journey – the quest of a wasteful man, through the misery of his own ingratitude, to the joy of restored communion with his father and the members of his household.

Video Games: How They Glorify God

By Eric Hanna, S.J.

lightsidegames.com

For those with only a passing familiarity with video games or for those with no familiarity at all, video games played an important role in my development: mine was among the first generations to experience electronic games in this way. It is possible for video games to have an incredibly toxic, pacifying effect on the human person, causing one to withdraw from reality. One the other hand, such games can also have an exceptionally beneficial effect, communicating ideas and promoting interaction between people in remarkably novel and nurturing ways. Video games, when part of a balanced life, are fuel for the imagination.

The Christian response to the phenomena of video games and different kinds of interactive media should be the same as it has been for books, movies and TV. Learn the medium and use it responsibly for the glory of God. But one aspect should never be forgotten: having fun glorifies God! Just look at five-year-olds running around a playground.

Welcoming God into Your Imagination

By Eric Hanna, S.J.

Your imagination, like every aspect of who you are, is a gift to you from a loving God. Imagination is an intimate part of the self. Sometimes we feel we must shield our imaginings from others – because others may not accept what we imagine and in so doing deny an aspect of our self. But, as many of us have learned over the years, that which we hide from others is what we most long to show, so that it may be seen and loved unconditionally.

God's Light in the Urban Jungle

By Brother Daniel Leckman, S.J.

I’ve wrestled about how to express the way I feel about Caracas without being unfair to it and its beautiful people. Most cities have a certain charm to them, a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes me want to spend more time discovering them and gradually makes me fall in love with them wholeheartedly. With places like Montreal, New York and Boston, it just was natural. They ooze with charm that draw me back in every time. With Caracas, I see some expressions of that charm, but I am just overwhelmed by this place.