Where to Go for Help

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Faithful Catholics understand that a person's spiritual journey is marked with interspersed periods of fertility and aridity. Those periods often vary in length and degree. Simply put, the spiritual life if much more like a roller coaster than like a walking track!

Over the course of nearly four years, I experienced a few peaks and valleys; times of great spiritual depth and times of severe dryness. I must say, however, that I have been blessed with richness in greater duration and degree than the opposite. It seems as though my spiritual life has been on a near-constant ascent during my Catholic adulthood. That is, until just over a week ago.

As the Christmas season ended and "normal" life resumed, I began to find it increasingly difficult to pray, especially for sustained periods of time. In fact, there were several days when I was simply not able to pray at all, despite my best efforts (and probably some laziness!). All the while, I was (and have been) crying to God for help.

The first answer from Him that I recognized was to read Scripture as a prayer. So I began with the Gospel according Mark, which is an account that I have never read or prayed in depth. While praying through the second chapter, I received another "divine nudge."

My eyes fell upon Christ's words: "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry...he entered the house of God...and ate the bread of the Presence..." (vv. 25-26). That recalled other words of the Lord to his disciples: "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you..." (Jn. 6:53). Immediately, I knew that the next answer to my desperate cries was to "enter the house of God" and "eat the flesh" of Christ provided for me in the Eucharist.

Indeed, part of my problem (I recognize it now!) was my lack of daily worship! I need Jesus in my life; I need as much of Him as I can get, especially His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity inside of me! So, my spiritual rehabilitation must include a sustained effort to participate in Mass AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE!

As I traipse of to the nearby parish, I pray that many others will recognize the benefits of going to Mass more regularly. I pray that more people will worship Our Lord more frequently, faithfully, and fruitfully.

God Bless.

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