Pray together

Wednesday, our church had a visiting priest, Fr. Cashen, from St. Paul's Newman Center.  Fr. Cashen took the place of our regular priest, Fr. Tom, for he was on a week long spiritual retreat.  The Gospel of the day was Luke 11:1-4.  In this Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus how to pray, and from this we get the Our Father, a prayer we have been saying for many, many years.

I share this because Fr. Cashen's homliy was absolutely terrific.  He really hit close to home with me, and I will do my best to share it with you. 

At the time, in the Bible, the disciples ask Jesus how to pray.  They wanted this information so they could have a closer relationship with God.    Jesus said:

"When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come.  Give us each our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not be subject to the final test."

I must say, this is a Gospel that we hear of quite often.  We pray this prayer at every Mass, five times if you say a Rosary, my Bible study group prays it at the end of each meeting, and countless other times.  It was probably the easiest of prayers I taught my children.  This is such an important prayer, that most homilies will talk about the orgin of the prayer, but not Fr. Cashen.

Fr. Cashen talked of his life as a child.  In his house, they went to church, but never prayed as a family.  It wasn't until he returned home from high school(I am guessing, in his country of origin, they go away to high school, like many of us go away to college), that all of the sudden his family was praying together.  Fr. Cashen then explained how his family dynamics changed, once they started praying together. 

Before going off to school, his family fought about trivial things.  He said his family was very distant from each other.  Now his mother and father required the family to pray at meals and say a Rosary every evening.  And since that point, he was amazed how the power of prayer joined his normally separated family. 

My favorite part of the homily, though, was the fact that he encouraged the children to go home and ask their family to pray together.  He all but said, "A family that prays together, stays together."  I really liked that he challenged our students to encourage prayer.  He made them the promise that if they invite Jesus into their family, via prayer, then Jesus will guide that family on the path to God's Kingdom, and how can anybody be upset with that path?

Fr. Cashen did something I have never heard of before, instead of discussing the origin of the prayer, he challenged us to use the prayer in our everyday life, especially at home.  One of my favorite things I do with my children each night is say prayers.  I love the fact that my children invite God to every meal we eat, and thank Him for a beautiful day at night. 

I get many compliments about my children's behavior, and before, being the gleaming and gloating dad that I am, I have always beamed with joy, and have been thrilled to hear the compliment.  One thing I never took into consideration is that my children might just be happy becasue they invite God into their lives, every day, in prayer.  I truly see the success of Fr. Cashen's words.  Well never again, will I take the credit for my children and their behavior, I give all the glory to God. 

So my challenge to you, is that of Fr. Cashen's, pray at home, with your family.  Use time in prayer to join closer together, albeit, closer to children, closer to parents, closer to siblings, whatever!!!  Use this time to invite God into your everyday things.  Invite God to be part of everything you do.  Pray together and join together, in Him.  You might just be suprised how God will touch your life and heart.