The media might be saying that economic recovery is just around the corner, but that doesn’t seem to be reality at the ground level. I think that in this point in time, I know more people who are unemployed or underemployed than people who are fully employed. In the midst of that, we have a president who tells us to cut back while he takes his wife on a $24,000 date at our expense. Hmmm…something amiss there, wouldn’t you say?

But this blog isn’t about politics, it’s about finding God’s love and mercy amid the chaos of daily life. I think we can all pretty much see the chaos, but the love and mercy isn’t quite as transparent. Or is it?

Last night I had the great fortune to listen to a lecture by Fr. Alfred McBride. Fr. McBride spoke about St. Paul and his definition of “Church”. He also spole about St. Paul’s life and how he often worked himself past the point of exhaustion. On top of that, he had many hardships – physical impairments, starvation, beatings, imprisonment. How did he keep going? Prayer.

Simple answer, but not a simple solution. We’re all suffering with this economy and the other travesties plaguing our country. Perhaps we’re not suffering physically as St. Paul did, but we are suffering nonetheless. St. Paul found his strength in Christ, he found rejuvenation in prayer. With all that weighs on our shoulders, we might not be taking prayer as seriously as we should. Perhaps our prayers don’t rejuvenate us in the way we’d like because we’re not letting them.

Prayer was like a tonic. No, it was better than a tonic for St. Paul. He was so united with Christ that prayer sustained him through even the most difficult times. I pray, and I pray pretty hard, too. But I wonder if God’s asking me to pray deeper rather than harder.

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