Father Kevin’s Posts

It won’t be a surprise to learn that there are questions and topics that regularly come up in conversations I have with parishioners. These are, as the title suggests, worth repeating. I hope you’ll find this series helpful as we all seek to become better disciples of Christ.   Fr. Kevin

Fighting Against Envy and Jealousy – A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Here’s a simple prayer exercise that may help work against the temptation to be jealous of the possessions, talents, or situations of others. Your goal is to focus on what you do have rather than what you don’t, and this matters.

Envy and jealousy direct your focus to the things you don’t have and, if you consider this for a moment, you’ll realize that you won’t be satisfied even if some magic genie instantly conjured the things you want. Within days and maybe just hours, you’ll see something else you don’t have, and you’ll be back to living with envy. There will always be another thing to want.

Keeping your focus on what you have is the antidote to envy and jealousy. It is also a key to living a contented life – something we all want.

The exercise:

• As best you can, put yourself in a quiet, prayerful mindset.
• Begin to focus on God by slowly praying the Our Father.
• Then, make a long (as long as possible!) mental list of the good things you have. Include material possessions, people (past and present), experiences you’ve had, talents you possess, and anything else that comes to mind.
• When you finish your list, take a few moments to thank God and ask for the grace to appreciate those things.

Conclude your prayer with another Our Father or another short prayer that is meaningful

It won’t be a surprise to learn that there are questions and topics that regularly come up in conversations I have with parishioners. These are, as the title suggests, worth repeating. I hope you’ll find this series helpful as we all seek to become better disciples of Christ.   Fr. Kevin

 Most people think of doubt in negative terms. Some consider it a sin and while there are clearly situations where willful doubt must be avoided, more often, it can be helpful to our spiritual life.

How? First, be honest about your doubts. Sweeping them under the proverbial rug isn’t a long-term solution.

Second, be patient with yourself. There isn’t a magic switch or special pixie dust that will instantly resolve all your doubts. Faith is a journey and for most people resolving the difficult parts of our faith takes time.

Third, be like the people in the Bible and Saints who also struggled to believe. Habakkuk is one of my favorites. Our first reading is from the book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk is a prophet of God who lived around 600BC. The Bible book that bears his name is just three chapters long and can be read in a few minutes. Habakkuk foresees the Babylonian invasion that will lead to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple built by King Solomon. While he understands Israel’s unfaithfulness and the need for God to do something, the prophet doesn’t understand why God is using the Babylonians as the instrument of punishment. They are, in Habakkuk’s opinion, a wicked people. How can a holy God be associated with them?

A Bible commentary will help in following the back and forth between God and Habakkuk. To a degree, God offers an explanation. “Look over the nations and see! Be utterly amazed! For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe, were it told” (Hk. 1:5). But it seems to fall short of what the prophet needs and that’s where we can share in his struggle.

The best part of the short book is at the end when Habakkuk offers a prayer to God. He begins by remembering what God has done in the past and then, with his doubts far from settled, he writes this:

For though the fig tree does not blossom,

and no fruit appears on the vine,

Though the yield of the olive fails

and the terraces produce no nourishment,

Though the flocks disappear from the fold

and there is no herd in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD

and exult in my saving God.

(Hk. 3:17-18)

Struggling with doubts is not something we desire. When they happen, however, perhaps we can remember biblical characters and saints who also struggled and with them say, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD.”