Pray a new song

Katie's prayer: The Gospel according to John

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:16:00 +0000

(note: today's prayer is not going to be based off a song, but this epiphany I had was way too great to not share)

They said to him, "Rabbi" - which translated means Teacher -

I was always confused as to why the felt the need to put that in there. I mean, the whole Bible is a translation from Hebrew/Greek to English. Why keep one Hebrew word in there and then tell you what the translation of it is. Just doesn't make sense. But, thankfully for me, my questions were answered with Father's homily. Allow me to quote it here:

"As was mentioned, Rabbi is roughly equivalent to Teacher, but this rendering is only an approximation that misses part of the truth. A rabbi in Jesus' day was not a fellow who simply walked into a classroom and lectured his students for a few hours a week. To be a rabbi meant teaching your disciples by sharing your lives together. Rabbis and their disciples lived together, worked together, dined together, journeyed together. It was very much like a familial/paternal relationship. A rabbi really got to know his followers and vice-versa."

After hearing all this, I had an epiphany moment... Is Jesus your teacher or rabbi? What I mean by that: Jesus as teacher - you hang out for an hour a week, maybe more, learn a little something, but go on with your life. Jesus as rabbi - every part of your life includes Jesus. You work with Him, you dine with Him, you journey with Him, AND you hang out with Him once a week or maybe more. Your faith isn't just something that happens on Sundays, it's everyday, and every moment of every day.

I have to admit, I spent a good portion of my life with Jesus as my teacher. And sometimes, it's easy to allow myself to fall back into that trap. Jesus as teacher is the easy route, it's a challenge to have Him be your rabbi. I guess sometimes I just need that little reminder.

Katie's prayer: Jeremy Kay's "Have it All"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:08:00 +0000

Some days I feel like crying
It don't matter if it's rain or shine
I feel like my heart was broken
At least a million times

Today was one of those days. In fact, I didn’t just feel like crying... I did cry. And in fact, I’m positive that while writing this all out, I will cry again. Very recently, I’ve had some friends act not so friend like. And while I’m sure they didn’t intend to hurt my feelings, the fact is that they did. And there’s a part of me that just knows they did what they did under the assumption that I would never find out. I’m sure in the back of their minds, they probably knew that it might hurt me if I found out. So while I’m sure they really didn’t intend to hurt my feelings, in the back of their minds, they knew they were. And I think that makes it hurt worse. The fact that they knew it was wrong, yet still did it. Of course, this is all speculation since I haven’t talked to them about it yet.

The question I’m faced with now is how do I treat them when I see them next? There’s a part of me that wants to hurt them back. Sweet revenge! Another part of me wants to make them feel horribly guilty for being so crappy to me. Another form os sweet revenge! But then Jesus goes and interrupts my thoughts reminding me that revenge would be wrong. ‘Forgiveness is the right path’ He says. He’s really good about reminding me about that stupid forgiveness right after I’ve been hurt and before I’m ready to forgive. He won’t let me stay mad at people for long.

Usually He’s right. But for some reason, forgiveness just feels wrong this time. It’s like if I forgive them, then I’m giving them permission to retreat me like this again. They have to know that I know and that it hurt me and that even though I’m going to forgive them (eventually), it’s not ok to do it again. But yet, I have to somehow do all of this without being too horrible back to them.... this is going to be tough.

Dear Jesus,
I need your help. Telling me to forgive them is not going to be enough this time. I’m going to need some guidance about how to go about forgiving them.

Katie's prayer: Jackie Francois' "Your Will"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Put your hand on my shoulder
And let me know you are near
Take my hand in yours, Lord
And lead me to your will

On the way back yo Kansas City today, i popped in a lighthouse cd. I'm learning that listening to those make the drive go by a lot faster than listening to just music.
Today's talk was "The 7 deadly sins and the 7 lively virtues." Awesome talk giving me lots to think about. Made me come away feeling like a huge sinner! I've always known I was a sinner, but, I didn't think I was that bad...until today.
I think the biggest thing I pulled away from the talk didn't actually hit me until I switched over to music. This song was the first one I listened to. As I was listening to it, I realized something. One of the overarching themes in the talk was figuring out God's plan for your life and following it. It came up multiple times, but didn't really strike me as the most important thing until this song.

I think I've done a pretty good job of following God's plan so far. Granted, there have been times that I failed, but who hasn't? I think my biggest struggle now is not actually asking God what his plan for me is. It was easy when I was still in college and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. God and I talked everyday about His plan and my frustration for not knowing it yet. But now, I've got a good job that I love, got a pretty great boyfriend, life is just kinda moving along and I'm falling into this trap that it's ok. Sloth, one of those lovely deadly sins. Just because God doesn't have any big life changing plans for me (or at least, I don't think He does) doesn't mean I should stop pursuing God's will for my life.

Dear Jesus,
I'm sorry I allowed myself to become pretty slothful. I'm going to try to fix that, with Your help of course! So just let me know what You want me to do. Here I am. Waiting for You.
Amen.

Katie's prayer: New Roman Missal Service Music

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:44:00 +0000

When we eat this bread
and drink this cup
We proclaim your death O Lord
Until You come again.

Today begins week three with the New Roman Missal. Things are going pretty well. I have yet to make it through a Mass without making at least one mistake, but I'm sure that'll get better as time goes along. The one thing I've really realized is how often I'm mindlessly participating in the Mass (and thus, not really participating at all). All of the mistakes that I've made have happened when I wasn't paying attention. And my immediate realization that I messed up reminds me to pay attention. So I guess, all in all, these changes are a good thing for my spiritual life.

There is one change though, I'm still not so sure about and it has to do with the above service music. I can't remember what resource I saw it in (I'm thinking it was lifeteen's video for edge), but they made reference to the change in the Eucharistic prayers from "cup" to "chalice." "Cup" can refer to anything - the cup you used at breakfast this morning, etc. But "chalice" refers to a specific cup. Ok, I get that, I'm fine with it. But if we made the change in the Eucharistic prayer - why didn't we make the change in the service music? Why did that one stay as "cup"?

Katie's prayer: Mary Mary's "Can't Give Up Now"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:28:00 +0000

I just can't give up now
I've come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
and I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me

A few weeks ago, this was my theme song. Any time I sat down to work on NCYC stuff, I would put this song on repeat to remind me that it was almost over and I couldn’t give up. It worked, I survived and I didn’t give up. In the past 2 days, I’ve heard this song 2-3 times. Every time it popped up, I was reminded of my last minute NCYC hecticness and thanking God for helping me survive. It wasn’t until last night that I realized that maybe God was trying to send me different message from what this song meant for me during NCYC.

NCYC may be over, but my other jobs aren’t. I think there’s a part of me that just really needs a break after all the work these past few months. But Christmas break isn’t here just yet. The hard work isn’t over, in fact it’s really just beginning. I just can’t give up now.

Katie's prayer: Relient K's "Breakdown"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:15:00 +0000

I guess he can destroy everything that I enjoy.
But, I won't be the one he takes down.
No, I won't breakdown.

Tonight I had a teen confide some pretty serious stuff to me. It made me realize that you just never know what demons people are fighting. Sometimes, the news can be shocking. I think the most shocking part of tonight was realizing that a lot of the things this teen is struggling with are similar to things I struggled with in the past. It’s hurtful to know that I’m not the only one. I know what she’s feeling, and yet I don’t know what to tell her to help her. Because, really I don’t know how I helped myself get beyond it.

Tonight my prayer is donated to this teen... you know who you are. I pray that you are able to find relief from your struggles and temptations. I pray that you are able to find answers to all your “Why”s. I pray that you realize you are not a loser - even if it is God telling you that you are. Cause while God might not be wrong, sometimes our understanding of God’s voice is wrong.

Katie's prayer: Francesca Battistelli's "This is the Stuff"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:19:00 +0000

This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff, someone save me
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I've gotta trust you know exactly what You're doing
Might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use
To break me of impatience
Conquer my frustrations
I've got a new appreciation
It's not the end of the world

Tonight’s song was very providentially picked. As I was driving into work, it came on, ending right as I reached the parking garage entrance. Because I love this song, I decided to start it over again so it would be the last song I heard before heading into work (thus the song that would be in my head half the day) and then be the first song I heard when I left for work. Little did I know that right before I’d leave work, I’d get some bad news... long, long story. Longer than most of you would be interested in. And probably a story I shouldn’t put in writing for the entire world to read.

As I was leaving, I was so focused on this problem. I start my car and hear the song, strategically starting at the refrain with ‘this is the stuff that drives me cray.’ How perfect. I just started laughing. Another God-coincidence. I immediately put the song on repeat because I knew the message God was sending me would not sink in fully after listening to it only once.

Tonight's prayer is just a thankful one for the things I do have. Yes, things are far, far from perfect. There are some problems that if I think about too hard, might make me cry. There’s nothing I can do to make this particular problem better, nothing I can do to fix it. But I think the beauty of this situation (that I realized after a few times of listening) it’s ok. Things are a mess and it’s ok. There’s got to be a reason. God’s trying to teach me patience, and maybe a little about attachment to material things, and maybe even how lucky have I am to have the problem I’m having because I at least have a job. Things could be a lot worse.

Dear God, I’m still not sure your reasoning behind this. I’m still not sure I’m ok with it. Help me to realize that it’s all ok, it’s not the end of the world, and that everything will work out just like everyone keeps telling me. Amen.

Katie's prayer: LFO's "Life is Good"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:23:00 +0000

So I know what you’re thinking... LFO isn’t a Christian artist, this isn’t a Christian song. I know. But as I was driving home from work, this song came on. It reminded me of yesterday’s prayer song. And I realized that yesterday’s song (and today’s song) really went with how my life went today (see actual prayer blog below). So because of this, and after talking about it with God, I think I’m going to change how I go about choosing the song for today. Instead of choosing at random a song at the beginning of the day, I’m just going to listen to all sorts of music throughout the day, and if one really speaks to me, I’ll blog about it and pray with it. Sometimes, that may mean it’s not a Christian song. But that’s ok. The point of this blog is not to get me more familiar with all the Christian songs in my itunes, but to pray more. And I feel this way will help me to pray more songs throughout the day instead of one song over and over again. We’ll see how well it goes. (: On to today’s prayer...

life is good, life is great
life is unbelievable
life is hard, life is cruel
life is so beautiful

Again, this song was similar to yesterday’s in the fact that it talks about how horrible life is and then immediately says life is beautiful. I’m not sure if I fully understood this yesterday. Yes, I understood that no matter how life goes, God still loves me. But today challenged me to think that no matter how hard my day is, life is still beautiful. And today was a hard day. It was the final deadline for NCYC registrations, as of this morning, I was still waiting on paperwork from 2 parishes but they were supposed to drop it off before I got in. I was expecting to go in and work for maybe 3 hours.

Well, only one of the parishes had their paperwork there. 3 hours of work quickly turned into 6 hours of work. There were more bumps in the day than I expected, more headaches, and more uses of the white out correction thing. And lucky me, it’s not over. After today, a lot of my stress is gone, but there’s different stress now. Stress about hotel rooms, and late fees, and t-shirt sizes, and hard rock cafe orders, and that phone call I know I’m going to get on Monday from a mean group leader, and what if what I turned in today wasn’t perfect, and what if it doesn’t get post marked by today, and what if I somehow failed in my job. Life is hard, life is cruel.

But praise God, today is Friday, the beginning of the weekend! Tonight’s a girls’ night, tomorrow a birthday party, and Sunday night off (a rare occurrence for me)! Life is beautiful. I’m working with a bunch of Catholics on this conference, so they’ve got to be forgiving if I mess up, right? And if I did mess up something, there’s no way I messed up that bad. I just have to survive this next month and then I’ll be able to really see that life is beautiful all the time!

Dear Jesus, help me make it through this next month!

Katie's prayer: Audio Adrenaline's "Good Life"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:49:00 +0000

Tonight’s song is a little interesting. The verses talk about not getting your way, things all going wrong. Then the refrain starts with “This is the good life.” Wait...what? The good life? Going by the verses, it doesn’t quite sound like a good life. Then the bridge comes...

What good would it be
If you had everything
But you wouldn't have
The only thing you need

And suddenly everything makes sense. All you need is Jesus. Who cares if I don’t always get my way? Who cares if I'm not super rich? Who cares if I’m not perfect? God still loves me, and that’s really all that matters.

Katie's prayer: Cheer Up Charlie's "Not Moving"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:29:00 +0000

A broken heart and life that’s willing

It’s almost Honest Friday, so time for some honesty. Today is really only the second time I’ve prayed with the prayanewsong method since my last post. Continuing to pray this way without the motivation behind people will know if I didn’t pray just wasn’t happening as planned. I was actually beginning to fool myself and think that I was ok with it. That I prayed other ways. Maybe my backing away was really God’s way of telling me it was time to move on completely from the project.

Then tonight happened. Tonight I was awakened to my horrible human ways. I went to a talk on lukewarmness. If you’ve never read anything from St. John Vianni on lukewarmness, you need to - very humbling stuff. What I read made me realize that maybe I wasn’t so great with God as I’ve fooled myself to believe. Maybe I really do have lots of work to do. And at one point in the talk, the speaker was saying that the devil likes to trick us into thinking that the praying all day method is enough. A second here, a minute there, always keeping God on your mind is enough. The speaker was saying that no, it’s not enough. You need to have time every day where you sit down and you actually pray. You don’t do anything else but pray. It’s not that the praying all day, while driving, while working, while doing whatever is wrong. It’s just that by itself, it is. And that’s when it hit me... prayanewsong was my time when I sat down and prayed, did nothing but pray. And without that, I was getting trapped in the praying all day method and thinking that it was ok. Almost even to the fact that I was going to give this up completely because I thought I was just fine without it.

Well tonight’s talk gave me lots to think about with how to change my life. One of those changes, that God made perfectly clear for me, was that I needed to get back to praying and just praying daily. But I still feel the need to keep some of my prayers private. It’s going to be difficult to get back into the habit of praying while still knowing that if I don’t want to, I don’t have to post it. But as Tom Hanks says in a League of their own - It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.

Partial Good-Bye for Now

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:05:00 +0000

I’ve been struggling a while with this prayer blog. Mainly because sometimes it feels more like a blog than like prayer. More often than not, I allow the fact that others will read this prayer to invade my thoughts and it alters my prayer. Sometimes I spend way more time than necessary because while I’m pretty sure I know what God’s trying to tell me, I’m also pretty sure it’s something I want to stay between me and God. Other times, I know I’m not able to blog and because of that, I give myself reason to not pray a song at all that day because if I’m not blogging about it, then why pray it? And I hate all these thoughts. Hate them. I try my best to stop them, but they just continue to creep back. Exhibit A: tonight’s prayer is one that is something that really needs to be just me and God, not everyone else. So I’m saying Good-Bye. Don’t worry, not forever. I may occasionally post one of my prayers, but I can guarantee it’s not going to happen every week-day. Thank you all for being great friends and understanding.

Katie's prayer: Afters' "Beautiful Love"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:05:00 +0000

Maybe a greater thing will happen
Maybe all will see
Maybe our love will catch like fire
As it burns through me

Isn’t this the whole purpose of life? To love as God loves. And it will spread to everyone until everyone loves like God loves. I feel as if I’m on the verge of getting sick, and I’m re-learning that when that happens, my patience level seems to disappear completely. It’s a lot harder to love like God loves when you have no patience for people. I’m trying, I really am. But, at least with one interaction today, I felt like they could tell I was having to try. And that’s not how it’s supposed to be. People are supposed to feel God’s love through me, not my forced interactions with them.

Dear Jesus, can you please help me to feel better soon. It’s beginning to mess with love Your children.

Katie's prayer: Winans Phase 2's "Who Do You Love"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:05:00 +0000

God’s much better than mad cheddar in Jamaica 

Not going to lie, the above line (along with a few others in the song) made me giggle a little. I read it and thought that where I got the lyrics from was obviously wrong, and was all prepared to start searching again for the real lyrics. Then I started listening to the song while reading. Guess what, they actually do sing this! But as I was thinking about how totally unexpected and odd these lyrics were, and reflecting on my day I realized some things.... Sometimes your day doesn’t go as planned. Sometimes things are a little odd. But in the end, it doesn’t mean it’s all that bad. Maybe even better than you expected. Dear Jesus, thank you for another wonderful day, full of surprises.

Katie's prayer: Matt Redman's "You Never Let Go"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:28:00 +0000

I love this song! It’s my go-to song whenever I’m having troubles. No matter what the troubles are, this song is there to remind me that God is with me throughout it all. Tonight my trouble is not a metaphorical storm (like in the song) but an actual storm. See, ever since my car got totaled by that baseball sized hail, every time it rains, I kinda freak out. I get paranoid. Is it going to happen again? And tonight, there’s a thunderstorm outside. I can’t hear any hail, and chances are, there won’t be any hail with this storm at all. But it doesn’t stop me from freaking out. But like tonight’s song reminds me, God’s with me through it all. And I didn’t complain about my car this time, so there’s no reason for Him to destroy this car. Dear God, help me to stop freaking out with every little storm, the real ones and the metaphorical ones.

Katie's prayer: Casting Crown's "Life of Praise"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:49:00 +0000

I will serve You, Lord always
For You are my strength when I am weak
And I will never be afraid
For You are my rock and You protect me

This past week was a very tiring week. I went from the float trip straight into the Totus Tuus mid-summer retreat straight into babysitting. Then back to regular work after only one day of rest. I’m still not sure how I survived. Especially after all the experiences that the float trip brought this year. I mean, all in all, the trip went well. However, there were some moments... let’s just say they really need to be told in person because typing them out would not do them justice (feel free to ask if you really want to know). I think the only way I really survived, and kept my cool through it all, was because I had God with me the entire time. Helping me to be strong. Dear God, thank You for being with me, not sure if I could have made it without you.

Katie's prayer: Kutless' "Let You In"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:20:00 +0000

That's why I can't say no again

Today, I got off work at 5, was supposed to meet up with friends at 7. Because of the location of work, where we were meeting and my apartment, it was pointless to go home. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do during those 2 hours. I knew 45 minutes of it would be spent driving. I knew I’d have to stop to get sunscreen for tomorrow. But that leaves like an hour. While at the store, I had this wonderful idea - we were meeting at a Church, I could stop in their Adoration chapel and pray a little bit.

I knew this specific Church was sometimes locked up, and they had a little lock box thing so you could get in for Adoration, if you knew the code. So I texted a friend asking for the code. The Church was about a 20 minute drive from the store. Halfway there, I still hadn’t received a reply. So I started thinking of what I would do if it was locked. ‘I could just sit in my car with the windows down listening to music - yeah, that sounded good. You know, I think I might like that better.’ Immediately after having that last thought, I got the reply. I figured God must really want to talk to me.

Luckily, I didn’t need the code, it was open, and I was able to have some great Jesus time. Again, one of my better Adoration moments. I’m really glad I didn’t listen to that part of me that wanted to give up. I would have missed out on the best part of my day (no offense to those friends I spend the night hours with).

Katie's prayer: Various Artists' "Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord our God and Maker

I’m sure for obvious reasons, I can’t help but think about Adoration when hearing the above lyrics. Which then makes me think about the Eucharist. Which then turns my attention to the graduates Bible Study this Wednesday. It takes two weeks to cover the Eucharist - this Wednesday is week 1. I’m kinda sad I won’t be able to attend (Youth Group Float Trip). So tonight’s prayer is for Chris and that everything goes well on Wednesday. Tonight’s prayer is also for a teen I know from outside the parish. I was able to convince her to come to the first one, she couldn’t make last week. I’m afraid she might not come this week when she finds out I won’t be there - I mean, she doesn’t know anyone else there, has only spent like 2 hours with all of them. So tonight’s prayer is also for her, that she doesn’t find a reason to skip on Wednesday.

Katie's Prayer: Veggie Tales' "I Can be Your Friend"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:10:00 +0000

Dear God, another day and another veggie tales song and another time when I have no idea what You’re trying to tell me. Granted, it was a pretty nothing day being stuck inside all day, so I’m not sure any song would help me with tonight’s prayer. But I’m starting to wonder... do you still have a say in what the song of the day is? Did you just get lazy today (like me). (: Or maybe I’m not just not tuned in enough to understand.

Katie's prayer: Kutless' "Legacy"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:04:00 +0000

Oh the memories
Of all the things that shouldn't be

I knew I shouldn’t have done it. But how can you defend yourself if you don’t know what the opposition is saying. So I did it. I watched this “exposé” on the diocese and their “big cover-up.” So of course, now I’m in a bad mood. They only showed one side and repeated everything that’s been said over the past weeks. There was no need to do it. For some reason, they just feel the need to keep dragging this through the media. And I hate it. Yes, there were some things that shouldn’t have happened, yes, there were mistakes made in dealing with it. But is it necessary to continue attacking the Church?

Dear God, our diocese needs lots of help these days. Please, help.

Katie's prayer: Sonseed's "Jesus is a Friend of Mine"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:12:00 +0000

He loves me when I'm right, He loves me when I'm wrong.
He loves me when I waste my time by writing silly songs.
He loves me when I'm quiet and I have nothing to say.
He'll love me when I'm perfect if I ever get that way.
Whooo!

Over the summer, we do an Apologetics Bible Study for our graduating seniors. I say we, but in all reality, I mean one of our parishioners who used to be a hardcore Protestant. Tonight was my first official time doing any the teaching. Let me tell you, i was a little nervous. I didn’t want to mess up, I didn’t want to say something that was wrong, I hoped I hadn’t misinterpreted the guy’s notes, but most of all, I didn’t want to be boring. The stuff we went through tonight wasn’t the most exciting stuff in the world, and it was my job to make it a little more exciting so they wouldn’t all fall asleep on me. So yeah, I was a little nervous. (:

I have to say, things went pretty well. Thankfully, the real leader was able to be there tonight, so he was able to help me in those times when I wasn’t quite sure what I was saying. It definitely could have gone better on my part though. But here’s the good news... God still loves me. Even if I’m never perfect, God still loves me. And you know what, that’s good enough for me!

Katie's prayer: Third Day's "How's Your Head"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:24:00 +0000

Right now I've only a minute

Dear God, Tonight was another night of where I tell myself “only one more thing and then I’m going to get ready for bed, pray then sleep.” And then, ten things later, I’m finally getting off to bed to pray. And because it’s starting to get late, and now that I’ve added reading a chapter of Luke after prayanewsong and before bed, I feel like we won’t get the amount of prayer time as I would prefer. If it really only happened once in a blue moon, I’d be ok. But really, it’s happened far too many times to count and I don’t like it. I know, I know, it’s all my fault. I need to start listening to myself when I say it’s bedtime. But as with all good things I need to do, but aren’t currently doing, it’s obvious I need Your help. So, please, God, help me to be a better pray-er by listening to myself trying to be conscious of my sleepiness. Amen.

Katie's prayer: Montrell Darrett's "Oh What a Friend"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 03:43:00 +0000

You and I could recognize that we were all sinners saved by grace

So as I was driving home today, listening to KLove, the DJ mentioned a quote that caught my attention. (Sadly, I cannot find this quote anywhere, so this whole story may or may not be a hallucination.) I think it really caught my attention cause I misheard it first. The first time he read the quote I heard “If you know sin with sorrow, then you don’t know Christ.” “Silly Protestants” I thought. Then, thankfully, he repeated the quote again and I heard it correctly this time... “If you know sin WITHOUT sorrow, then you don’t know Christ.”

I’ve gotten better about liking going to Confession. But the one thing I have never been able to get used to is the examination of conscience. It always gets me so down. Tears and everything. That’s knowing sin with sorrow ... that’s knowing Christ. But as I was praying tonight, I realized something. Yes, during an examination of conscience, I know sin with sorrow, but what about when I’m actually committing the sin? What about when I have that moment right before when I can choose sin or choose good? What about that moment when my conscience hits me? Why is it only when I sit down right before going to Confession that I feel the sorrow of my sin? There’s something wrong with that.

Katie's prayer: Audio Adrenaline's "The Hairbrush Song"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 03:18:00 +0000

When I first noticed that today’s song was a veggie tales song, I began to wonder. I mean, this will be my third one since last Wednesday. I always feel like they are harder to pray with. More fun, yes, but harder. After a while, though, I realized... this isn’t a veggie tales song, this is a veggie rocks song. Same lyrics, but very different from the veggie tales version. Somehow I jumped from this thought to thinking about the different things in my life and how I should look at the same situation with a different attitude. Most recently, the situation is finding out insurance has determined my car isn’t worth fixing because the cost to fix it is higher than the car is essentially worth. The attitude I’ve been taking today (pouting) isn’t helping anything. It’s time for a change in attitude. I could go on and on with different situations where my attitude or my viewpoint needs to change, but it’s getting late and I still need to read Chapter 2 of Luke’s Gospel.

Dear God, help me to change my viewpoint as quickly and as graciously as Larry does.

Katie's prayer: Karl Zimmerman's "Epic"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:34:00 +0000

So when I saw tonight’s song, I literally laughed out loud! God has a great sense of humor!

Tonight was the first official night for Great Catholic Answers. It’s an apologetics Bible study we put together for graduating seniors. This year, it appears the attendees aren’t as familiar with the Bible. Chris (the main Bible study leader) gave everyone the challenge of reading just one of the Gospels from beginning to end this summer. God told me to go for the Gospel of Luke. As I was leaving Chris’ house, he said something like ‘go home, read your Bible and go to bed.’ In my mind, I was thinking, ‘yeah right, I’ve got to do prayanewsong still, I don’t know if there will be time, and I’ve got to be up early tomorrow. I’ll start tomorrow.’ One of the first things I do when I arrived home was find out what today’s song is... Epic by Karl Zimmerman. The first time i heard this song, I heard it described as the Bible in 3 minutes. So now, instead of continuing to pray with this song, I’m going to go read Chapter 1 of the Gospel of Luke.

Katie's prayer: Veggie Tales "Larry-Boy Theme Song"

noreply@blogger.com (katie) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:14:00 +0000

Where do you turn when this world needs a hero?

Dear Larry-Boy,
You are pretty amazing. I’ve seen all your work and love it all. Your songs, spectacular. Your outfit, very stylish. But when I try to pray with your theme song, things don’t go as great. It’s all focused on you. And really, that’s not how life should be. Where am I going to turn when I need a hero? I’ve got news for you, it’s not towards you. It’s going to be towards Jesus. And you know, He’s going to do a much better job than you ever could. Don’t worry, I still like you, I’ll still watch your shows. I just don’t think I can continue to have you in my prayanewsong play list. Thank you for helping remind me to put God first and other things second.
Love,
Katie