Blog
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[post_date] => 2019-08-06 01:38:12
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-08-06 01:38:12
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<p class="">Do you have a hard time falling asleep? We're sharing a few ways to pray before sleep that can make your transition into rest more peaceful. </p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“In peace I will lie down and sleep,</p><p>for you alone, Lord,</p><p>make me dwell in safety."</p><cite>Psalm 4:8</cite></blockquote>
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<h2 class="">My struggle to fall asleep</h2>
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<p class="">Sometimes, I hate going to sleep. With the threat that my seven-month-old could wake at any moment, the pressure is on to go to sleep as fast as possible.</p>
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<p class="">But often, no matter how tired I am, the moment my head hits the pillow, my mind starts buzzing: to-do lists for work, reliving moments from the day, nonsensically thinking of Christmas presents months in advance. </p>
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<p class="">I know I’m not alone in this struggle. In fact, the team at Hallow all shared how difficult it is for all of us to find peace at night. So we decided to create an entire Sleep Section — a collection of prayers that quiet our hearts and minds as we prepare to sleep. </p>
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<h2 class="">Here are a few ways to pray: </h2>
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<p class=""><em>You can find all of these prayer methods in Hallow's Sleep Section. </em></p>
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<h3 class=""><strong>Listen to a Sleep Bible Story</strong> </h3>
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<p class="">These are so calming! They help you take a breath and focus your mind on the Word of God rather than on your <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/how-prayer-helped-me-with-my-to-do-list-anxiety%EF%BB%BF/">to-do list</a>. Hallow has a variety of <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/fall-asleep-with-7-new-bible-stories/">bedtime Bible stories</a>, all taken directly from Scripture. Hear Jonathan Roumie (from <em>The Chosen</em>) read the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205-7&version=NABRE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sermon on the Mount</a>, Fr. Mike Schmitz prayerfully read <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+1&version=NABRE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John 1</a>, and more. </p>
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<h3 class=""><strong>Try an Examen</strong></h3>
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<p class="">As I mentioned above, a struggle of mine is re-living the day in a not productive way. I find myself remembering times when I wasn’t at my best or should have done something differently. But through the <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray/-the-examen/">Examen</a>, I can re-live my day and see it through God’s eyes. I can give thanks and ask forgiveness. I can let go of anything I’m holding onto and leave the day in God’s hands. And I can look forward to the next day with newfound hope and peace because I am reminded that God is always with me through prayer. </p>
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<h3 class=""><strong>Meditate</strong> with the Rosary or a saint prayer</h3>
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<p class="">This type of prayer comes in many forms — I find it comforting to pray the <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray-the-rosary/">Rosary</a> or simply sit with a prayer that a <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray-with-saints/">Saint</a> has written, such as "Be at Peace" by St. Francis de Sales. The Sleep Meditation section has a list of beautiful meditations that re-focus my mind away from busy or negative thoughts and instead fills my mind with prayer. Some of my favorites are "Rest in God's love" and "Communion of Saints."</p>
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<h3 class=""><strong>Falling asleep with Scripture</strong></h3>
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<p class="">My personal favorite prayers to listen to before I fall asleep are Hallow's Sleep <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray/-lectio-divina/">Lectio Divinas</a>. Hear God reminding you to "Be still," or imagine God leading you beside still waters through <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+23&version=NABRE">Psalm 23</a>. After you've prayed with the session, you can hold the word, phrase, or image that stood out to you in your mind as you fall asleep. </p>
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<p class="">In Hallow's Sleep Section, you'll find all these prayers, plus Night Prayer and more! We hope that these prayers are a source of comfort for you as you find rest and peace with God.</p>
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<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://hallow.app.link/blogdownload">Fall Asleep With Hallow</a></div>
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[post_title] => How to Pray Before Falling Asleep
[post_excerpt] => Learn tips to help you fall asleep in prayer.
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https://hallow.com/2021/01/11/fall-asleep-with-7-new-bible-stories/
https://hallow.com/2019/09/13/how-to-pray-the-examen/
https://hallow.com/2019/09/23/how-to-pray-the-rosary/
https://hallow.com/2021/04/06/how-to-pray-with-saints/
[post_modified] => 2022-09-09 13:12:45
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How to Pray Before Falling Asleep
Learn tips to help you fall asleep in prayer.
WP_Post Object
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[post_author] => 7
[post_date] => 2019-08-05 19:32:12
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-08-05 19:32:12
[post_content] => <!-- wp:paragraph {"className":""} -->
<p class=""><br></p>
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<p class="">I don't know about you, but I get the
greatest ideas at the most inconvenient times. For me, they usually come either
right as I am trying to fall asleep or while I am trying to listen to a homily
during mass.</p>
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<p class="">For the past few years, I have been
baffled by these consistently ill-timed, fleeting glimmers of inspiration.
Whether it's something that really needs to get done at work, an item I need to
add to my grocery list, or a random idea for a new blog post, it is always so
frustrating that none of these "brilliant ideas" come to me while I
am sitting at my desk with pen and paper in hand, explicitly trying to remember
what I need to do. </p>
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<p class="">One solution initially seemed relatively
easy and obvious to me - to simply keep a notepad on my nightstand when I go to
bed and in my pocket when I go to mass. That way, I would be ready whenever the
ideas decided to show up. </p>
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<p class="">But then the strangest thing would keep
happening. Even after I took the jump and finally bought a pocket-sized
notepad, no matter how hard I tried, I could never bring myself to actually
bring it to mass or keep it next to my bed. I now have at least 3 notepads in
the drawers of the desk next to my bed, but I still lay awake at night with a
mind teeming with random, perpetually uncompleted to-do's. </p>
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<p class="">For the longest time, I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I had a seemingly benign, but annoying problem and an overwhelmingly simple solution staring me in the face, but I just couldn't bring myself to put the two together.</p>
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<p class="">Then I went the SEEK conference in Indianapolis this past January and after our scheduled Theology on Tap speaker had some travel complications, Fr. Mike Schmitz graciously jumped in at the last minute to gave an impromptu, hour-long speech (NBD). It was, in part, about desert monks and was the most unexpectedly relatable story I had ever heard Fr. Mike tell (which, for those of you that don't know <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXS0cAkuTPpJ6j3eH59WudJhJ4q1tpwH">Fr. Mike</a>, is saying something). </p>
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<p class="">As you might expect, desert monks (in
this case the desert fathers and mothers from the first few centuries AD) live
in the desert and pray a lot, but what you might not expect is that even most
learned monks struggle with very relatable temptations. </p>
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<p class="">Lust, greed, pride… you name, they face
it. One day, one of the head monks (unofficial title) was reflecting on the
struggles of his group and in his reflections, he noted that even though each
one of the monks wrestled with different sins, there wasn't a single sin that
was a challenge for all of the monks.</p>
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<p class="">Except one - the deadly sin of Acedia. </p>
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<p class="">Acedia was the single sin that was a
consistent stumbling block for each and every one of the monks, from the
youngest to the oldest.</p>
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<p class="">You might be more familiar with modern
English transition, "Sloth," but since sloth's official pronunciation
apparently isn't the same as the lovable Australian mammal, Fr. Mike prefers to
just stick with Acedia. Fair enough. </p>
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<p class="">So what exactly is sloth and why is it
so prevalent? </p>
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<p class="">I had always thought of sloth as
laziness and that it was bad because God calls us to go out to do great things
in the world. According to my thinking, sitting around and doing nothing must
be bad, because we could and should be out doing better things: feeding the
poor, helping the sick, spreading the gospel, etc. Well that's true, but what I
learned in Fr. Mike's speech is that sloth is specifically not laziness. </p>
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<p class="">The sin of sloth is actually the act of
saying no to God's presence in the present moment. In Fr. Mike's words,
"it's wanting to doing anything other than what we are called to be doing
in that moment."</p>
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<p class="">Ok…sounds basically like
procrastination. So why is it on the list of the 7 deadly sins? How could it
possibly be that bad? Well, it's deadly because it cuts us off from the only
way we have of receiving God's grace, by loving Him and surrendering our will
to His in the here and now.</p>
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<p class="">Unlike God, who operates outside of and
beyond time, we humans operate in a physical universe and must navigate the
eternal passage of future to past. No matter how hard we try, we can't go
backward in time and we can't jump ahead (notable exceptions: Marty McFly and Tony
Stark). </p>
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<p class="">We live, love, suffer and die in the
eternal present, that ever-evaporating fraction of a second within which we can
affect the world. </p>
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<p class="">And it's in each one of those
infinitesimal seconds that God is reaching out to us, inviting us to love him.
Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but now. Each and every now, from this moment to
our last. </p>
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<p class="">Acedia then, is the act of allowing our minds to wander from the inviting embrace of Christ, to a selfish fixation on either inward thinking (i.e., saying we would rather focus on ourselves than on God) or the non-present (i.e., saying we would rather think about the past or future instead of being with God in the present). In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas it is, "<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3035.htm">sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good</a>."</p>
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<p class="">In the morning, most of the desert monks
had the support of their routine to maintain focus on God's grace in their
lives. Their work was productive and they lived with inspiration that they have
the whole day ahead of them. In the evening, their meals and their prayers in
preparation of sleep brought consolation and a time for conscious reflection.
But during the middle of the day, from ~10am-2pm, they were alone in their
huts, with the sun high and motionless in the sky, equally far from the
optimistic dreams of the morning and the safe harbor of the evening. It was
then that they faced the "noonday devil," the challenge of maintaining
focus on being with the Lord in prayer and not giving into the temptation of a
wandering mind.</p>
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<p class="">Hearing that story, I finally realized
that my ongoing struggle with unfortunately timed inspiration was actually a
targeted and persistent assault by the devil on my soul.</p>
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<p class="">Overdramatic? Maybe a little, but not by
much. </p>
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<p class="">Much like the monks, I have a morning
routine of prayer and reading that keeps me relatively focused, but once I
start my day, it's usually a never-ending onslaught of emails, calls, social
media, news, and texts. For me, "multitasking" is basically just a
euphemism for trying to juggle a bunch of balls without letting the mounting
anxiety become totally crippling.</p>
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<p class="">So by the time I go to mass, either on
Sunday or at midday during the week, I am hungry for and in need of some grace
to help lighten the load. I start to get in the zone during the opening song,
the readings being to reorient my soul back to God's will and by the time the
homily starts, I'm ready to extend a "yes" to Christ…then BOOM. </p>
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<p class="">"Wouldn't it be great if I just
spent a few hours tonight cleaning out those random 100 emails I have hanging
around in my inbox from the last few months? Yea, that would be great. I
remember that time I had a clean inbox. It felt awesome; almost as good as the
end of senior year in college when I didn't have any real responsibilities.
Man, I miss those days. … wow, wait, what's happening? Time for the creed
already? What did the priest say?"</p>
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<p class="">All it took was a little distraction, a
little nudge in the direction of falling back into the pit of anxiety that
comes with a never-ending to-do list, and I missed the message of meaning that
the priest had offered the congregation. </p>
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<p class="">The same thing happens at night. As I
get geared up to pray right before I got to bed, I have the opportunity to
benefit from a good Examen or to spend some time praying for friends and
family, but instead, that small seed of temptation to focus instead on the
unaccomplished part of my to-do list grows into full-blown feelings of despair
about lifelong failures. </p>
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<p class="">I've come to realize that it's in these moments where I have the opportunity for the largest graces, that the devil focuses his attention on trying to shift my gaze away from Christ. A simple shift to look instead to the past, the future, or inwardly toward myself, and I miss out on the true joy and peace of communion with God. </p>
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<p class="">Which brings us (finally) to the point
of this increasingly long blog post: how we can conquer our tendency toward
sloth by striving to pray without ceasing.</p>
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<p class="">While it may sound daunting to literally pray ALL of the time, thankfully the Church has given us a very simple blueprint in scripture, "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5:16-18). </p>
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<p class="">Give thanks. That's what it all comes down to. </p>
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<p class=""><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://hallow.com/blog/prayers-for-anxiety/">Prayers for Anxiety</a></p>
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<p class="">At all times for all things, we can give
thanks to God and surrender ourselves to the idea that in every moment we are
where He wants us to be. It won't always be easy and it won't always work out
the way we want it to, but He will absolutely be with us.</p>
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<p class="">By rejoicing and giving thanks for each second we are offered here on earth, we create what Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade calls the "<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UZxUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=Fr.+Jean-Pierre+de+Caussade++the+%22miracle+of+the+present+moment.%22&source=bl&ots=3RSJFhucS6&sig=ACfU3U0WjvOpsk2KvwpRMuUQGDkoPQg4vQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ-uGx0O7jAhUiyVQKHeDBCucQ6AEwBXoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=Fr.%20Jean-Pierre%20de%20Caussade%20%20the%20%22miracle%20of%20the%20present%20moment.%22&f=false">miracle of the present moment</a>." In so doing, we disarm the devil's ability to distract us with thoughts of things we wish we could have done differently or of things we haven't yet been able to do.</p>
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<p class="">Whether it's giving thanks for a freshly
grilled steak and cold beer as a moment of beauty made miraculous by its
offering up to Christ (as Fr. Mike loves to talk about) or experiencing the
pain of losing a loved one as moment surrender to His grace, embracing God's
presence in every minute of our lives is the key to everlasting joy. </p>
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<p class="">"Tomorrow is uncertain. Yesterday
no longer belongs to you, only the present is yours"</p>
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<p class="">- St. Maximilian Kolbe</p>
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<p class=""></p>
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[post_title] => How Prayer Helped Me With My To-Do List Anxiety
[post_excerpt] => Alessandro reflects on prayer, sloth, and living in the moment.
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https://hallow.com/2021/07/16/prayers-for-anxiety/
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How Prayer Helped Me With My To-Do List Anxiety
Alessandro reflects on prayer, sloth, and living in the moment.
WP_Post Object
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[ID] => 1144
[post_author] => 7
[post_date] => 2019-07-30 22:59:20
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-30 22:59:20
[post_content] => <!-- wp:paragraph {"className":""} -->
<p class="">Members of the Hallow team and I recently attended a talk by Kevin Kelly, co-founder of the <em>Wired</em> magazine, titled “The Future of Spirituality and Technology.” The hour-long discussion was fascinating and covered a wide range of topics, starting with humans creating stone tools and progressing to our current pursuit of building an artificial intelligence (“AI”).</p>
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<p class="">Looking around today’s technology ecosystem, there is plenty of buzz surrounding new, world-changing technologies: blockchain, quantum computing, and nanotechnology, but it seems like AI falls in a totally different category.</p>
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<p class="">Rather than focusing on productive potential, the conversation around AI almost always quickly becomes a discussion on ethical dilemmas and existential threat.</p>
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<p class="">As far as I can tell there are two main (and related) reasons why we are <em>afraid</em> of AI. The first is that AI is inherently uncontrollable. The second is that it could reject and try to destroy us.</p>
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<p class="">By reflecting on these fears, I realized that developing artificial intelligences can offer incredible insight into our own nature as spiritual intelligences (SIs), created by God.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>Uncontrollable</strong> – Think about how many hard decisions we face every time we drive our cars. Someone pulls out in front of us and we are going to fast to stop - and there is also another car coming in the opposite direction, so we can’t swerve out of the way. What should we do?</p>
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<p class="">Even if we as humans could figure out what the ethically “right” choice is, how do we teach it to self-driving cars that “think” for themselves?</p>
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<p class=""><strong>Rejection</strong> – Whether you have a PhD in neural nets or just have a general awareness of the Terminator movies, you have probably seen a headline alluding to some doomsday scenario caused by AI.</p>
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<p class="">The general logic goes something like this: a powerful enough AI could decide that we puny humans are simply inefficient (or worse - that we make the universe worse off through dishonesty, crime, and war) and that it’s time for Homo Sapiens to pass into the history of evolution like the Neanderthals before us.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>So...</strong></p>
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<p class="">The real issue that we are grappling with is how to deal with creating something that is uncontrollable and that could reject us as either inefficient or evil.</p>
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<p class="">Sound like any other challenge in life?</p>
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<p class="">Forget about creating artificial intelligence, how about creating natural intelligence? How about raising children?</p>
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<p class="">No matter how tight of a ship parents run, I’m not sure that a single parent in the world would ever make the claim that they can actually <em>control</em> their kids.</p>
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<p class="">Parents do their best to teach their kids how to drive, but at some point the keys are going to be in the hands of the child, and they are going to need to be the ones who decide whether they are going to obey the speed limit.</p>
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<p class="">So how are we supposed to parent? And can that help us better contemplate our relationship with AI?</p>
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<p class=""><strong>Humans as children and as parents</strong></p>
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<p class="">One path forward might be to start not with HOW to parent, but WHY we are called to be parents in the first place. Why are we as humans designed to conceive as couples, bear children that are wholly incapable of taking care of themselves, and guide them into adulthood?</p>
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<p class="">I would contest that it’s because we are made in the image of a God who is relationship, love, creation, and sacrifice. Out of the Trinity, 3 persons in one spirit, we were created by Love and imbued with that same creative nature.</p>
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<p class="">But that’s not all...</p>
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<p class="">We weren’t abandoned at birth or made to serve our creator by force. We were given free will and even after we fell, God continued to lead us down the path of spiritual development, the whole way to salvation via His ultimate self-sacrifice on the cross.</p>
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<p class="">In parenting, we are called to do the same. We do our best to demonstrate an example of love and to teach our children the best ways we know how to live, but ultimately we know they will stumble, often in the same ways that we stumble.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>The real fear</strong></p>
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<p class="">Maybe the idea of artificial intelligence is scary for the same reason raising children is scary. Children are mirrors that force us to look at our true selves - how we actually live, not the idealized facades we try to project into the world. “Do as I say, not as I do” never works as a parenting strategy, because the human mind learns by mimicking the <em>actions</em> it observes in others, not just by listening to commands.</p>
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<p class="">Just like kids, AI systems “learn” from real world data. They look at a bunch of decisions that have been made, then they look at the outcomes, and by comparing the two, they “learn” relationships and principles that they can use to navigate future scenarios.</p>
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<p class="">Maybe we are scared of AI concluding we should become extinct, because we know that the “training data” that we have created in the world might not show the best we have to offer.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>The holy, parental heart</strong></p>
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<p class="">It is in this realization then (i.e., that AIs would be our creations in the same way that we are God’s created SIs) that we understand the true beauty and real danger of pursuing the creation of an artificial intelligence.</p>
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<p class="">The beauty – by reflecting on our freedom and our history, we see how much God has loved us. Despite how consistently we have fallen, He has continually set the example of a forgiving parent, even to the point of redeeming our sins on the cross.</p>
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<p class="">The danger – overlooking the fact that the example we set with how we live our lives may very well be determining the fate of our species. Unless we follow and set the example of Christ’s love in the world, both the natural and artificial intelligences we create will stumble in the same ways that we stumble.</p>
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<p class="">We will never be perfect, but what if we use this moment in human history as a chance to reflect on God's example as the ultimate parent - loving and sacrificing unconditionally? What if we lived every day trying to teach by example so that our AI could also work to make the world a better place?</p>
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<p class="">God bless,</p>
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<p class="">Alessandro</p>
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<p class="">“By their fruits you will know them” (Matt. 7:16)<br></p>
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[post_title] => Artificial Meets Spiritual Intelligence - How AI and Faith Can Make The World a Better Place
[post_excerpt] => Alessandro examines the intersection of AI and faith.
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Artificial Meets Spiritual Intelligence – How AI and Faith Can Make The World a Better Place
Alessandro examines the intersection of AI and faith.
WP_Post Object
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[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2019-07-14 21:25:28
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-14 21:25:28
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<p class="">By Alex Jones</p>
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<p class="">The U.S. Catholic Church is dying. </p>
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<p class="">There were 426,309 Catholic weddings in 1970.
In 2018 there were 143,082. Priestly ordinations have fallen by over 35%. <a href="https://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/">Mass
attendance has been cut in half.</a> </p>
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<p class="">It's worst among millennials; they are the
least Catholic of any other generation. <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/unaffiliated-religious-nones/">One
out of every three young adults is religiously unaffiliated. The same ratio for
65+ is one in ten.</a> </p>
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<p class="">One study, called <a href="https://www.smp.org/product/5926/Going-Going-Gone/">"Going Going Gone,"</a> tried to figure out why, but they found there's no one answer. Some leave because they were hurt by the awful failings of the institution. Some reject a God who could permit evil. Some oppose the Church's stance on social issues. Some simply drift away into an increasingly secular culture. </p>
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<p class="">I was one of the unaffiliated, the former
Catholics. I was the millennial who turned atheist. And I came back. Ever
since, we’ve been working on Hallow and trying to understand how we can help
others come back to their faith. Our team has spent countless hours talking
with young and old, religious and atheist, spiritual and religious, about where
they are and what they need. The biggest thing we’ve learned:</p>
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<p class="">Religion is down. Spirituality is not.</p>
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<p class="">The percent of people who consider themselves
religious has fallen 17% since 2007. But this has not been swallowed up by
atheism and materialism. A new segment has emerged: "Spiritual but not
Religious.” <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/">Of
the 11 point drop in Religious, 8 of those have been replaced by Spiritual.</a>
</p>
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<p class="">This was me. Lost. Stressed. New to a career.
No idea what I believed. For some reason, though, deeply interested in
spirituality. Avoiding institutional religion, I turned, instead, to
mindfulness. The practice of meditation that has swept across the U.S. with the
rise of Headspace and Calm offered a seemingly secular answer to spirituality. </p>
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<p class="">But this answer always felt like it fell
short, stopping just at the edge of true spirituality. Teaching me to sit in
silence, but never inviting God. And so, I started asking: is there a best of
both worlds? Is there a way to find stillness and God? What I found - Lectio
Divina, Ignatian spirituality, contemplative prayer, the spirituality of the
Church - changed my life. They finally led me to invite God into the silence.</p>
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<p class="">Remember those numbers about mass, weddings, and ordinations? Well there's one number that hasn't dropped: prayer. In 1980, 81% of Catholics prayed each week. In 2018: 81%. The thing is, we often don't know how to pray. In our user research, the number one thing people said they struggled with most when it comes to prayer was not that they were too busy, bored, or disagreed with Church teachings. It was because praying was too hard. We don't know how to keep our minds from racing. </p>
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<p class="">This is the need. And what a perfect need for
the Church to fill as an institution that's been teaching people to pray for
2,000 years.</p>
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<p class="">Over half of our users had never heard of
Lectio Divina, the Examen, Contemplative Prayer, Imaginative prayer, or any number
of different prayer practices. Why isn't this what we lead with? Instead of
focusing on why the Church is losing people or why people are no longer
interested in religion, why don’t we focus on what people <em>are </em>still
interested in? Why don’t we lead with our spirituality? Why don’t we lead with
teaching people first to talk, and more importantly, to listen to God? If we
honestly believe what we say we do, isn't God the best evangelizer?</p>
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<p class="has-small-font-size">SOURCES: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate; Pew Research Center</p>
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[post_title] => From a Millennial to the Church: How to Win Us Back
[post_excerpt] => What if we focused on prayer?
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From a Millennial to the Church: How to Win Us Back
What if we focused on prayer?
WP_Post Object
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[post_date] => 2019-07-05 19:21:17
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<p class="">For most of the past four years, I’ve had a familiar daily work routine: prepare for work (and by that I mean stress about work), commute to and from work, cook dinner, slip in a workout here and there, get errands done, study for the GMAT and try to be in bed by midnight to do it all over the next day. </p>
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<p class="">It didn’t feel like there was enough time throughout the day for me to pray, except for my short routine of praying right before bed. I was frustrated enough to try something new, so I decided to try and incorporate prayer at different times throughout the day and while I was at it, I figured I would also try to learn different types of prayer. After trying this for a few months, I realized it ended up transforming my day in three unexpected ways: </p>
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<p class=""><strong>1. I am more thankful and appreciative</strong></p>
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<p class="">There was a Sunday about a year ago when the priest at Mass brought up Luke 9:26 during the homily in which Jesus says “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” For some reason, I forgot the rest of the homily, but that passage stuck with me. Around that time, I had visited a family friends house and they said grace before the meal. At my home we would say grace typically around a large meal such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, but not really on any sort of regular basis. That coming Monday at work with that homily in mind, I decided to not be afraid to pray in public. I did the sign of the cross during lunch and prayed to myself: “Bless me o Lord and these thy gifts which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen.”</p>
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<p class="">Taking the time to pause before eating and just say “thank you” was unexpectedly powerful. I realized that I was guilty of scarfing down food many times so I could get back to what I was doing. By taking an extra moment before I ate, I felt more engaged in the meal and enjoyed it more. After incorporating it before breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I started to feel more appreciative of not only food but other smaller things in general. I also noticed it was a form of “contagious appreciation.” On one occasion, a coworker noticed me praying and commented on how he had started incorporating it into his routine as well after seeing me doing it regularly. My family too started doing it religiously (pun intended) before each meal. I’ve found that it was a great way to keep the Lord in mind throughout the day, and it’s an easy habit to build. </p>
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<p class=""><strong>2. I have a stronger memory </strong></p>
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<p class="">I don’t have the best memory, so when I started incorporating the Examen before bed, it was a wakeup call. The Examen is a type of prayer that walks you through your day through guided reflection. It prompts you to reflect on what went well, what didn't go so well and to ask God to help you through your next day. It is a structured way to remember the important moments of the day, which to me has been incredible in helping me refresh my memory, but it has also allowed me to relive joyous moments throughout the day. </p>
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<p class="">Recently, I came back home from the summer and hugged my mom when she picked me up at the airport. That night when I prayed the Examen, that moment came back to me, which easily could have been something that was enjoyed but quickly forgotten. But I remembered the love that came with that moment and got to re-experience the joy that came with it. </p>
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<p class=""><strong>3. I feel less stressed and more present during the day </strong></p>
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<p class="">As I mentioned above, the stress of the day-to-day was getting the better of me at a pretty young age. I only realize now that a lot of it was self-imposed stress, trying to achieve more and more while taking fewer and fewer breaks. One way that helped me slow down was prayer. By taking time out of the day, I at first felt even more anxious because I had “lost” those 15 minutes by trying to pray. However, what I found was that I was more productive throughout the rest of the day than if I hadn’t stopped. The act of stopping and reflecting is so important, especially in this day and age when we want everything to happen instantaneously. </p>
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<p class="">I started by praying the “Calm” praylist within Hallow that offers a mix of prayer techniques throughout eight prayer sessions. One type of prayer available is called Christian Meditation. It focuses on helping you connect with God through silence. After a few sessions, I realized just how uncomfortable I was with silence, but by trying every day, I have been able to grow past that. Now, instead of playing another song or podcast during my commute or while I am waiting in line to board my flight, I actually enjoy sitting in silence. Finding God in those moments has helped me feel more at ease throughout the day. </p>
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<p class="">There isn't a one size fits all approach to incorporating prayer into your life, but for me, these three things helped me to deepen my relationship with my faith while also helping me find peace along the way. I hope you can take a crack at trying at least one! </p>
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[post_title] => 3 Ways Prayer Has Changed My Day-to-Day
[post_excerpt] => Bryan shares the impact of prayer.
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3 Ways Prayer Has Changed My Day-to-Day
Bryan shares the impact of prayer.
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[post_date] => 2019-06-12 06:49:35
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-06-12 06:49:35
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<p class="">Last month I had the pleasure of hearing Kevin Kelly, co-founder of the tech magazine, <em>Wired</em>, speak on the intersection of technology and spirituality. I walked away with a new perspective on the role tech does and could play in our spiritual growth or demise. </p>
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<p class="">His first point was that God, the ultimate Creator, made us in His image, which means that we have the same creative force within us. The cool thing about technology is that it allows us to create in our own way and live out the image of God even more fully.</p>
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<p class="">Well, if you reacted to this as I did, you may have thought of a million examples of technology that are not reflective of the image of God. Kelly’s response to this was that, while technology has the capacity for both good and evil, it is primarily up to the user to determines which – not the nature of the tech itself. <strong>The underlying technology itself isn’t good or evil, it’s how we use it and interact with it.</strong></p>
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<p class="">Take, for instance, the chemical DDT. Initially sprayed on plantations, DDT proved to be a severe health concern and could have easily been written off as an evil innovation. However, as Kelly pointed out, it was later discovered that when used in small doses in areas susceptible to malaria, it can be used safely to save millions of lives.</p>
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<p class="">This extends to the technology that has become so ingrained in our daily lives: computers, televisions, and, of course, smart phones. I’m afraid that, in most cases today, technology is used in a way that pulls us away from God. Beyond the explicitly harmful ways to use a computer or phone, there is also the subtler danger of constant distraction. I struggle with this as much as anyone. It can be so easy to get caught up in emails, on Facebook, or to fall into the crazy YouTube spiral of related videos. Consequently, it is not uncommon for us at Hallow to be asked “Shouldn’t we be trying to pull people away from their phones, instead of encouraging them to use them even more? How will another app help?”</p>
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<p class="">I believe the answer lies in the DDT analogy. Technology is a tool. We can either use it for harm or for good. We can use technology to video call an out-of-town friend and strengthen a relationship, or social media to find a community where we truly feel supported. In fact, I wouldn’t have even heard Kevin Kelly’s talk without technology, nor could I be sharing these thoughts with you now. With Hallow, we hope to provide a way to use our phones for growth with God. Ironically, we’re trying to use our phones as a way to step away from our phones and step towards God. You open the app, press play, put your phone aside, close your eyes, and fully and completely focus on God. </p>
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<p class="">For better or worse, technology isn’t going anywhere. I’d be shocked if people spend any less time on a computer or a phone 50 years from now. So, if we can’t get rid of technology, let’s see if we can take some small steps to change the way we interact with it. I look forward to the day that the instinct is to look at technology and see, first and foremost, an aid to spirituality and human growth.</p>
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[post_title] => Is Technology Evil?
[post_excerpt] => Erich examines how technology and faith can interact.
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Is Technology Evil?
Erich examines how technology and faith can interact.
WP_Post Object
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[post_date] => 2019-05-13 05:28:39
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<p class="">I can die happy now.</p>
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<p class="">I finally saw the musical <em>Hamilton</em> – a hip-hop rap history lesson on the life of Alexander Hamilton, one the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.</p>
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<p class="">It’s intriguing how by telling the story of any historical figure, we as the audience already know the ending of the story. (<em>Spoiler alert!)</em> <meta charset="utf-8">He/she eventually dies! Alexander’s rival, Aaron Burr, puts it best when he sings, “Death doesn’t discriminate / Between the sinners and the saints / It takes and it takes and it takes…” Death, indeed, is the one experience common to every human being.</p>
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<p class="">From the opening lines of the show, we learn that all of the odds are stacked against our main protagonist. His father left. His mother passed away. His new guardian died by suicide. With nothing to his name but poverty, death looms quite large.</p>
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<p class="">To Alexander, life seems capped with a strict limit. Facing the uncertain mystery of certain death, he’s not willing to “wait for it.” There are a million things he hasn’t done, so he works “non-stop,” fighting and writing like he’s “running out of time.”</p>
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<p class="">After all is said and won, Alexander hopes that his children will, one day, tell his story. So, with a chance to leave behind a legacy and live on after death in the words of his descendants, he’s “not throwing away his shot.”</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://hallow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/a.png" alt="" class="wp-image-763"/></figure>
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<p class="">Grasping for immortality out of fear of death has been a perennial tendency for man since the very beginning. In the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, immediately after Adam dies the first natural death, his offspring start taking whatever they can from life. They seize power and fame, security and pleasure, and eventually make themselves into “heroes of old,” “men of great renown” (Gen. 6:4).</p>
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<p class="">In response, God floods the entire earth because He knows humanity’s self-led pursuits will not lead to authentic happiness. Rather, only through acceptance of their ‘creatureliness’ – with postures of humility and receptivity to God – will they know true happiness.</p>
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<p class="">To preserve this happiness for us forever, Jesus destroyed death with his own and rose from the dead. No longer was death a reason to fear. No longer was death a limit on life. Death instead became a portal, a passage into eternal life.</p>
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<p class="">When God’s people were suffering in Egypt, enslaved to their work and burdened by death, He rewrote their story. He them free from captivity and led them out where they could rest from work in order to worship, especially on a specific day that He hallowed and set apart.</p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><!-- wp:paragraph {"className":""} -->
<p class=""><strong>God intended for Sabbath rest to be a consistent foretaste of our ultimate goal: Heaven, or "eternal rest."</strong></p>
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<p class="">The Israelites were allowed to work for six days but not on the seventh, or else they would die (cf. Ex. 31:13-16). If any man were to neglect this sacred day of rest, he would lose sight of what truly mattered and then seek after lifeless things, things of lesser or no value.</p>
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<p class="">Returning to our musical, we see how amidst politics, battles, and noise, Alexander Hamilton finally “takes a break” to rest when his wife Eliza announces the good news – the coming of their son. She reminds him, “The fact that you’re alive is a miracle,” and she provides him consolation, saying, “We don’t need a legacy / We don’t need money.” Simply being together “would be enough.”</p>
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<p class="">Nonetheless, Alexander blinds himself with busyness. He excuses himself from family time and chooses to work instead. Overstressed and isolated from his community, he looks to “be satisfied” elsewhere. He engages in a prolonged affair, and it brings death to both his reputation and his marriage.</p>
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<p class="">Alexander confronts his mortality yet again when he watches his son suffer and then breathe his last. Here, death leads Alexander properly, into a posture of stillness and silence.</p>
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<!-- wp:image {"id":764,"className":""} -->
<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://hallow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/b.png" alt="" class="wp-image-764"/></figure>
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<p class="">Now, Alexander “takes the children to church on Sunday,” and he prays; he admits, “that never used to happen before.” He also returns to his wife and stands “by Eliza’s side.” Alexander enters into these Sabbath moments to examine himself and own up to his failings. He takes a “look around,” and remembers the miracle that he exists. All of this strengthens him to seek forgiveness.</p>
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<p class="">Eliza, a character who has been faithful to rest and to her husband, “takes his hand” and restores their brokenness into a new communion. For Alexander, this reconciliation with Eliza is his equivalent of the Flood of Noah’s Ark – a clean slate, a new beginning.</p>
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<p class="">Two scenes later, Eliza calls Alexander “back to sleep;" she calls him away from work to rest. He tragically distances himself again and goes off to work instead. He slips away to duel with his rival, Aaron Burr, and what is the result?</p>
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<p class="">Alexander's ambition and pursuits lead to his untimely death.</p>
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<p class="">In contrast, Eliza continues on quietly, receptive and humble. She still does not grasp for more than her portion in life. In the final song, Eliza says, “The Lord, in his kindness / … He gives me more <em>time</em>.” She uses this time to care for orphaned children and to promote not her own story but her beloved's.</p>
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<p class="">From each Sunday lived well, peace and joy overflow into the rest of her week, and these days and weeks constitute a beautifully wholesome life. When the play ends and the curtain closes, Eliza, the only remaining Hamilton, is still alive on stage. As far as the world of theatre is concerned, <em>she</em> is the one who receives eternal life.</p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><!-- wp:paragraph {"className":""} -->
<p class=""><strong>How can we</strong><em><strong> </strong></em><strong>hallow our Sundays and take time to consider “who lives, who dies, [W]ho tells our story”?</strong></p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://hallow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/c.png" alt="" class="wp-image-765"/></figure>
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[post_title] => Hamilton, Sundays, and the Meaning of Life
[post_excerpt] => Takeaways from the musical Hamilton
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Hamilton, Sundays, and the Meaning of Life
Takeaways from the musical Hamilton
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[post_date] => 2019-04-18 14:00:59
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-04-18 14:00:59
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<p class="">Looking for great Catholic gifts for Easter, Confirmation, or just because?<br></p>
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<p class="">As I think back to the gifts that I received for Easter over the last 26 years of my life, they’ve largely fallen into one major category: bunny-shaped candy. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my chocolate bunnies (and peanut butter cups). But recently, as I’ve been thinking about Easter gifts for my family this year - admittedly it’s coming down to the wire now - a thought crossed my mind: what could I give my friends and family members that is actually related to the holiday? In other words, what gifts could I give that could help others grow in their faith lives?<br></p>
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<p class="">So I started looking around and have been pleasantly surprised by some of the amazing resources that I’ve found out there, and knew I had to share a few of the newest ones with you. I’ll keep this short and to the point so I’ll just share my top 3. <br></p>
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<p class="">First is a beautiful Mass journal called <a href="https://everysacredsunday.com/">Every Sacred Sunday</a>. Every Sacred Sunday provides the Gospel reading for every Sunday’s Mass and is complete with gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations and a place to take notes, allowing you to both better prepare for the Mass, and to respond and reflect more deeply afterwards. <br></p>
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<p class="">Second is a list of some of my favorite books. There are countless great books out there that have helped me grow in my faith life, dating all the way back to some classics written by saints hundreds of years ago such as <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Augustine-Hippo/dp/1681922843/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=confessions+augustine+our+sunday+visitor&qid=1555562300&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull">Confessions</a></em> by St. Augustine, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Interior-Castle-Teresa-Avila/dp/168192286X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=interior+castle+our+sunday+visitor&qid=1555562345&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull">Interior Castle</a></em> by St. Teresa of Ávila, and <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Mount-Carmel-John-Cross/dp/1684220351/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?keywords=ascent+of+mount+carmel+our+sunday+visitor&qid=1555562450&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr1">Ascent of Mt. Carmel</a></em> by St. John of the Cross. <br></p>
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<p class="">But new books are always coming out as well and two have even come out this very month that I would highly recommend reading: the first is <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Catholic-Gentleman-Living-Authentic-Manhood/dp/162164068X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=the+catholic+gentleman&qid=1551812263&s=gateway&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=tumbstrebook-20&linkId=070999b4b15e40525dca673380076879&language=en_US">The Catholic Gentleman: Living Authentic Manhood Today</a></em> by Samuel Guzman, and the second is <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Habits-Prayerful-People-Strengthening-Relationship/dp/1594718792/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=five+habits+of+prayerful+people&qid=1555557463&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull">The 5 Habits of Prayerful People</a></em> by Michael St. Pierre. Both of these books are extremely helpful in learning how to grow in holiness and in a relationship with God while living in today’s world. </p>
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<p class="">Lastly, as I’m sure you saw the shameless plug coming from a mile away, you can never go wrong with giving the gift of Catholic Meditation through a <a href="https://hallow.com/portal/#/gift">Hallow gift card</a>! Great news is they come instantly to your inbox after purchase, so it’s no problem if you procrastinated your shopping this year just like I did. <br></p>
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<p class="">This only scratches the surface of the huge world of wonderful Catholic gifts that exist out there, but I hope it gives you a few ideas for how we can use this time of year (or any occasion at all!) to help one another grow spiritually. If you’ve got any ideas that we missed, please feel free to leave them in a comment below! <br></p>
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<p class="">Also, I hope this goes without saying, but please don’t feel like these have to <em>replace</em> the chocolate bunny, they can always just be added on instead :) After all, Easter is a feast day and those magnificent candies aren’t exactly available year-round.</p>
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<p class="has-text-color has-small-font-size" style="color:#86898a"><em>Quick disclaimer as I’ve seen the question come up a lot for similar posts before: this is not a sponsored post, and the owners of these products were not aware that I was writing it or would be mentioning them. I do know some of the folks behind these amazing products - I find their faith and ministries truly inspirational - but wrote about them because I genuinely believe you’ll find them to be powerful aids for spiritual growth :)</em><br></p>
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[post_title] => My Top 3 Gifts for Catholics This Easter
[post_excerpt] => Hint: they all encourage spiritual growth!
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My Top 3 Gifts for Catholics This Easter
Hint: they all encourage spiritual growth!
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<p class="">I go to Adoration so I can breathe again.</p>
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<p class="">It’s easy to get lost during the day. Between the demands of a busy college student schedule, and the fallen state of my being, it’s easy to fall away from how I desire to live. Instead of being wholly present, I devolve into anxious and restless thoughts. Rather than giving of myself, I seek my own glory. In front of classmates, friends, and strangers, I close my heart to encounter.</p>
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<p class="">I desire to be free. I want to love others well. I want to receive each moment as a gift, and to respond with gratitude. I know what it’s like to encounter God. I’ve met Him, and I want to always live with the joyful awareness of His presence.</p>
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<p class="">But I cannot live with this awareness on my own. I am forgetful. No matter how many “good intentions” I set, no matter how much I seek His face, no matter how much I try to adhere to what I desire, I cannot control my reality. I can’t produce the encounter with God. I may see clearly for a moment, but it does not last.</p>
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<p class="">All it takes is something unexpected – stress, sickness, failure, distraction – and all of my plans crumble. The only thing left is my misery, my need. And in that moment, I realize that the way I can approach life is through <em>begging</em>. I must beg to be free. I must beg to be reminded of Him whom I have encountered, to know and to fall in love with Him always more.</p>
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<p class="">And the miracle is this: Christ, too is a beggar. He begs for <em>my </em>heart, just as I am begging for His. Even before I believed in Him, He was dwelling within my heart and inviting me into relationship with Him. All that He asks is that I turn to Him, show Him my need, and receive His love.</p>
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<p class="">There is no better place to encounter Him than in the Blessed Sacrament, the <a href="https://hallow.com/blog/eucharist-holy-communion-adoration-prayer/">Eucharist</a>. In front of His physical presence, I am reminded of His unconditional love and boundless grace. Through prayer, Christ invites me to surrender and to practice dependence on Him.</p>
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<p class="">And in adoring Him, I can breathe again.</p>
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<p class="">Adoration isn’t the only place I can breathe. The gaze of my friends reawakens me, too. They look upon me according to who I really am, and help me live every factor of my reality. Likewise, encounters with those who are suffering reawaken me, reminding me of my own brokenness and Christ’s mercy. Perhaps most strikingly, beauty reawakens me: I can breathe in front of a dawning sun, or listening to the soaring melodies of Sibelius’ violin concerto.</p>
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<p class="">But prayer, in particular, changes everything. Prayer – dialogue with my Beloved – allows me to live with a joy and a strength that would otherwise be impossible. Prayer cultivates my intimate friendship with the Lord, so that it is no longer just me, but Christ living through me. And here, I am truly free.</p>
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[post_title] => Why I pray in Adoration
[post_excerpt] => A reflection on the beauty of Adoration.
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Why I pray in Adoration
A reflection on the beauty of Adoration.
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<p class="">Did you know that Ash Wednesday is the most attended mass for all Catholics in the United States? And it’s not even a required mass to go to, in the way Sunday masses and Christmas and Easter are.</p>
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<p class="">There are a few theories on why this mass is so heavily attended, but whatever the reason, we go, in droves, to have our foreheads marked and to hear the words, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”</p>
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<p class="">It’s ironic that we flock to this mass in particular - <strong>because isn’t it uncomfortable?</strong> Shouldn’t we avoid this mass in favor of the joyful Easter and Christmas celebrations?</p>
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<p class=""><em>Remember you are dust. Remember you are nothing. You are speck of dirt in the grand scheme of eternity.</em></p>
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<p class=""><em>And to dust you shall return. One day you will die; we all will. And our bodies will be buried and absorbed by the earth, and then one day, we will be forgotten from all memory.</em></p>
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<p class="">Our faith is full of uncomfortable notions: God becoming a baby. Being born of a young, poor, virgin woman. Living as a carpenter who became a preacher who was killed as a criminal. The first shall be last. Love your enemies. Bread and wine becoming body and blood.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are supposed to be uncomfortable.</strong> Jesus never promised us good feelings. He never promised that we wouldn’t have any suffering. In fact, He promised the opposite - He promised that if we decided to follow Him, we would have to carry heavy crosses, we would be challenged to live lives of radical forgiveness, justice, self-giving love.</p>
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<p class="">But, Jesus also promised that He would journey with us. He would help carry our burdens, would offer us healing and forgiveness when we failed, would fill us with His Spirit and give us strength.</p>
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<p class="">So, my theory for why Ash Wednesday is so popular is that in a world that encourages us to take the easy route, to streamline our lives, to get rid of anything that is uncomfortable - <em>we long to be challenged.</em> We long to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We long to be uncomfortable, because when we are uncomfortable, we are more likely to work to change.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>For me, prayer is a time when I am often challenged to be uncomfortable.</strong></p>
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<p class="">I’m one of those people who secretly likes being upset - I often hold grudges, I enjoy being a little dramatic, I stubbornly stand my ground, even when I know I’m wrong.</p>
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<p class="">But prayer makes me get over myself. If I’m honest in prayer, I see myself clearly, and see that the way I’m acting is a bit ridiculous. Prayer makes me admit my weakness and ask forgiveness. It doesn’t let me hold grudges. It pushes me to resolve disagreements, to focus on the good from the day instead of the hard things. It reminds me that I’m not the center of the universe, but rather that I am here to love, serve, give. And it’s in that state of being uncomfortable where I am pushed to be better.</p>
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<p class="">Today we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we will return. So I’m going to challenge myself to lean into being uncomfortable. To enter into these 40 days of <a href="https://hallow.com/lent/">Lent</a> with the hope that by being honest in prayer, I will lean on God. That as I am made more aware of my imperfection, I will in turn be reminded that I need only reach out, and the God who loves us so much that He gave everything is right there beside me.</p>
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<p class=""><em>How are you hoping to be challenged this Lent?</em></p>
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[post_title] => On Ashes and Prayer: How Being Uncomfortable Challenges Us
[post_excerpt] => The unexpected reason we flock to Ash Wednesday mass
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On Ashes and Prayer: How Being Uncomfortable Challenges Us
The unexpected reason we flock to Ash Wednesday mass
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<p class="">Growing up, I hated the season of <a href="https://hallow.com/lent/">Lent</a>. I despised it. I would ask myself “Why in the world do I believe in a church that makes me give up good things for God? It just feels like one huge, antiquated guilt trip.”</p>
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<p class="">Among many things, I was an annoying pre-teen who thought he was smarter than he was. I had it all figured out at the wise age of twelve. One of these things was how absolutely useless it was to give something up on your own accord for the sake of religion. I thought that God just wanted me to be happy, and giving up chocolate certainly didn’t make me happy. It wasn’t until one of the strongest storms ever to hit the U.S. came that I realized just how foolish I was.</p>
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<p class="">It was 2005 when Hurricane Katrina obliterated the U.S. Gulf Coast. Death toll estimates range between 1,000 and 1,900 people were killed as a result of the storm and its aftermath, which caused a total estimated damage of $125 Billion. It currently is tied for being the costliest natural disaster in all of U.S. history (according to CNN). It smashed through New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, Mobile, and Pensacola on the I-10 corridor. I used to live on the coast but had moved up to Meridian, Mississippi, which was two and a half hours up from the Gulf. That didn’t stop the storm from destroying homes in Meridian and knocking out power for a grueling two weeks in my neighborhood. Since it was August, we had to contend with a violent, humid Mississippi heat, and the horse flies and mosquitos were rampant.</p>
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<p class="">Then it hit me.</p>
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<p class="">I missed the power being back on so much. I longed for it, I pleaded for it. I wanted it to be back on. I wanted to watch TV and play video games and text my friends. I wanted to be able to see in the shower and wanted most of all to have that sweet feeling of central air-conditioning again. It was then I realized that I had always had and enjoyed electricity but had taken it for granted. I was overwhelmed by a strange sense of…guilt. I felt guilty for all the times I just used the things that the power allowed me to do and accepted them as if they were just something that would always be there. It was like the saying that goes “You don’t know what ya got ‘til it’s gone” spiritually punched me in the face. </p>
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<p class="">When Lent came around, I remembered that experience and realized that by giving something up willingly, I was actively working towards being in a state that is the opposite of being ungrateful. I realized I have the power to decide to deny my desire for something, and in that moment, be reminded of why I wanted it in the first place. It dawned on me that fasting strengthens self-discipline and allows me to actually do the things that I’ve wanted to do but have been to lazy to do (work out more often, eat healthier, go to church more often, etc.) Therefore, I’ve come to see Lent and fasting in general as opportunities to “work out” the muscle of the will. In today’s age of constant gratification and plummeting motivation, the importance of fasting has skyrocketed.</p>
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<p class=""><strong>One of the most important and valuable things we have is time.</strong> A lot of people wonder what to give up for Lent. Some of the most fruitful moments I’ve had during Lent have come from giving up my time and spending it doing something else, whether that be an extra day each month volunteering in the community, going to an additional mass every week, or spending some time in adoration. This Lent, I plan to devote at least 20 minutes a day for prayerful meditation (<em>will definitely be using Hallow for it</em> :P). At any rate, I learned that I take most of what I have for granted on a consistent basis. Despite the great loss of life and pain from Katrina, it did teach me to be truly and continually thankful for things in life, especially the ones that I usually overlook.</p>
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<p class=""><strong><em>What is something that you guys have given up for a time? What are you hoping to do this Lent? Leave a comment below!</em></strong></p>
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[post_title] => What a Hurricane Taught Me About Lent
[post_excerpt] => Bryan reflects on how Katrina helped him understand fasting.
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What a Hurricane Taught Me About Lent
Bryan reflects on how Katrina helped him understand fasting.