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I hear a symphony

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Special occasion: Year of Prayer THE FIRST TIME I went to the symphony as an adult, I went with a friend from school. We met up one evening outside Chicago’s Symphony Center on South Michigan Avenue. We navigated through hordes of concertgoers on our way up to the cheap seats, high above the stage. As the musicians tuned their instruments, I studied the program. Soon, the lights dimmed, the conductor strode onstage to applause, and the concert began. I don’t remember exactly what we heard, but it was something that felt heavy and difficult to me. Because I didn’t know much about classical music, I tried to focus on everything—the strings, the brass, the percussion, the conducting. The history! The culture! The acoustics! The more I tried to comprehend it all, the more it felt like I was missing. As music continued to fill the space, I worked harder to pay attention. By the end, I’d developed an excruciating headache, no doubt brought on by my overzealous efforts. As we exited the building, my friend—who didn’t know any more about classical music than I did—looked energized and said, “That was amazing!” I, on the other hand, was wondering where I could find some Tylenol. I admitted my difficulty with the concert and asked how he managed to enjoy it so much. He shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I just got lost in it.” Lesson learned: Comprehension does not equal appreciation. I was reminded of that experience when I learned that Pope Francis called for this year to be devoted to prayer—and, specifically, that he hoped 2024 would be a “symphony of prayer.” Francis, I thought, why a symphony?! Even today, it’s still not one of my favorite types of music. Symphony is the perfect metaphor. A symphony is greater than the sum of its parts. Each musician creates something individually beautiful and powerful—and all the musicians together, under the conductor’s direction, create something even more beautiful, powerful, and brilliant in its unity. But symphony is the perfect metaphor. A symphony is greater than the sum of its parts. It contains multiple, distinct movements that can only be fully heard when different musicians play different parts on different instruments. Each musician creates something individually beautiful and powerful—and all the musicians together, under the conductor’s direction, create something even more beautiful, powerful, and brilliant in its unity. It is something deeply mysterious. Thinking about prayer in these terms, whether we’re talking contemplative prayer, the Rosary, prayer before meals, adoration, lectio divina, individual prayer, corporate prayer, family prayer, prayers of thanksgiving or intercession or lament, you name it—they are all essential to this magnum opus. Each type of prayer, each instance of prayer, is a way to ground ourselves in our faith. It’s a way to open our lives to God. The more I’ve considered Pope Francis’ hope for a symphony of prayer this year, the more I appreciate it. But I think my long-ago symphony experience also offers a valuable lesson: We don’t need to be prayer experts. It’s wonderful if you are—you can dive right in, and you can help others to grow in their prayer life. But if you are new to prayer, or if you’re out of practice, or if you feel like you’re in a prayer rut—don’t worry. More important than knowing or performing the technicalities of prayer is a willingness to appreciate prayer and get lost in it. (If, like me, you still want to comprehend it as well as appreciate it, check out Matthew, chapter 6, or Luke, chapter 11, where Jesus teaches his followers how to pray.) In Pope Francis’ vision, of course, we are not the concertgoers—we are the musicians, and each of us has the ability to contribute to this masterpiece. Maybe you can handle the complex part of the first violin—say, a novena. Or maybe you want to crash the cymbals by offering up a spontaneous prayer or chime the triangle by making a heartfelt sign of the cross. Each of these contributions is great. We need all types of prayer to make this symphony happen. Play your favorite instrument and try something new. Who knows—maybe you were born to play the French horn! We are well into 2024 already, but we still have time to practice, practice, practice. And all this practice will prepare us for something more: the 2025 Jubilee Year, which Pope Francis is set to open on Christmas Eve. Our prayers this year will help us next year to open our hearts to God’s abundant grace and forgiveness—and will help us share those gifts with our community and our world.

Authors Heather Grennan Gary

Special occasion Year of Prayer

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The necessity of prayer

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Special occasion: Year of Prayer MOST OF US, I think, grew up learning our prayers from our parents and our religious education teachers. We memorized the Our Father and the Hail Mary and firmly imbedded them in our memory through their constant repetition in the Rosary and at church. Of course, to keep us on our toes, the church has from time to time adjusted the wording, much to the delight of some and the annoyance of others. We dropped the “thee”s and the “thou”s in favor of modern pronouns. Other prayers have gone through substantial evolution. The Act of Contrition left behind the “dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell” in favor of “just punishments,” which evolved into simply acknowledging that “I have sinned against you.” Of course that is the official version from the Rite of Penance. But many Catholics stick to the old version, or the middle version, or even mix and match selections from ALL the versions. But the Our Father, baked into the Communion Rite of the Mass, has remained essentially the same. It is the fundamental prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples, upon which all prayer is built. It recognizes God as the source of our life and all we have. It expresses our desire for the Kingdom to come and the will of God to be done in our world. It humbly asks God to sustain us and forgive us. It’s a reminder of the connection between being forgiven and forgiving others. And, finally, it asks God to keep us out of trouble and protect us from the evil that comes our way. It’s a great prayer; you really can’t beat it. And prayer is necessary for a happy life. “It is the breadth of faith,” says Pope Francis, "like a silent cry that comes forth from the heart of those who believe and entrust themselves to God.” Prayer is a form of communion like the communion of the Eucharist. Just as Holy Communion unites us with God substantially, so our prayer unites us with God in a spiritual way. Prayer is a form of communion like the communion of the Eucharist. Just as Holy Communion unites us with God substantially, so our prayer unites us with God in a spiritual way. We speak with God as we would speak with a family member or dear friend, greeting God and sharing with God our deepest concerns, our sincere sorrow, and the desires of our hearts. The prayer of thanksgiving is probably the most common prayer. We can easily thank God a thousand times a day for all the blessings we receive. Just waking up in the morning and getting out of bed is an opportunity to be thankful to God. We can thank God for our families, our friends, the beauty of the sky, the blessing of rain. We can thank God for our jobs, our work, or our retirement. It’s a prayer that needs to be practiced again and again. A simple, “Thank you, God, for my phone” every time I use it in a day is a heartfelt communion with the God who loves me so. And we’re always asking God for something. It’s a wonder that God doesn’t say, “Enough, already!” to our petitions. But God is infinite, so God can deal with all our needs all the time. Maybe what God really says is, “I’m working on it. Don’t rush me!” A beautiful prayer leaps from our lips every time we hear somebody sneeze. “God bless you!” The proper response, by the way, is not “Thank you.” It’s “Amen!” Blessings help. “Love your enemy,” Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke. “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (6:28). We can silently bless all the people we don’t like or who cause us trouble or who are mean to us. Bless the people who cut you off in traffic or who block the aisle in the supermarket. Bless them all! It can’t hurt. And it fills your day with blessings. A prayer we often don’t think about is the prayer of listening. Rather than doing all the talking (like the person you know who can’t stop yakking) we need to take the time to listen to God. After all, prayer is a conversation. And consider that the sound of God’s voice is silence, the vision of God’s face is darkness, and the experience of God’s presence is solitude. Time spent inside yourself in quiet solitude gives God the chance to love you deeply. God waits in joyful hope for our prayer. It’s God’s favorite time of the day. Make it yours, too.

Authors Father Paul Boudreau

Special occasion Year of Prayer our father Prayer

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