This actually came to me yesterday - I've been hard at work writing my next book, Praying Like the Early Church, but yesterday I took a day off to run some errands and have my "office hours" (which some of you know actually means I'm sitting at an Italian restaurant where no one can find me, drinking wine and reading and journaling, and thinking my thoughts, and just doing the non-work part of an author's work, and most important, not caring what time it is). Anyway, I was reading what I thought was an unrelated book, and as God often does, he pointed out to me a couple things in someone else's book that will be helpful in framing what I need to write in my own book. And this point came together for me in a way it hadn't before.
We are often told we should pray "in Jesus' name." And there is nothing wrong with that, but as I've discovered, that isn't how the early Christians prayed. That is actually a more protestant way of finishing a prayer, and I suspect it was emphasized specifically to be a replacement for the "catholic" way of ending a prayer, which is to say, the original Christian way of ending a prayer. And what is that? It's the sign of the cross. From as early as we can tell, Christians made the sign of the cross, and the words that go with it: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" - that is actually the name in which we should pray - the name of the Trinity. At least, that's the way the earliest Christians prayed. Making the sign of the cross was itself considered a prayer - a prayer for blessing, and for protection, even when the person doesn't say the words out loud, the outward sign on the body becomes not only the prayer but a proclamation of the gospel to any who might see it.
So from now on I'm going to work harder to kick the old habit of ending a prayer by simply saying, "in Jesus' name, Amen," and instead end every prayer with the sign of the cross.
(Side note - it turns out you don't need to say Amen to your own prayers. That's really for when someone else vocalizes the prayer, and then you say Amen to agree with it.)
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
St. Albert the Great - teacher and mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Original Church
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The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...
