Brothers and Sisters,

I hope that the English language retreat in which we were able to participate  this past week helped you, if for but a moment, to draw on the “Source of the Water of Life”.

Have you ever used the breviary to pray?  If not, I urge you to consider this form of prayer.  Ultimately, this is the Prayer of the Church.  In one of the most beautiful psalms which the Church, by way of the breviary, prays on the first Sunday of the month and during every important feast, the longing for God is highlighted:  “O God, you are my God—it is you I seek!  For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, in a land parched, lifeless, and without water.” (Ps 63)  The question each of us must ask when praying this psalm is this:  “Do I really mean what I am saying?”  Each of us ought to say in spirit and in truth: “Give me this water.  I thirst for you!”   If we mean these words, if we long for God, a certain behavior will follow.  If we long for God, we will literally be praying as much as we are able.  If we long for God, we will get to know him better in Scripture.  If we long for God, we will offer up our time, in order to cross the desert of our human lives, that we might adore Him and receive Him in the Eucharist as often as possible.  If we long for God, we will try to quench his thirst for those in need.  I wish you all a blessed week!

Your priest, Fr. Paul