August 14, 2024

Fr. John Riccardo

Brothers and sisters: Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Ephesians 5:15-20

Paul continues to give us practical wisdom for living as a disciple of Jesus. Not only are we to be on guard against those things each of us knows can be dangerously alluring for us and lead us astray, we are to be eager to “understand the will of the Lord.” In writing this, Paul is encouraging us to trust that the Lord wants to make His will known to us. This sounds so simple, and it is, but how concretely can we do it? And, perhaps more specifically, how can leaders with their fellow laborers understand God’s will?

A few years ago, Cardinal Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the Papal Household since St. John Paul II, said something that speaks directly to this question. “The apostles and saints,” he said, “didn’t simply pray before they did their work; they prayed in order to know what to do.” Or, in Paul’s words, they prayed “to try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” Do we in the Church do this? Or have we all too often reduced prayer to a mere agenda item before we “get down to business”? Do we understand that there is no work more important than prayer? Not saying prayers, but active, engaged, attentive, listening prayer. All too often in our parishes and dioceses we can be tempted to rely on best practices or brainstorming for providing us with answers. To be sure, there can be great value in these things, but just because something works in Portland, Oregon doesn’t mean it will necessarily work in Portland, Maine. We in ACTS XXIX would humbly suggest we should stop relying on these methods and instead ask the Lord to teach us how to pray in order to know what to do in our unique circumstance, trusting that He not only knows better than anyone what we need but is more eager to reveal His will than we are to discern it.

Over the past five years now, the Lord has been teaching us in ACTS XXIX some simple ways to return to what Cardinal Cantalamessa reminds us was the common modus operandi for the saints. He has been teaching us – and we have been sharing it with as many leaders as we can – to come trustingly into His presence, with targeted questions, which create a space for Him to speak so that we can discern His will. We need to abandon our self-reliance and instead restore the initiative to God, remembering that the Church is not a rowboat propelled by the strength of the people inside, but a sailboat, propelled by the wind (i.e., the Holy Spirit) with which the sailors actively cooperate.

These questions and this way of praying was the subject of a recent podcast series we did on our You Were Born for This podcast. Space does not allow me to even summarize the series here, so I would instead encourage especially those who are leading in the Church but might not be familiar with that podcast to give it a listen and see if might not be helpful for us in making our strategic plans for the parish, school, apostolate, diocese or diocesan office.

God does not leave us alone. We don’t have to “figure this all out” by ourselves. Jesus reminds us that His sheep hear His voice (cf. John 10:27). Blessed be God! The Lord is desirous of making His will known to us in order to cooperate with Him in the extraordinary work of evangelization and recreation. May we be ever more eager to know that will.

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