Actually, I know a few.
There are plenty of resources out there to help spark prayerful ideas for this year, as we get ready for the 2025 Jubilee. (You can read more about that here and here.)
First, the always-enterprising Deacon Steven Greydanus has launched a Substack site, where he’s posting his movie reviews and (drum roll, please) his homilies for the Sundays of Lent — which, not coincidentally, are focusing on prayer.
An excerpt, from the First Sunday of Lent:
The way of Lent, of course, is threefold: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. Every Ash Wednesday we hear Jesus’ teaching on these inseparable, indispensable pillars of the spiritual life, prayer, fasting, almsgiving. In this Year of Prayer 2024, as I mentioned in a recent homily, we are called in a special way to prayer in preparation for the coming Holy Year, 2025.
I mentioned in that last homily one first step toward a fuller prayer life: just seeking to begin each day by offering to God, as nearly as possible, our first deliberate thought of the day. Here’s a second step forward: Do you want to pray with greater devotion? In this Lenten season, devote yourself to fasting and almsgiving. Hear the words of Saint Peter Chrysologus:
These three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer, almsgiving is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them.… If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy [to the poor]; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others.… If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry.
It’s always all about the two great commandments: love of God and love of neighbor. Fasting in the right spirit counters our tendency toward complacent self-centeredness and reminds us that we have deeper needs. Prayer reorients us toward our ultimate need for God, and almsgiving orients us toward the needs of others. Love of God and love of neighbor.
Next, the Vatican has issued a resource, available for free online, entitled “Teach Us to Pray,” available in multiple languages, which offers ways of living this year in prayer. It includes information and insight on the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, and Eucharistic Adoration.
The online introduction notes:
The booklet, inspired by the teachings of Pope Francis, is written as an invitation to intensify prayer, understood as a personal dialogue with God, and to lead readers to reflect on their faith, and their commitment in today’s world, in the various contexts in which they are called to live.
The aim is to offer reflections, ideas, and advice to help people to live their dialogue with the Lord more fully in their relationships with others. The guide is made up of sections dedicated to prayer in the parish community, and in the family, with other sections dedicated to young people, cloistered communities, catechesis, and spiritual retreats.
Finally (cough) three minor entries for your consideration (cough) from my own bookshelf:
First, there’s Befriending St. Joseph: Finding Faith, Hope and Courage in the Seven Sorrows Devotion
This little volume looks at an ancient devotion to St. Joseph, offering prayers and reflections on his life that can shed light and offer hope during our own times of sorrow and struggle. Just today, looking ahead to the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19, Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur at CatholicMom.com wrote:
Deacon Kandra encourages us to pray to St. Joseph because he can help us learn how to listen better to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives and trust in God more. St. Joseph is also a patron for those who are sent places that they would rather not go as well as for those who feel unworthy or unready for the task that God has given them.
For each of the seven sorrows, Deacon Kandra provides a Scripture passage, an imaginative retelling of the event from St. Joseph’s perspective, a reflection, questions for personal or group use, and a prayer. Each of the chapters is only a few pages. This book would be perfect to use as an at-home retreat.
An appendix includes many prayers to ask for St. Joseph’s intercession in various circumstances. As second appendix offers a prayer service based on the Seven Sorrows Devotion.
St. Joseph has much to teach us. He can also be a great source of help to us through his intercession in our times of need. His feast day on March 19 and the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 both provide an extra incentive to learn more about this important saint. Reading and reflecting on Befriending St. Joseph: Finding Faith, Hope, and Courage in the Seven Sorrows Devotion is an excellent way to do that.
The second book is my collection of prayers for deacons — though anyone can use them, really — A Deacon Prays: Prayers and Devotions for Liturgy and Life.
This book offers prayers for various times of the day, different feasts and seasons; it also features prayers to help prepare for liturgical events, such as celebrating a baptism or chanting the Exsultet. It also includes two devotions that, as far as I know, are unique: The Way of the Cross for Deacons and A Deacon’s Rosary, which is built on meditations of the Luminous Mysteries.
(Psst: this would make a great ordination gift for someone. Just sayin’.)
Several years ago, an editor contacted me and asked if I was interested in writing a book. I told her a couple people had asked me to do that, and I just didn’t have the time. I was too busy. “Great!,” she replied. “Because you’re the perfect person to write the book we have in mind!”
The result was The Busy Person’s Guide to Prayer , which seeks to make prayer a little less mysterious and a little more accessible. If you don’t think you can’t “pray without ceasing,” this slender guidebook might change your mind.
As they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. (Or, often, a single misstep.) These resources should help get you going — and, with a little time and a little grace, make the coming year one of unexpected blessings. Let us pray!
