Mass Chaos Week 6- Brianne

Does God Receive Text Messages?

This week's readings were all about prayer - a great set up for something I've wanted to blog about for weeks. My companion on this journey, Eric, sent me a text a few weeks ago when I was having a bad day. It read:

Dear God,

please hang out with Brianne today,

she could really use your wisdom and love.

Love, Eric. kthxbai.

Not only did it make me smile, but it was a great reminder that prayer doesn't always have to be in the form of kneeling in a church, hands clasped, and eyes toward the heavens. Prayer comes in many forms.

I gave a talk about a year ago at The First Act - a contemporary Eucharistic Adoration at St. James [insert shameless plug here] about the topic of prayer. Though I don't remember most of it, I do remember I spoke about the value of finding a way to pray that is personal. In writing my talk, I did some research. Did you know that the word "pray" is mentioned in the bible 313 times (prayed - 65, praying -20, prayer - 114). We hear about how Jesus prayed, how the disciples prayed, how not to pray... but I didn't really find anything concrete that taught me how I should be praying. So I took some time to reflect on moments when I've felt closest to God -

1. Singing in The First Act - for me, my favorite way to pray is through song. I find nothing more awe-producing than standing in front of the congregation singing one of my favorite praise and worship songs and having them all singing back at you - all of our voices raised together in collective prayer.
2. Enjoying God's creations - I love to be outside. To see a particularly beautiful sunrise, or the way the sun shines through the clouds ("God fingers" I've always called them), or feel a crisp breeze on your cheek as you look across the ocean... it is a great reminder that He created this all for us.
3. Mass Chaos - most recently, I've found so much joy in my journey with friends to deepen our faith lives and share our love of Christ with others. To wake up excited for mass is something I haven't felt in a long time... now I find myself anxious for Sunday to arrive!

I invite you this week to reflect on different ways you find yourself in communion with God - whether it be through quiet reflection, singing, sharing your faith with friends, reading the bible, meditating... or sending a text message. I believe that God has got his cell phone and I-Pad ready to receive our next text, Tweet, or Facebook status update.