2012 Prayer Intentions - 7. For the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI

In the midst of my prayer life, it's easy for me to think small, to pray for direction in my life, or for consolation for friends in distress, or for the health and well-being of my family and friends, but I realized when meditating on my intentions for this year that I tend to overlook praying for the continued health, well-being, and perseverance in faith of our Holy Father the Pope.

I admit I'm not only frequently selfish, but also likely to slip into the error of thinking that our priests, religious, bishops, and Holy Father have a sort of "privileged access" to holiness that I do not have as a layman. I know this not to be the case, but it's easy for me to lose track of the truth on a daily basis.

In order to remedy that, my prayers on Saturdays of this year will be for the intentions of the Holy Father, for his continued health and bold proclamation of the Faith, and for his courageous witness to the Cross and Resurrection in a world grown cold and hostile to the message of Jesus' love and plan for man's salvation.

2012 Prayer Intentions - 6. Healing for Victims of Sexual Abuse

The abuse scandal in the Church greatly damaged Her, and alienated many of the faithful, some of whom most certainly have left the Church. In addition to that, we are seeing broader cultural currents that seek to normalize pedophilia, as well as the revelations of child abuse at institutions such as Penn State's football program, all of which indicate a need for great healing for our society.

Having had my own experiences of abuse as a child, I testify to the scars that are left: an inability to experience joyfully physical intimacy, an inability to trust others, and an abiding fear and uncertainty regarding one's own body, among other things.

My friend Dawn has a book coming out this spring on the topic of healing from sexual abuse that I eagerly await. She recommended to me a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a particularly fitting way to experience healing and love, and so it is for this that I set aside my Friday prayers in 2012.

2012 Prayer Intentions - 5. For the Angelic Warfare Confraternity

In September of 2011, I was enrolled in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity, an apostolate of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) for people in all states of life (laity, both married and unmarried; clergy; consecrated religious) who seek to grow in the virtue of chastity. Members wear a blessed cord or medal, and say a set of special prayers each day for the intentions of the entire confraternity, and they are placed in the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Since my enrollment, I have experienced a great growth in grace and particularly in the virtue of chastity that has brought me a new freedom and joy in my daily life. It is my hope that others come to be enrolled as well, and that they experience the same graces and joys that I have.

In addition to my daily confraternity prayers, I will include the members of the Angelic Warfare Confraternity in my special intentions each Thursday of 2012.

2012 Prayer Intentions - 4. End to Abortion

"Manas'seh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem....And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel....And he burned his son as an offering, and practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger." - 2 Kgs 21:1a, 2, 6

This January 22 marks the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision whereby life was determined no longer to be an "unalienable" right as described in the Declaration of Independence. In theological terms, one might compare the Roe v. Wade to the establishment of a blood cult, similar to that of the Gentile god Molech, to whom the wicked King Manas'seh and many others in Judah sacrificed their children in the valley of Hinnom (which Jesus calls "Gehenna" in the New Testament).

In the four decades since that decision, over 50 million Americans have been killed in the womb. It is my prayer for Wednesdays this year that we experience a reawakening of love for one another that leads us to end the barbaric and idolatrous practice of child sacrifice.

2012 Prayer Intentions - 3. Protection of Our Country

This year, my Tuesday intention is to pray, through the intercession of our country's patroness, the Immaculate Virgin Mary, for peace and protection, particularly in what promises to be a contentious and bruising election later this fall.

"O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

2012 Prayer Intentions - 2. Prayers for Pink Cross

My Monday prayer this year is for an organization run by a remarkable woman I've become acquainted with through Facebook named Shelley Lubben. She is a former pornographic actress who had a powerful conversion experience and now ministers to men and women in the "adult film" industry by sharing the Gospel with them through her Pink Cross Foundation.

Not only does pornography damage marriages and distort the sexuality of those who view it, it also destroys the lives of those who work in the industry, through disease, substance abuse, psychological trauma, and suicide. The performers are abused, exploited, sometimes even the victims of sex trafficking, all on top of the grave spiritual danger they and the producers and consumers place themselves in by engaging in a mortally sinful activity. It is truly a "social justice" issue, encompassing all manner of issues ranging from properly ordered human sexuality to economics to immigration.

In telling her own story, and in helping to expose the reality of the pornography industry, Mrs. Lubben has been subject to all manner of spiritual attacks. It is my hope that my prayers, united with those of the martyr St. Maria Goretti, will strengthen the Pink Cross in their mission to lead people out of the life of pornography and into faith in Christ.

2012 Prayer Intentions - 1. Find a Stable Home

Continuing on a tradition from years past, I wanted once again to state my seven daily intentions for 2012.

My first is to pray for guidance in finding a stable home, perhaps in a monastic community. After a very challenging year and an extended period of discernment, D. and I concluded that we were not heading forward to marriage, and parted on mutual and amicable terms.

Much of this resulted from a growing sense that I am perhaps being called to live a monastic vocation. In light of this, I am making my first prayer intention of the year a petition to my confirmation saint Benedict for guidance in finding a monastic community to call home. This will be my Sunday intention throughout the year.

Happy 2012!

New Year's Day in Vienna - "The Radetzky March"

2011 has passed, and all to the good. It was one of the most difficult years of my life, to be honest. Not bad per se, but very difficult, challenging, and purgative.

I'll write more about that later. For now, enjoy the music, and have a blessed New Year.

"And Sinatra became cool, and made his dwelling amongst us..."

Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

I came across this marvelous video a few weeks ago and had to share it. I love the relaxed and insouciant way in which Frank fires up a cigarette and smokes while singing.

The odd thing, for someone my age at least, is that this is the music of my adolescence and young adulthood. Although I came of age at a time when the Seattle grunge rock scene was going national with bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, I was amassing a collection of records (on LP!) by guys such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, and Frank Sinatra.

The benefit of growing up and going to public school in a city like Minneapolis was that I discovered, even then, that the best way one could be counter-cultural was to be Catholic, to be "conservative", to smoke (that most politically incorrect of habits), to drink cocktails (rather than smoke marijuana, the "natural" high), and to listen to Sinatra.

Sinatra, was "cool": a talented singer and movie actor, he embodied class, poise, and showmanship, the latter thing a seemingly-lost trait in an age of noise, distance, and flashy technology. (Listen sometime to the inviting but unsentimental banter on his "Sinatra At The Sands" live album - the intimacy of the recording holds up 45 years later. It's also amazing to realize that it was released only a couple of weeks before The Beatles' "Revolver".) The dapper suits and hats, the smoking, drinking, womanizing, the association with Las Vegas gambling (and mafiosi), made him deliciously retrograde to me, and probably offensive to my peers: not only did he smoke (egad!), drink, sleep around, call women "broads" and "dames", and hang out in Vegas, he also didn't burn a draft card or take political sides. He was pretty much everything that the hippies were not.

Ultimately, though, it was about the music. Frank, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Chet Baker, Julie London, and other great singers (including Tom Jobim), sustained me through the years when I thought it was enough to be cool.

Years later, when I realized that the only truly countercultural act was to be Catholic, I started to step away from "cool" and to seek more permanent things. The music I devour now is about 500 years older than you and me and Frank, and the Faith is older still by thousands of years. It is attractive not because it's "cool", but because it's beautiful beyond all human understanding, and because Love is irresistible and life-giving.

But sometimes, when the summer draws to a close and the sun goes down earlier each evening, and a faint chill is in the air, it's nice to sit back and take in a little cool.

"If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave."

Ken Blackwell uses the "K" word to describe the Obama Administration's proposed Health and Human Services mandates that will adversely affect all manner of Church institutions.

As New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan noted in announcing the formation of the USCCB's Religious Liberty Ad Hoc Committee,

Never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people of faith and as a service provider. If we do not act now, the consequence will be grave.

I pray for Archbishop Dolan and his brother bishops in their endeavors. He, and others such as Bishop Aquila of Fargo, Archbishop Nienstedt of St. Paul-Minneapolis, have been particularly vocal of late.

We Catholics, and other religious people of good will, are in for a very difficult time, and we will need prayers. Fortunately, we have a 2,000 year history to look at and remember, and we know that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church. We can look back and see that the Catholic anvil has blunted mighty hammers throughout Her history: Caesars, barbarian invaders, heretics, Avignon antipopes, Tudor monarchs, Ottoman invaders, Jacobins, National Socialists, and Soviet reds; She will survive the tenure of a Chicago communist street agitator and his cohort.

We must not, despite the temptation, look to hyperbole, not when Christians in the Muslim world face execution for their faith.

Regardless of how things go, we must always remember: the things of this world are passing away; this is not our permanent home, but rather a place of exile; we, and everyone else, will be called before the Lord of Eternity in judgment to answer for our faith and our deeds, and that our salvation is not contingent upon our popularity, or the amount of money or possessions we acquire, or the prominence of our work, but rather upon our faith to Christ and His Church. These are the times for which we are made, for which we are called to be Christians; these are the times in which we must at last turn to God who is our strength and our hope, and in turn, to show that faith, strength, and hope to others before it is too late.

I need to remember this, as I am frequently afraid and uncertain, and therefore I try to fix things and make them right by how I want them to be, rather than by how God wills them to be.