The Good Life

Introducing 26-27 Parish-Wide Theme

The slogan, “Nebraska: The Good Life” has been printed on everything from billboards and license plates to t-shirts and bumper stickers. For many, it brings to mind the values and lifestyle for which the midwest is known: friendly, honest, hard-working and family-centered people enjoying the simple satisfactions of life. Have you ever stopped to consider what “the good life” means to you?

In the Gospels we read how Jesus defined a life well lived. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus responds, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:29)

From fall through spring, our family of parishes will be taking time to reflect on the meaning of this first part of this Great Commandment – in the school, in religious education classes, and in adult faith formation events and groups. The faith formation guide and weekly bulletins will include reflections and resources designed to help us to grow in understanding and living out the good news that leads to a good life.

This fall, we’ll focus on what it means to love God with all your heart. The Catechism tells us:

“According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. …

The heart is the place “to which I withdraw.”

The heart is our hidden center …

The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives.

It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death.

It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.”

CCC 2562-2563

God invites us into a real relationship with him, and prayer is one of the ways we grow in that relationship. So what is prayer? Turning to the Catechism again, we read that “prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. … Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him.” (2565)

In a video series on prayer, entitled, “The Heart of Prayer,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens offers us this encouragement: “The greatest joys that this world offers you are to be found in prayer. The greatest loves, the greatest peace, all the fruits of the spirit that we all desire, these come from prayer.

If we want to experience the depths of what God wants us to experience in this life we have to become people of prayer, because it opens us up to experience life the way God wants us to experience it. If God teaches you how to pray, to pray in such a way that the heart falls in love, it will change you and it will change the world.”

This week, we are highlighting resources for building a habit of daily prayer (see page 5). In the coming weeks, look for resources to guide you in learning different ways to pray, including:

• Lectio Divina (“divine reading”), or praying with scripture
• Ignatian prayer – as taught in The Heart of Prayer series
• the ARRR prayer – as taught in “The Parish as a School of Prayer”
• Relational Prayer – from the small group study “Relational Prayer”
• Eucharistic Adoration