The day after Epiphany

I am used to having until January 6 to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Since Christmas was on a Saturday this year and the Church calendar now celebrates Epiphany on the second Sunday after Christmas, it has come and gone and everyone has gone back to school and to work. I need to get to work myself but find myself still thinking of the faith of the three wise men who were willing to set off into the unknown to seek the newborn King whose star they had seen. I think there are many lessons to be learned from them and so will continue to use this Gospel story for my own prayer.

One book that I want to add to my list on the right is Eugene Boylan's Difficulties in Mental Prayer: A New Edition of a Classic Guide to Meditation It is published as a Christian Classic in 2010 by Notre Dame Press and I have been rereading it and finding so much wisdom in it that I need to tell you about this new edition. I first read this book years ago (it came out in 1943 and his This Tremendous Lover came out in 1946 but it was later that I read both and loved them.) When I was in Chile (probably in 1960 or shortly after) I was sent a copy of the Triduum (3-day retreat) that Eugene Boylan gave to our nuns at Duchesne in Omaha in 1960. I still have that beat up transcript as it was so helpful to me for prayer and for seeing how God wants us to enjoy life. He said that "prayer should be the most spontaneous parctice of all." He believed that each soul is different and so one experiences growth in prayer in many ways and at different levels and it is always God leading us. Here is a quote: "To seek God truly, to do His will cheerfully, to love Him wholeheartedly--that is the only way to true prayer and to true peace."