Catholic Challenge

I will admit, I haven't blogged about my faith lately. I will also admit that is because I haven't been taking much time to poke the spiritual fire in my life.  It can be a chore, but one I need to focus on. I have decided to grab a book off my shelf and just read it.
I decided on A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy by Edward Sri. This has been in my bookshelf for years and it seemed like the right time to take it down.


My goal is to read this entire book during the month of May.  There are 25 parts/chapters and 31 days in May. That gives me a few days buffer.  I am not going to blog about each chapter, but there are five parts (the five parts of the Mass) and I may write some thoughts down for each part. Or, I may just give my thoughts after I have finished the book.  We'll see how this month goes.

My thoughts before reading:

• I have read a book from Dr. Sri before and it was amazing. It opened my eyes and I shared the book with my husband who was also impressed with it. 
• There is SO MUCH I don't know about my faith, and I am sure I am missing vital information about the Mass, so I look forward to learning more.
• I hope this book inspires me to get back to more in-depth study of the faith. 

Along with reading this book, I plan on saying more rosaries since it is May, the month of Mary. I want to work on rosaries with the kids, so each day before school we will say a decade of the rosary together. The Holy Heroes scriptural rosary cd's have been a favorite in the car as well. It is a small way to bring more prayer to the kids because they need to see how we live our faith daily. We say our prayers at morning, meals, and before bed, but it is so routine sometimes we do it without thinking. I hope we can be more focused this month and recharge our prayer time with the kids.

I have been so flax in prayers that I haven't opened my daily prayer box since the beginning of Lent. I am grabbing that box and keeping it on the kitchen table so that I can remember to pray every time I sit down to do something there.  It only takes a couple minutes a few times a day, but when it is out of sight, it is out of mind.

Let's rekindle the faith in our hearts together! How are you keeping your spiritual life alive?  Are you in a rut like I have been? How are you going to bring yourself out of it?a

Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which Thou hast given me,
for me, O most merciful friend, redeemer and brother.
May I see Thee more clearly,
love Thee more dearly
and follow Thee more nearly.
Amen.