Fr. Thomas Salazar, LC gave us not just our meditation but also the talk at last month's retreat. His meditation was on "Evangelizing" and included basic elements of a missionary spirituality that should be the subject of a separate post later. His shorter talk related to the Lord's Prayer was taken from the phrase "Hallowed be thy name," the name of God, the holy name of Jesus. What follows are my notes:
1. A name gives intimacy. "Jesus" is the name we have for the Father incarnate on earth. His name inspires love and hatred. Not just atheists disrespect God's name. We also do so when we're not living as we should, as well as by not respecting his name in the usual ways.
Do I give honor to God's name? How?
2. We should have hope, confident trust in the name of Jesus. "Call out his name...[he'll] come running." Jesus' name is a prayer in itself.
3. Fr. read an extended quote from one of C.S. Lewis' Narnia chronicles: The Horse and His Boy. He challenged us, like the boy in the book, to learn to recognize Jesus' presence and to listen to all he wants to tells us about himself, myself, his name.
December's Monthly Retreat is less than a week away: Tues., Dec. 8 at 9:30am at OLH Family Center. That's also the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. St. Bernadette, pray for us!
