So, what’s struck me particularly in the last week is my terrible track record with trusting in God’s providence…I guess its human weakness and it becomes so particularly obvious when things work out (as they always do) despite all the stressing, worrying and wondering what might happen. And, in my experience, things quite often work out far better than you could have imagined yourself. And if they don’t…there’s a lesson to be learned in that too. Then what the hek is it that makes it so difficult to trust sometimes?

I’d like to follow up a little bit on the post about adoration and learning about catholic stuff we never knew about. I’m another one of those cases – I could probably count on two hands the number of rosaries I said in my entire childhood – it just wasn’t something I learnt or knew that well. Adoration just kinda weirded me out if I saw it because I wasn’t sure what it was.

But I find myself fascinated by the fact that such forms of prayer have persisted for so long – surely there’s something that draws people (hmm, like maybe the Eucharist?…) to each of these means of connecting with God. I think, in terms of learning more about these things, I’ve tried to seek out people who I feel like I relate to particularly well, who incidentally have made such prayer forms a habit – they’re a bit of a mediator between you and this unknown-but-should-be-familiar concept. And of course, there’s no substitute for just giving it a go…getting used to adoration is no overnight concept, especially if you were like me and raised on the staples of lots of praise’n'worship and an admiration for the ‘cool church down the road with the healer guy’. Learning to appreciate these different things in balance has taken time and is never a finished process, but its something I’m grateful for.

Otherwise, what really makes us Catholic? If we don’t find our focus in the eucharist and the eucharistic sacrifice, then are we aware that we are Catholic? If this sounds somewhat arrogant or narrow (not sure…maybe…) I apologise. I hope it makes some kind of sense. When people say they’re not really ‘into’ ‘things like adoration’, its kind of like saying ‘I’m not really ‘into’ eating protein’ – well that’s nice, but are you really going to be nourished without protein? I’m convinced that they’re ‘not really into it’ simply because no one they trust has taken their hand and made it a familiar and normal practice of one’s prayer life. I can say this because that used to be me. I don’t mean it in a judgemental way, but in the sense that one can logically deduce that if I am Catholic, and the cornerstone of being Catholic is to believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, then that should fundamentally shape my experience of faith.

Once again, that’s not to say that everyone who is not a staple ‘adorer’ is ‘starving’ in faith, but I am convinced that there is something truly powerful about spending time in His presence, regularly and for long enough to enter into dialogue.

P.S. Apologies for the terrible grammar, poor word usage and overall sloppiness of my post last week – 2am was not kind to me. Gracias to my other half for being so amiable as to point out these faults… :)