20th Sunday
in Ordinary Time, 2023
“My house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples”
I talked
to the youth group when I first arrived and talked about this, and I just wanted
to reflect on this topic again. My talk
was on the top 3 sins that I have heard confessed in my 14 years as a priest,
and why none of the top 3 “sins” are actually sins.
The
number 1 most confessed sin is “distraction in prayer.” The Catechism has a BEAUTIFUL statement about
what we do when we are distracted; paragraph 2729 “The habitual
difficulty in prayer is distraction. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap,
when all that is necessary is to turn
back to our heart.”
The 2nd most confessed sin is “Lustful
thoughts”. But lustful thoughts are not
sins unless we are WILLFULLY, with our mind, ENGAGING those thoughts. The Devil is allowed to tempt us and suggest
things to us…and one of the ways he does that is through showing us lustful
things in our mind…but then once he shows us those things he wants us to think
that they are coming from US and the Devil ACCUSES us of them…and he will say
things to us in our mind “Did you really just look at your sister or that woman
or have those thoughts about the Blessed Virgin Mary…you are such a freak show…no
one has those thoughts except you!”
Saint Padre Pio wrote that he was assaulted with the
most perverted lustful thoughts, particularly during Mass and at the words of Consecration…but
Saint Padre Pio shrugged them off because he knew those thoughts came from the
Devil and not himself.
And finally, the third most confessed sin, along the
same lines as the other 2, is distraction at Mass. I get distracted multiple times during every
Mass, and if I hadn’t read the Catechism paragraph mentioned above, if I had
not read Saint Padre Pio’s writings, I would probably have thought that “I must
be the antichrist because I cannot stay focused on the prayers, and I am the
one saying most of the prayers out loud!”
But again, when I get distracted at Mass, I simply make a quick prayer “Lord
Jesus, I was distracted, I know it is not a sin, help me to refocus on you.
In conclusion, there are so many non-Catholics and
Catholics who need to hear these teachings.
Every Catholic Church is, in a special way, what we heard in our first
reading today from the prophet Isaiah…every Catholic Church is “a house of
prayer for all peoples”. I invite you to
think of 5 people in Dearborn County, Catholic or not, who need to hear these
teachings, and invite them to the adult education program that starts on Thursday,
September 14th at 6:30 at the St. Martin’s campus hall.
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