July 2006
Our Spiritual Struggle

From the very first instance when the priest asks us at our baptism if we are united to and committed to Christ we begin our struggle to believe in Him as King and God. At the time of our baptism however, we probably know very little about how it can be practically worked out in our lives, and if baptized as infants as most of us are, we have extremely little rational knowledge to begin this process.

That is why it should be emphasized as a step by step process throughout our life.  Our progress in our life with Christ is an ongoing process that we cannot do alone or outside the Church. We need the Holy Mysteries, the wisdom of our Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church communicated through our Holy Fathers, the companionship and encouragement or our priests, as well as our brothers and sisters in Christ and all the prayers of the faithful.

Along with the above we should keep our Bible and prayer book by our side to help in this continual journey we undertake.  With these tools our spiritual struggle should consist of these four elements which are very essential to help us keep our pledge at our baptism to commit ourselves to Christ.  These are refusing to rely on ourselves, a profound trust in God, the realization of a constant effort, and the most important weapon of all, prayer.  If I may I would like to discuss prayer and its importance in our spiritual struggle.

Through prayer we are able to acquire the other three essential elements and use them to there fullest.  Further through prayer we obtain every other blessing of God.  Prayer is both the means for attracting, and the hand that receives all the blessings God pours out upon us from His inexhaustible supply of His infinite love and goodness.  In this struggle, it is by prayer that we put our weapons in the hand of God, so we can continue in our effort with His help.  We must make prayer our constant companion, a very natural part of our daily activity.  The progress in our life then becomes the constant operation of our committing ourselves to Christ, step by step, day by day, with the cultivating of these attitudes in our spirit and making them a very natural part of our being.  May our Lord grant us all the strength and will to continue in our struggle to commit ourselves to Him.