From the Pastor’s desk— January 26, 2025

Dear Parishioners:

Recently in the bulletin, I wrote about praying with the bible. More recently, I was in the Blessed Sacrament chapel at Holy Trinity to pray and didn’t have my bible. I thought, “how am I going to pray, just sitting here?” Now, someone more advanced in prayer than me might say sitting still with the Lord is praying! I believe that, but I still need some help focusing sometimes. That’s when I remembered a very simple acronym I learned to guide me. The acronym is ACTS and today I’m teaching it to you to help with your prayer when you want to sit with the Lord for a while.

ACTS stands for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Those are the basic types of prayer you’ll find in the Catechism. Just spend a few minutes with each of those kinds of prayers and you’ll have a full exchange with God by the end. To practice adoring, remember you are in God’s presence and think of all the things that are amazing about God. For example, he created so many wonderful things, he became one of us, and he wants to stay close with us. Saying an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be is good at this time too.

The other three are simple too. For contrition, name the ways you have sinned, be humble before God and admit to your faults, ask for his mercy and forgiveness. Thanksgiving is naming the things you’re thankful for and saying thank you to God. Supplication is naming your worries, remembering sick or suffering people in your life and asking God to send his blessing. It’s easy to pass the time with God when we’re counting our sins, our blessings, and our needs.

If you remember the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, Supplication, then you’ll always have guidance in prayer.

Fr. Joseph