Catholic Journal

An interesting anagram: dog–God. Why? Let’s consider the relationship.

Dogs and Humans

1. They look up to us (literally–as if to speak to us with their minds).

2. We actually understand them. They know how to use dog speak to tell us if they’re hungry, they want to go potty, or if they simply want to cuddle.
3. They do bad things. They eat poop. They mess on the floor. I even had a dog that chewed through my drywall in an effort to chase mice. True story. These actions are like sin because they are offenses against other (us), and they cause additional work for us (bad).
4. The additional and undesirable causes of their actions include poopy and puke clean-up from our floors (dogs like to throw-up on the rug) and drywall repair.
5. We punish them because we want them to act better.
6. They often learn from their punishments and become easier to live with.
7. We forgive them and continue to love them.

These cute, little dogs are very much loved by their owner in spite of their “offenses.” The black one, on the left, is the one who has eaten through drywall, destroyed moldings, and did other interesting things that made me want to pull my hair out.

Humans and God

1. We look up to God and speak with him in prayer, whether it be audible or silent.

2. God understands us.
3. We do bad things. We act in selfish ways, do things that we think only affects us, and often make the same mistakes over and over again.
4. The additional and undesirable causes of our actions include pain and suffering for others. We cause a sense of loss for others and our ourselves.
5. God punished us in the Old Testament and required actions for atonement–reconciling with Him. The purpose of these actions was to bring us closer to God by giving us a way to find closure with our sins. Guilt is a roadblock to God. God gave us Jesus Christ so we would not have to adhere to the old covenant to absolve our sins, but repentance and acts are still recognized as ways to achieve closure so we can move forward with a spiritual relationship with God.
6. We [hopefully] learn from our past sins and strive to become better people.
7. God forgives us and continues to love us. It is important to note that not forgiving ourselves demonstrates a lack of faith in God’s ability to forgive us. This does not mean that we must “get over it” in a short period of time, because reconciliation is a process, but we should not be carrying guilt for something that was done 20 years ago.

I numbered the points in the above lists so you can see the similarities in the relationships between dogs and humans, and humans and God. The dog–human relationship is an excellent, real-life, easy-to-understand example of God’s relationship with us.

Ash Wednesday

Many of us went to Ash Wednesday services, last night. We received ashes on our forehead in the form of a cross. The ashes are mixed with chrism oil that is scented with balsam, a sweet-smelling perfume.

Every year, on Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter Sunday, the bishop blesses olive oil and distributes it to representatives from each parish. The representatives return to the parish with the holy oils (three bottles for different occasions) that are used throughout the coming year.

Ash Wednesday signifies the beginning of Lent. For those who have fallen away from prayer and the church, this is an excellent and obvious starting point to work towards rebuilding our prayer life. Our church communities are always eager to welcome back parishioners as well as new Catholics, any day; but we sometimes need an obvious starting point for ourselves. It is symbolic of starting a new book and allows us to put aside our past so we can further our spiritual relationship with God. Dog–God.

The Angelus is a prayer that is traditionally said three times per day: morning, noon, and evening.

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

When I actually take the time to pray, I like the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. Those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours pray a cycle of psalms, Bible readings, and other writings. There are prayers for nearly every “hour” of the day:

• Office of Readings

• Morning Prayer
• Mid-Morning Prayer
• Midday Prayer
• Mid-Afternoon Prayer
• Evening Prayer
• Night Prayer

Christian Prayer is an abbreviated version of the Liturgy of the Hours that guides one through a less comprehensive version of the Office of Readings, and through the Morning, Daytime, Evening, and Night Prayers. There is a bit of a learning curve for using this book, but once one figures out how to use the calendar, it is actually quite easy.

I highly recommend purchasing ribbons for the book. I have seven ribbons that mark the following:

• General Principles and The Celebration of the Hours

• The appropriate page in the Common Proper or Proper of Seasons; for example, this past week has followed the fifth Sunday in ordinary time, so I placed a ribbon in that spot in the Common Proper
• Ordinary, p. 686, which contains instructions, antiphons, and prayers for the Morning and Evening Prayers
• The appropriate spot in The Four-Week Psalter; the page in the Proper of Seasons (see the second bullet, above) tells the reader which week to use in the Psalter, which is further divided into days for each week
• The appropriate page for the Daytime Prayer; this is easy to find because Christian Prayer only gives a one-week listing for these prayers
• The appropriate page for Night Prayer, which is also only a one-week cycle
• The appropriate page for the Office of Readings, which follows the four-week Psalter schedule as designated by the Common Proper or Proper of Seasons


Christian Prayer is not designed to be an extensive guide to the Office of Readings. In fact, the entire Liturgy of the Hours is a four-volume set. Christian Prayer is easy to use and serves the purpose of assisting with daily prayer, which really is the point.

If you purchase Christian Prayer, it will most likely come with the current Saint Joseph Guide for Christian Prayer (The Liturgy of the Hours), which tells which pages should be used for each day of the year; however, I have found that it really is not necessary once you learn how to choose which parts of the book to use based on ordinary time (tomorrow is the sixth Sunday) or holidays and seasons (such as Christmas or Lent).