Prayer Life

Category Archives: Prayer Life

LifeTeen.com Blog

Easter Sunday Devotional

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Listen “Oh, Great Love of God” by David Crowder Listen on iTunes Listen on YouTube Reflect Our Lord is not primarily a teacher, He is a Savior. That’s the meaning of the word “Jesus”: He will save us from our sins. Suppose we took a chalice as an example of what He did for us. Suppose the chalice were taken from the altar and made into a beer mug and delivered over to unholy uses, its shape and contour completely changed. Then it was found. How could it ever be restored Read more [...]

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Good Friday Devotional

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Listen “Nothing but the Blood” by Hillsong Listen on iTunes Listen on YouTube Reflect The new meaning that Christ gave to suffering was not so much made manifest in his death but rather in his victory over death, that is, the Resurrection. He “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25): the two events are inseparable in the thought of Paul and of the Church. It is a universal human experience: in this life pleasure and pain follow Read more [...]

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Holy Thursday Devotional

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Listen “Remembrance” by Matt Maher Listen on iTunes Listen on YouTube Reflect “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Each day the Church responds: Christ is present in the Eucharist, in the sacrament of His death and resurrection. In and through the Eucharist, you acknowledge the dwelling-place of the Living God in human history. For the Eucharist is the Sacrament of the Love which conquers death. It is the Sacrament of the Covenant, pure Gift of Love for the reconciliation Read more [...]

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How to Persevere in Your Faith

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I remember one of my first retreats in high school. I came home Sunday night on fire and ready to be a new person. It was time to change. I was going to go to Confession every week, get to mass everyday, pray the rosary every night, and read my Bible every morning. I was going to be holy. No more making fun of people, bad language, or laziness. I knew I could do it. I was inspired.

And that lasted until Tuesday. Yep. Tuesday. I had so much to learn.

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What Do I Say in Confession?

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I stepped into the confessional and kneeled down at the kneeler. The priest opened the partition and I froze. I could not for the life of me remember what to say to the priest. Luckily he sensed my nervousness and walked me through the whole thing.

Because I know that sometimes we forget what to say I’ve provided a basic structure of what you should say at the beginning of your confession. I hope it helps!

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Faithfulness: Why I Don’t Eat Cookies in Lent

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I have refused sweets many times already this Lent. I don’t refuse them because I’m scared of breaking a promise or afraid God will triple the calories for disobeying my Lenten commitment. I refuse the sweets because it’s one of the things I decided to do for Lent. I’d rather take the seemingly sad situation as a chance to run to Jesus and unite my (puny) sufferings with His. I prefer to be moved and driven by love, not fear. Remember that we are the beloved. Notice that we word beloved breaks up into be-loved.

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Catholic Advice for Every Girl

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It’s such an honor to be able to write just for you girls this time. I love being able to share with you some of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the past couple years about being a woman and being a Catholic. It took me a long time to learn these things! I hope you can put this advice to good use in your own life.

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How to Pray the Stations of the Cross

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How do the Stations of the Cross go from being just 14 images on your parish’s walls to a life-altering encounter with God?

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Being a Catholic Man: Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

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One of my favorite things about being a man is that we know everything. Or . . . no . . . wait a minute. We think we know everything. There, that sounds more like it.

But seriously, in high school I thought I had it all figured out. Why? I don’t know. Maybe it was because I got my driver’s license and drove a really cool beige minivan, or maybe it had to do with my ability to make sweet graphs on my TI-83 calculator. Perhaps my ever-increasing bench press played a role. (Ok, that last one may be a bit of a stretch.)

But yet, for some reason, I thought I knew it all. If you had a question, I had an answer. If you couldn’t figure something out, I could. And, armed with this array of knowledge, I was gonna teach the world a thing or two. That is until I started getting older and realized something: I didn’t know as much as I thought.

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Why Am I Alive?: And Other Thoughts on My Birthday

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I’ve been thinking about life a lot lately. Mostly my own, really. This past weekend I celebrated my birthday.

It was an awesome day. How could it not be great? There was a Boston Cream Pie cake, calls from all my favorite people, and Facebook notifications endlessly popping up on my phone from wall posts.

I can’t help but thank God over and over again for the gift of my life, especially at this time of year with so much talk about abortion. A lot of our generation never made it out of the womb, let alone into their 20’s. Why me?

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Fear Factor: Will You Eat Beetles in the New Year?

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What if during this new year we tried to accomplish just one or two things we’re afraid of? And not slightly meaningless things like sky-diving or beetle consumption. I mean things that have a ripple effect into eternity.

I’m afraid of wearing bright red lipstick. But I’m also afraid of seriously praying about a vocation to the religious life. I’m afraid of sushi. And I’m afraid to let go of resentment and love my enemies.

I think you can tell which ones are under the “slightly meaningless” category.

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Waiting for Joy: Christmas With a Heavy Heart

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The bus exploded. The rim of the left, rear tire flew off while we were speeding down the highway. First I heard the pop. And then I smelled smoke. The bus driver pulled over. He didn’t know it was on fire, but he had felt something. We evacuated quickly, and everyone got off safely. We tried to put out the flames, but they grew too rapidly. A loud explosion ripped through the air, and sent most of us running farther down the highway. We watched at a distance as the flames consumed the Read more [...]

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“I Boldly Beg You to Pray for Our Service Men and Women”

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I boldly beg you to pray for our servicemen and women, veterans and all their families. Christmas is the occasion when we remember the Gift of the Father to us. Each of us tries to respond by giving something we have received to those in need. Those who serve our country in uniform need and deserve our prayers.

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Do I Want Jesus or an iPad This Christmas?

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The irony of the materialism during the time of Christmas is that materialism (as well as other sins) is exactly what Christ came into the world to free us from! He came to take us away from our idols, our “false gods” in this world and long only for Him. This Christmas, let’s re-examine our “Dear Santa” list and look to Jesus. Ask yourself what you really need this Christmas.

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Why Should I Care?: The New Roman Missal

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I hope by now you’ve heard that some of the words we say at Mass are going to be changing. The english-speaking world is getting a new translation of the Roman Missal – the book of prayers at Mass.

For the past couple weeks at my parish in place of the homily we’ve been listening to a teaching on the new words. Honestly, as I sit there on the hard pew with my eyelids getting heavier by the minute, I can’t help but ask myself, “Why should I care?

The answer is simple: words matter.

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"Dear Jesus": On Mass and Adoration

You hide all your glorious splendor in order to be close to me – who can’t handle seeing or holding all that glory. I can’t believe I mean that much to you. When I receive you in the Eucharist my whole body and soul feels more peaceful. I can tell as I consume you, that your love is consuming me. I’ve never felt so close to anyone as I do to you in the Eucharist. And the best part is that it never gets old. You constantly are able to love me like I need, strengthen me for my day and speak personally to my heart. All I have to do is get out of bed and show up.

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Guess What?! I'm Praying For You.

This past Sunday my day started with a run. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone for a run or not, but you kind of get in this “zone.” It was just me, the sun, the pavement … my gasping breath (but that’s embarrassing to talk about) and my thoughts. I didn’t want to miss this quiet opportunity to chat with God, so I let Him know I was listening to whatever He wanted to tell me.

I began praying about what I should write this week and the simplest thing came to me. I felt like God was telling me to let you know that I’m praying for you. I honestly thought the idea was kind of lame (sorry, God). It seemed too basic.

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"I Have a Question!": Waiting for God's Answers

Growing up, I was the typical nerd. I was always the student in class who would raise their hand saying, “I have a question … ” (I learned quickly not to stand up, wave my hands, and yell … thanks to first grade.) I just loved asking all types of questions. I still do.

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Life Teen Summer Prayer Challenge: Week 8

This week’s Life Teen Summer Prayer Challenge is: Pray at a cemetery for the deceased. You could be the one to help others get to Heaven quicker!

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Life Teen Summer Prayer Challenge: Week 7

Here we are at week 7 of the Life Teen Summer Prayer Challenge! This week’s challenge is: Pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy every day this week. Now don’t worry, this chaplet is short and only takes a couple minutes. But gosh it’s so powerful.

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