When Waking Up Takes a Heroic Effort

Dear Theophilous,

Like most people, I think the hardest moment of my day is the first. Monday to Friday (along with the odd Saturday and Sunday) we all dread it… that moment when the alarm starts blaring to start us in motion. There really must be a more humane way to start the day.

Everyday the temptation is overwhelming… the desire to hit the snooze button, or even better – just turn the alarm off, roll over and forget for a few more precious minutes that the world and its worries exists. Especially in the dark days of winter when there are still hours to go before the sun shows its shining face.

I could… very easily I could… but I don’t.

Recently I heard this moment referred to as the Heroic Moment, called such as a testament to the heroic effort that is needed to get out of bed each morning.

I have found that the amount of heroism needed to get oneself going comes down to the first thought that goes through my mind… Do I wake up saying:

Good morning God!

or

Good God, it’s morning!

The order and the tone make all the difference as to how the rest of the day is going to pan out. I also find this helps give me the push to persevere in my morning prayer life, my struggles with which I’ve written about here before.

From this point, I dedicate my day to God through Christ.

Stumbling to the kitchen, where I charge my phone overnight, I begin my morning routine with a morning offering prayer. Although there are a few different versions of the same prayer, I have gotten into the habit of using one from the Laudate app:

Oh my Jesus,

through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day.

For all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,

in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,

in reparation for my sins,

for the intentions of all my family, friends and relatives,

and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.

Amen.

I find this self-centering at the very beginning of my day sets me off on the right foot, ready to meet the trials of the day with God’s grace.

Do I meditate on my morning offering constantly through out the day? No. With the challenges that the vocations of husband, father and educator bring, I’m often pulled in many different directions, my mind occupied by daily trivialities. What offering my day to God, in its prayers, works, joys and sufferings, from the moment I awake does is give me a focal point to return to. When my mind gets sidetracked, when the daily grind starts to take its toll, when I enter into the sufferings of human life, a quick reminder that even these I have offered to God allows me to restart again, a reboot in God’s grace, so that I may persevere.

How hard life must be for those who do not have this faith foundation.

This is why every morning when the alarm blares I’m able to joyfully proclaim: God morning God!

There's a "Catholic" App for That

Dear Theophilous,

As the speed of life ramps itself up to an alarming pace, there has been a growing trend to turn even more often to technology to keep one’s self afloat – never mind being ahead of the game. Over the past couple of years, whenever one has felt the pressure of keeping up with the times, when there has been a sense of floundering in the current of the world, the answer to the problem has been a pat: There’s an app for that. A quick perusal of iTunes or the Google Play Store confirms this to be true – there is an app for everything, including our Catholic faith.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to the techno world. For the longest time I resisted the siren song of assimilation. My wife and I shared a flip-phone until only a couple of years ago, and the smart phone I have now is probably woefully out of date… but it works. Frankly, I’m sure I use my phone and laptop to about 1% of their capacity – my laptop really isn’t much more than a glorified typewriter (if you can remember what that is).

This all said, I have found that my smart phone has helped me to deepen my faith, simply because There’s an app for that. Actually, there are many Catholic apps out there, and I’ll honestly admit that I haven’t researched them all, but I have found 3 Catholic apps that I use almost daily.

Laudate

Billed in the Google Play Store as the #1 Free Catholic App, Laudate lives up to the hype. Comprehensive, yet concise, this app has it all, but is streamlined for quick and easy use. I use the Laudate app daily for my morning offering, the saints of the day, as well as for the daily readings. I have also used the app sporadically to find prayers that are outside of my daily routine, to search out particular Bible verses, the Catechism or Vatican documents, as well as for its Examination of Conscience. The app also has other features such as the Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary/Chaplet, daily reflections, Stations of the Cross, Latin Prayers, EWTN, two Bible versions (NARE, Douay-Rheims) and access to a variety of Catholic media. Like I said, it has it all. Best of all, there is a Bookmark function that allows you to keep favourite aspects of the app at the top of the home page, saving you from having to hunt them out with 3 or 4 clicks. There is also an iPad version of the app, which my students have found to be very helpful in the classroom.

Honor your Inner Monk

This app is produced the Brothers at Saint Meinrad Archabbey to help the laity develop their daily prayer life, to discover their Inner Monk. I (try to) turn to this app twice a day for the morning and afternoon prayer. The prayers are short and to the point (never taking more than a minute), and with reflection are often very appropriate for whatever is going on in my life that day. One of the key elements of this app is your prayer tracker; like the tracker on your treadmill, you can watch your red line grow as you complete your prayers each day, ending with either cheers or jeers at the end of the month. In all honesty, each month my morning bar is usually a bit longer than my afternoon bar. The Inner Monk app has some other cool features including other short Catholic prayers, which you can use to accumulate bonus accolades, as well as a series of Gregorian Chants by the monks at the archabbey.

The Pope App

Admittedly, I don’t use The Pope App very often (but a good friend of my swears by it). This app is put out by news.va and is for Francis junkies. The Pope App provides video, audio and text of just about everything the Pope does. This app goes beyond news releases and brings the user the words of Francis from his public audiences, homilies and exhortations. It is even possible to live stream Papal events or pick up his Twitter feed (@pontifex).

I have a few other Catholic apps on my phone, which I really haven’t discovered yet. Perhaps the summer holidays will give me the chance to find a new favourite, or at least an app to come back to from time to time. These include Lighthouse Catholic Media, Shalom World, and DivineOffice. I would also be very curious if you have any other suggestions of Catholic apps for my smart phone, so leave them in the combox below.