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10/21/26 The Practice of the Presence of God · Omnia Christus

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  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you the number of times that people come to me and say,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know, Father, I'm distracted in prayer.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm distracted at mass.
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  SPEAKER_00: Can't pay attention.
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  SPEAKER_00: My mind's wandering.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I thought about that in relation to this gospel where Christ says,
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  SPEAKER_00: you must be prepared at all times.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so I think when it comes to these distractions, we have to think, why, why am I distracted?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not really about.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mass, it's not about that moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's about the moment before, the hour before, the day before.
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  SPEAKER_00: How am I living my life?
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  SPEAKER_00: Am I living my life in a distracted, frenetic way?
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  SPEAKER_00: And am I rushing into things?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because if I am,
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  SPEAKER_00: then of course, when I get to Mass, I'm immediately going to be distracted, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have time.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's going to take time for me to spin down, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: If I've been spinning myself up all the time.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so that's something we have to think about.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm distracted in prayer, if I'm distracted in mass, how am I living my life?
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  SPEAKER_00: It makes me think of this little book by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection called
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  SPEAKER_00: The Practice of the Presence of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's a beautiful little book.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that was what Brother Lawrence discovered was how
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  SPEAKER_00: at every moment he could practice the presence of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it became this way of being, and that has to be our way of being.
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  SPEAKER_00: We have to have this Practice of the presence of God that we bring into every moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what prayer looks like.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about prayer this last Sunday.
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  SPEAKER_00: So we have to slow down,
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  SPEAKER_00: enter into silence,
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  SPEAKER_00: try to come early to things,
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  SPEAKER_00: try to not distract our mind with things,
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  SPEAKER_00: try to live in a lust, frenetic way, try to breathe, be present.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then if we're sort of living more in that way, well,
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  SPEAKER_00: when we come into prayer or we come into Mass,
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  SPEAKER_00: then we'll be able to bring that Well of peace that we've stored up into
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  SPEAKER_00: that moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be able to live that moment well
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  SPEAKER_00: and not just be sitting there totally distracted the whole time.