Fr. Franco's Letters

The letters PTA remind most people of a school organization that brings parents and faculty together to help with the mission and morale at a school. However, for me PTA is a set of letters that offer a pathway of discipleship: Pray, Think, Act. Following Jesus Christ first means that we have a personal relationship with Him. This means prayer. It also means learning to think the way He thinks and act in the way He acts. PTA-Prayer, Think and Act.

St. Paul captures this manner of life in a few short verses in his letter to the Philippians. He says:

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing [act] what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:6-9)

The words of Jesus in the gospels repeatedly exhort us to pray:

• Ask…seek…knock…(Matthew 7)
• He told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary (Luke 18:1).
• Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete (John 16:24).

Saints have reflected on the just how important prayer really is. St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) said, “Those who pray are certainly saved. Those who do not pray are certainly damned.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2744)

St. Paul’s exhortation about prayer also describes how we ought to pray. We are to pray about everything, with gratitude and without anxiety.

Many people find the “without anxiety” part the most difficult. Perhaps it is because many of us digest large amounts of bad news from a variety of media sources. Perhaps our fast-paced lives make us anxious. And sometimes we just plain forget who we talk to when we pray: God, who made all that is visible and invisible, who loved us completely through His Son Jesus Christ, who promised to be with us always! Whatever our root cause for anxiety is, we need bathe it in the streams of living water flowing from the heart of Jesus our Savior.

Gratitude also helps with anxiety. When we are grateful, we are expressing to God that He has been trustworthy in the past. We are saying that we know that He will be with us in the present. As Blessed Solanus Casey instructed, “Thank God ahead of time.”

The bottom line is simple: if we are going to be a disciple, we are going to need to make time to pray.

The next thing St. Paul addressed was our thought life. He instructed us to think about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and worthy of praise. The more these things occupy our thought life:

• the less anxiety can seep into our hearts
• the more gratitude will grow in our hearts
• the more we will be inspired to do good works

Lou, a 93 year old parishioner, recently shared a few thoughts with me. They touch on how a Christian should think. Lou said, “Enjoy what you have and not what you could have had…Keep a sense of humor...Laugh.” Lou jokingly said that his prayer at this stage of the game is that he and his wife do not get sick at the same time. His thinking is simple. When only one is ailing, the healthier one can care for the other one.

Part of being a disciple of Jesus is thinking along the lines of faith, having hope and anticipating how to act with charity.

Finally, St. Paul encourages us to act. “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.” Though he was well aware of his sins and faults, he was even more aware of God’s grace and mercy. And because of this awareness, St. Paul was not timid about putting himself out there as an example.

Perhaps an outline of how St. Paul was encouraging the Philippians to act is best illustrated by his own words in Romans 12. After encouraging the Church in Rome to live free of the world (vs. 1-2) and acknowledging that each member of Christ’s body had different gifts (vs. 3-8), St. Paul told those in Rome to live in a virtuous manner:

Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not growslack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. (Romans 12:9-11)

He went on to encourage hospitality, humility, forgiveness and love of enemies. These are powerful ways of acting that demonstrate fruits of Christian prayer and thinking.

As we approach the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I encourage you to follow the PTA manner of discipleship. Prayer, good thoughts and loving actions will help us fromyielding to anxiety and fear. With St. Padre Pio let us, “Pray, hope and don’t worry!” This we can do because we knowthat Jesus Christ is Lord!