Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: July 21, 2019
I hope everyone made it through last weekend’s experience of almost-Hurricane Barry okay. In fact, I hope that the worst part for you was just the stress and anxiety of waiting and wondering how bad stormy conditions would get. From my perspective, I think that most people in central and coastal Louisiana know quite well how to prepare for tropical storms, but the uncertainty of “what, where and when” is frustrating. From my casual glances at social media, it looked like most people – including Yours Truly – managed to maintain their sense of humor throughout. And no one appeared to be starving to death!
Unfortunately, the storm meant a bit of a roof repair delay here. Roof-Tech, Inc., managed to finish 95% of the work replacing the rectory roof, but as I write this they have yet to start on the one above the Parish Offices. It will be good to get those ancient roofs repaired: after all, they are almost as old as “the New Bridge!”
You know, I usually find myself in a bit of a spiritual quandary when a tropical storm or hurricane looms in the Gulf. I feel a bit selfish asking the Lord to nudge it away from us! After all, it has to come ashore somewhere, and will bring misery to someone. One part of me wants to be generous and sacrificial: in other words, to be Christ-like and willing to suffer so that others don’t have to. But then of course I also think of all of the reasons I have for not suffering more at the present moment! Most of these are selfish, but often I can rationalize that there is much I have to do on behalf of the parish and its parishioners, or at the Tribunal office for persons needing its services, or for my family – oh, I’ll use just about any excuse!
I usually find the “solution” to these kinds of prayer-troubles when I stop offering so many prayers of personal petition. I need to stop being self-interested and self-centered in my prayer.
A full spiritual life of prayer also encompasses adoration and praise and thanksgiving, all of which are focused not on the self but on another – God Himself, the Big Other! And there’s also intercessory prayer, which is prayer of petition, but it’s directed not to personal benefit but rather seeks instead the good of other persons who are more worthy than me, since they are more needy and poor, more mistaken and unfortunate, and more forgotten or persecuted by others. If I have to offer prayers for myself, and I do, it’s far better that these be offered in repentance and reparation for the sins I and the groups that I belong to commit.
Hurricanes do have their uses, after all. Once the preparations are made, it’s gotten quiet both inside and outside, and it’s just a matter of time before the wind picks up and the rains come down sideways, there’s a special opportunity for prayer – all kinds of prayer and not just the kinds that could be called selfish!
Yours most prayerfully,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
