Disconnected

Finally! High speed interweb! If you haven't heard I did move a couple of weeks ago. We got settled in and the move went great; but when we began moving our services over to the new house we were told that we could not get DSL here! They just don't have the cables buried anywhere near us. So my family and I were disconnected to our Internet families. Thankfully the grandparents are semi-tech savy and keep their Internet.

For about two weeks or so I lost touch with many of my friends, family, and the world in general. I stopped talking to everyone, and when I did have the chance to get online my time was very limited so conversations were kept fairly short. Over time it seemed like people I knew and loved began fading back into being strangers; we just began to disconnect.

Yet, as of yesterday we have been set up with digis Internet. It it much much faster than our old connection and it's a lot cheaper too. Now I can bask in the blue/white glow of the computer screen for hours! I just finished some much needed cleaning of my e-mail box, and for any who don't know I am a faithful listener of Fr. Rodericks "Daily Breakfast". So I am way behind on his great and insightful podcast. It seems that the whole world opened back up to me. Also my friendships have grown back together and now it seems that the time apart has strengthened our "togetherness".

Also since the move I have been unable to attend mass every week. Due to work schedule problems, family, and the initial move itself. Being away from mass and the tender love it brings into my soul it feels like I have began to float away from the faith in which I had before. Lately I have noticed that my prayers have become robotic and shallow. This left a deep void in the armor of my faith.

Now life has settled down and everything is beginning to fall into the usual routine. I am planning to go to mass and be close to Jesus once more. The past few days I have been much more mindful of my prayer life; and my heart has began to rejoice in the divine love and mercy of God once more.

I find it interesting how closely related the events in my life are. How cutting off communication with the world around me isolated my heart and mind. And how cutting off my communication with God isolated my soul and left me feeling alone. It is a great lesson I'm going to take into my life from now until I die:

Prayer is the most important thing to have to be able to nurture a healthy relationship with the Lord. Without talking to him how could you expect to keep him close? Don't get me wrong though, I have experienced the times where prayer seems to be a side note and gets ignored. I have even gone through that time when prayer becomes a simple routine that falls into it's place like everything else. Your connection with God suffers even when you pray like this. It's because you begin to say the same things over and over again without using your heart or mind.

The only way you can maintain a strong healthy relationship with the Lord is to pray often and by pouring your heart into the words you offer up to him. At times it is difficult; even on late nights it may seem impossible, but it is important none the less. Through our prayer we have to cry on his shoulder when the pain is too much, give him much thanks and praise when life is going great, and we have to give him our entire hearts before anything else. For he so loved us, so too must we love him.

If it seems like it is impossible to still the mind and soul, just utter a simple prayer to be able to give him your full attention and love. I know when I was struggling to get back into deeper prayer I had to force myself to kneels for a very long time until I was able to give him my entire mind. Now even short little prayers before a meal bear my entire heart and being.

So I close by asking and reminding everyone who reads this to give it a try. Offer up your entire heart to the Lord. Strengthen your spiritual and religious life by getting back down to the roots of our religion; prayer.