Praying Is a Work of Mercy

Guest post by: Barb Szyszkiewicz

Intercessory prayer is my superpower. I’m not the mystical type, but give me something concrete to do and I’m all set. Is it odd to think of prayer as “something concrete to do”? Not for me. If you’re in a crisis and you don’t live near here, I’ll pray for you. If you live close by, I’ll bring you a dinner – and I’ll pray for you while I shop for the ingredients, prepare the food, and deliver the meal.

During a crisis, many people find that they have a hard time praying. They know they need the prayers, but they feel like God is far away or not listening – or maybe they haven’t connected with God in a while. When someone comes to you and asks for prayer, that is an act of great trust both in you and in God. This is a work of mercy that costs you very little but means so very much to others. By praying for someone in need, you are shouldering their burden right along with them.

Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. (James 5:16)

Whether someone asks you, straight out, to pray for them, or you know they’re going through something and in need of your prayers, make sure to pray. Part of the mercy of praying for others is that they know you can be counted on to actually do the praying.

You don’t have to use fancy words or come up with something original every time. I don’t! I simply use some of the prayers the Church has already offered. A Hail Mary, Glory Be, or Memorare will work just fine.

Follow these three steps to make this work of mercy work for you:

Pray right away. You don’t have to pray out loud (maybe that’s not your superpower – it’s definitely not mine). But don’t wait. Pray right away. Read more

When Life and Lent Go Wrong (and my new book!)

You know when you work really hard at something and you plan out the details and then despite all your efforts and all your intention, pretty much everything falls apart.

That was my day last week.

I was working on a deadline to make an announcement on social media that my new book, Simple Mercies, is available for preorder. I made my first ever video. I showered, put on my special cheetah shirt with polka dot sleeves, hot rolled my board straight hair, and tried to remember all of the steps that the girl at the mall’s makeup counter told me would lighten or brighten or contour or otherwise paint me a little prettier than I am.

After I recorded my happy news on video, I went to get my blog post ready to send to you dear people and that’s when I realized that my website was down — like completely and utterly shot down from cyberspace. Because I am not an astronaut or someone who understands how computers work, this was problematic. Then, my computer, which has been glitchy for months quit working. My mouse darted in spastic and erratic movements that ricocheted around the computer screen like an untethered helium balloon in perpetual flight.

Still, I was determined to get the video out. Only, when I listened to it one more time, I realized the incessant scratching noise in the background was my cat in her litter box. I wanted to cry. I was trying to be peppy and professional and there was a cat peeing in the background of my debut video. I thought this cannot be my life. Read more

Blueberries, Book, and Marriage

Hi all~

This is just a quick but exciting post to share that I have seen the cover art for my book and I can’t wait to share it with you! (Fair warning, it doesn’t have cats all over the cover but I think it’s cute anyway.)

I know it’s kind of mean of me to make you wait to see it, but my husband ate the last piece of pound cake my sweet friend made for ME (not him!) so I am feeling kind of mean. She also made this yummy blueberry compote to put on top of it so I have been eating it with whip cream while pretending that there is pound cake underneath.

When I get the artwork from the publisher, I will share it here. I hope you will love it and even if you don’t love it, I hope you will pretend to love it just like I pretend to eat pound cake. This has been a long road and I have eaten a lot of imagery pound cake in the process so I am excited to finally have something real; something I can share; something we can sink our teeth into together. (I hope that doesn’t sound gross or hallucinogenic.)

In other news, it’s National Marriage Week so I thought I would post something wise I have learned in my 23 years of marriage. Of course, thinking of something wise isn’t necessarily my gift to the world.

Yet I do know a few things:

Trust in little things begets trust in big things.

Time apart makes us better when we are together.

Happiness, fulfillment, and peace come from God not our spouses. So, don’t look to anyone else to fill you.

Say thank you.

Recognize how your partner shows love. Is it with service, gifts, time?

Remember the little things because they can become big things. Forget the little things and remember the big things. Know the difference between what you should remember and what you should forget.

When love fails, there’s always mercy.

I think marriage is one of the hardest topics to write about. I mean, is there anything more complicated? And, when you get it right, is there anything more wonderful? What would you add to this list? ~ love, Lara