5:00: ‘When you pray, heaven opens up over you, the atmosphere of heaven, the dew of heaven comes down upon you; you start to breath more of Heaven’s air, and you start to think more like Jesus..’ This is BEAUTIFUL! And makes so much sense. Praise You Lord Jesus and thank You for coming near through your little brother’s words.
We cannot give up on God to answer our prayers! I have one such example of God answering my prayers after 54 years. When I was seven years old and was in preparation for my first confession my teacher said something to us that profoundly disturbed me for the following five decades! She said we can tell the priest all our sins because he will not scold us. Well right there and then I developed an uncontrollable fear that the priest would do just that and it made me unreasonably scared of confession! Through the years my fear became a phobia. I went to confession all my life, but not as often as I should have because I had this extreme fear! I would normally prepare carefully before confession, and as soon as I would enter the confessional I would get all nervous, fumbling on my words, and a lot of times I didn't remember my sins, or I just couldn't get my mouth to formulate the words! I was too scared to say my sins with my mouth. I prayed for God to help me, but help didn't come. Many years later I had a massage therapist who attended daily mass and went to confession often. He and I talked about my fear of confession for several years. He knew how much I hungered for forgiveness and absolution. Then one day in 2018, he suggested I write down all my sins and bring the paper with me into the confessional. So in preparation I prayed a novena and made a detailed examination of conscience, listing all those sins throughout my life that I couldn't formulate with my mouth or I had forgotten. Then in December 2018 I finally went to confession before Sunday mass. I am generally not an emotional guy, but the huge relief of finally being able to confess all those sins made me cry. I blubbered and cried throughout my whole confession, and for a good part of the mass afterwards. There is no feeling like the feeling of relief I felt that I had accused ALL my sins, they had been forgiven and I had received absolution! I felt CLEAN for the first time in 54 years!!! I returned to confession soon after and I was no longer fearful! For 54 years I prayed for God to help me go to confession without fear! And it took 54 years for God to answer my prayers! I now go to confession every Sunday before mass when my priest is available, and I love going to confession! The bonus with all of this is an additional miracle that God worked in me. Without me even noticing it, God gently cured me of my worst sin! It took me several weeks to notice I had not committed that sin. Of course I am still tempted, but the temptation is not as often and it is MUCH easier to resist temptation now! So God gave me two miracles! GOD IS GOOD!!!!
Wow, I fumble with my words too. It's strange, a few days ago I bought a piece of paper with me as well and tried my best to make a good confession. Really say everything, I felt guilty and ashamed. Unfortunately, the confession was not conducted as well as I hoped, we didn't have a confessional and I hoped we would talk in a corner of the church isntead I confessed my sins to the priest while he was seated on a chair behind the altar, after mass while people where walking about. I felt pretty exposed. He seemed like he was in a hurry to get it over with. I've had several experiences like that. Once I confessed to the priest in front of a construction going own outside church. Maybe I should ask if we could go somewhere more private? I don't want to impose though. I still go cause I believe in it.
@@ABB14-11 I understand completely!!! In confession I prefer to whisper so that people outside the door won't hear me, but my priest once asked me to speak louder. I didn't feel comfortable! And I don't feel comfortable when he speaks above a whisper when he talks to me after I have confessed my sins. I'm always afraid others will hear what he says about my confession! Besides that I have a wonderful priest! In the 1990s during a closed weekend retreat, at confession I was scolded by the priest. It was my fear come true. I stayed away from confession for a while after that! I was so humiliated in the confessional, which intensified my phobia! I thought that should be the last thing to happen to someone during a closed retreat!
@@Kitiwake That's quite rude! The message is the right length for what I had to share. If the message is too long for you, then don't read it! No one is forcing you to read any messages. My priest does NOT dread me coming to confession! Just because you don't feel the need to confess every week, that is between you and God. My going to confession every Sunday is between God and me. If you have ever heard priests talk about confession, then you'll know that they NEVER DREAD people who come in for confession!
Right before pandemics, I bought an airline ticket to visit my mother. Then, not even a month before my planned trip, I had assorted problems with my family not wanting me to go. I was really upset about the whole thing and I prayed before Most Holy Sacrament to tell me how to proceed. I prayed not with an intention I do or I don't want to go, but asking "please tell me how to proceed". This was a very complicated family situation. I prayed before Jesus with all my heart, then went to work. Not half an hour later I found out that the flights were cancelled and I would receive a refund. To this day, I think that God let me know in my own language what I needed to do. Thank you, my Lord and my God!
@@minorytka3163 Pretty much - it's a great spiritual exercise to seek God's own will or advice on certain matters, especially the more important ones! Doing it more often seems like a good ideas as well. Of course, it's not necessarily bad to also express our own wants & hope God answers those, and there are Scriptural examples of Him answering requests simply for what's personally wanted. However, Scripture also says to trust in God's understanding, and to *seek 1st* the kingdom of God and then all other needs will be added to you, and that the Spirit often has to teach us how to pray properly through groans beyond words, so it's a both/and, with relying on God and trusting His will taking the priority in most cases. Hope this makes sense though, as these are just my 2 cents!
@@minorytka3163 Pretty much - it's a great spiritual exercise to seek God's own will or advice on certain matters, especially the more important ones! Doing it more often seems like a good ideas as well.
I want my brother, my children, and their families to become Christians, to desire salvation. Thank you for these videos. They have been very educational and valuable to me. God Bless you!
God does change us in prayer...He does...but as Father Columba says it takes time to let Heaven in ...worth the wait...just sitting with God in the silence will reap rewards you never imagined...it will...
You've solved the mystery behind the WHY NOT? question when our prayers appear not to be answered. Thank you for your wisdom, and may God continue to bless you. 🙏
Father, may you please include me in your prayers, intercede for me and ask God to bless me with my desire and request- a happy and abundant life and for me to go back to my children. Thank you
Thank you Father for making videos like this. I’ve been learning to be a better Catholic from watching videos like yours from other priests also. May GOD give you many blessings and the blessed Mother give you buckets full of graces!
Thank you for having responded to God's call to become a priest and thank you for following His lead to create these videos. They are so so so helpful.
There are things I’ve received after praying. My wife, a job, sons. Then there are things I pray for that are for others and nothing. I’ve learned to be persistent and will never stop praying to our Lord for what others need.
I firmly believe that God does give the hearts desires for those whom he loves, but for the rest, continue praying… and trust me you will receive none of what you wished for yourselves.
Thank you Father. I am a witness for this but now I understood better. Your teaching made so much sense. God bless you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥😇😇😇😇😇I noticed that my prayers when I was a teenager were different now that I am in my 60s. Praying in God’s Divine Will will also make God answer our prayers.❤️❤️❤️❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
This is so profound yet so simple and spot on Fr. Columba! My best friend/spiritual brother taught me basically this. He had an awesome OPEN relationship with Jesus and Mom (Our Blessed Mother) and could communicate with them/hear Them often. He had several other charisms but he taught me how natural and entirely possible it is just by opening our heart to Jesus by telling Him that you desire to be with Him and love Him always. Ask Him what He desires of you today (aka what is Your Will for me today) and say, as often as you breathe, “how may i serve You?” “I only want what You want.”Also offer EVERYTHING you do up in union with His Passion and Death through Moms intercession, as a prayer. “Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart make my heart like unto Thine. Please increase Your Will in me, increase my holiness, my faith and trust. Amen!”
This resonates so strongly with me. I try to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament as often as possible as I go through my week. When I’m sitting in the dark quiet chapel, just God and me, it’s as if I come to my senses again. I regain sanity. It fades after I step back out into the world, so that I crave to return again to pray in front of Jesus as soon as possible.
Wow. Never understood it that way. A whole new perspective and understanding on the Words of Christ in regards to prayer being answered. And I am a middle-aged, cradle Catholic. Thanks, Father. Wonderful teaching!
Hi Fr. Columba. I'm currently in a situation whereby I feel God is silent to my prayers, not for myself but my prayers for my loved ones. I've been praying for this problem for years but to no avail. At times, it makes me feel very foolish praying the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet every single day. I don't understand why Catholics choose to suffer so much. I'm very tired of seeing my loved ones suffer, especially my parents. And I don't intentionally pray every day with the hopes that God will answer my prayers, like "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". If it were not for Fr. Augustine (CFR), I wouldn't have persevered to this day. Maybe if I had a visual of how God looks like, it would help with my prayers instead of feeling helpless and useless. God bless.🙏🙏
Bless you, James. Please know God hears your prayers and he loves you deeply. Sometimes he can’t intervene (eg if an individual chooses to reject him), and sometimes he doesn’t intervene because (though we can’t see it now) the suffering in question will be brought to some greater good (eg spiritual gain). But I know those are only words and even if they’re true it’s hard to grasp when you see your prayers seemingly unanswered. Know we are also praying for you!
@@ctmcatholic Thank you so much, Katie, and the Called to More team for your prayers and for speaking from your heart. I pray that God indeed has a plan for a greater good for allowing my family to experience turmoil. God bless.🙏🙏
This is some real wisdom, Fr. Columba! I think it may be straight from the Bible even, as what you say reminds me of verses such Romans 8:26 which says that _"likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we _*_do not know what to pray for_*_ as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."_ As for earthly desires in prayer and unanswered prayer, some verses come to mind that I think also help explain this, such as Jesus saying *not to be anxious* what you'll eat or drink for our heavenly Father *knows* we need the & *seek 1st the kingdom* of God & all these things will be added to us, or Paul in Philippians 4 saying he has found the secret to contentment & that God will provide for all our needs. As for God not wanting to give us other *non-spiritual* things we desire in prayer *at all,* as said in 6:16, I don't think that's fully accurate if taken absolutely - in the verses mentioned above God does provide for our other needs, it's just that they aren't the priority - the kingdom and its desires are *the priority.* God still does care to an extent about our own *natural* desires even for non-necessities - Deuteronomy 14:22-27 has Him blessing the Hebrews so they can buy whatever food they desire to celebrate in the place He sets His name, so God can also sometimes answer prayers of for non-supernatural earthly things. It's just they're *not a priority* and God's desire for us in prayer is to focus mostly on the more important spiritual things most of the time, as He reveals to us in the Gospels. What do you think?
Just WOW! At first when you read from scripture I thought it was going to go in a direction parallel to the new age self help gurus- by imagining you have already received it you approach it mentally in a state of gratitude etc. That aligns you with the goal and with prayer to God. But you took it to such a deeper level. There was so much in that talk. Thank you.
Thank you father. I’ve been a Christian and a praying one for many many years but I learned something from your talk that I hadn’t heard before. I think it will change my prayer life. I’m so excited to go To prayer thank you
Oh Father, what a beautiful thought, that we can breathe the air of heaven! And I loved the bit from the Silver Chair. God bless you and thank you for this message!
Oh my! I listened to this on friday when it came out and i didnt understand. Thank God today i listened again and now I understand..thank you Father Columbo..this is priceless. No one ever taught this..we just assumed Jesus didn't want to give us what we want. 🤣. Now i see so many of my desires during prayer are always given. Sometimes i recieve graces that i didnt ask for and i wonder how i got them, and now i see why. I am so thankful for your teaching today.
Fantastic!!! Thank God for priests like you!!!! Your yes to God is a blessing to and an answered prayer for many of us! May God continue to bless you always, thank you for being a beacon and for leading us safely towards Him🙏 Amen!
You totally nailed it Fr. as this was exactly my experience as a child and a young adult. Over the years however I have been privileged to have had some divine experiences that were undeniable and showed me that not only does God exists but how much he truly loves me.💙🙏💙
Thank you so much for making these videos Father! This one in particular was one of the best explanations of what happens during prayer I have heard - extremely useful. Thank you so much!
Today I was getting smashed by a truck that just didn't want to fix. Satan was in my head telling me that Jesus didn't care about me and will continue not to answer any of my prayers. I started to believe it! I thought to my self . "Maybe he isn't there, maybe it's all BS." U held on to my trust in him and after 2 hours of fighting this issue it fixed. Jesus saved me from a world of financial hurt losing my but on this Job!
Thank you Fr Columba I always enjoy your videos. They are so full of heavenly wisdom. I also enjoy your sense of humor and joy. God Bless you Fr Columba!
At min 6:20 so funny and true. The way you said with humor that if God doesn't want to give me something then He's not. Suddenly i don't want it anymore either. :)
This is so very helpful for me... I have had something similar happen to me like that in prayer and hope it never ends...!!! I love that place,. but the world steals it away from me too soon. I'm not saying that I got a calling to religious life recently....I am married. But there are moments prayer become so much like what you mean... I don't want it to end!!🌹🙏🌹🙏🌹🙏🌹
Okay I just got back from a dinner party where a couple said they were reading The Silver Chair aloud to their children and now Father is talking about it here. I devoured those books over and over as a kid, and I've never forgotten that scene. The red pilling of the prince lol. Thank you, Father, for another sweet and spiritual perspective on the mystery of prayer. I was just telling a friend that prayer is like completing a circuit with God for me.
I tested out this bible verse!! I had a hard time believing it as well, and I thought I might as well put it to the test. It was winter and my children wanted snow, so we prayed that night and asked God to make it snow. A few days later, tiny snowflakes fell for 5 minutes, and then stopped. I realized maybe we needed to pray for a lot of snow, so that night we prayed for a foot of snow, and a few days later we got a good snowfall! Another time, my friends cat was going to die from a tumor, and I told her: "Don't worry, your cat's not going to die." To tell the truth, I wasn't convinced that was true! But another kind friend donated most of the money to pay for the cats surgery, and the cat lived!! A few times after that, I prayed and asked God for things, but I didn't get them :( I was perplexed. Then I realized, everything I have - even my faith, my ability to believe - comes from God. Without him, my belief is weak!!! It's completely shaken by the devil, filled with doubt and negativity. Yes, faith is a human choice and action, but it's also a gift from God.
Thank you Fr Columba, God has used you in a wonderful way to bring about my conversion back in 2018. I continue to be inspired by your words, God bless you, Caroline
“Pretty pathetic at it but I did my lousy best..”. I have been doing my lousy best for DECADES. Perhaps with this new understanding I too will discover the desire to marry my desires to His. If that makes any sense. If not, it is, after all, my lousy best. Thank you for your insights.
This was really, really helpful, Father, thank you. I needed that, especially now. I have struggled with understanding Jesus' very clear promises, especially as I watch several children go down the wrong path and I don't see my prayers "answered". Time to reread The Silver Chair!
Thank you Father. This was so beautiful and it helps us to “put out into the deep” - deeper waters of our desire. I learned this lesson very painfully 7 years ago when I lost my grandson and only son (mentioned this before) - after many years of praying for my son’s safety and conversion……I now know that my prayer was answered………just not the way I wanted………but I can offer God my “sacrifice of praise” - for what I received and what I didn’t. God bless you, Father🥀✝️
During the first months of Covid, I believed that we are called to pray and sacrifice more. I put more time into studying intensively about faith, theology, and growing by praying regularly after listening to Fr. Timothy Gallagher about the Spiritual Exercises. It was afterwards that my prayers were more consistent, constant and my prayer times structured. Now, time is limited again, yet, I still make time for regular prayers, just a bit less. The changes you describe were beginning to happen and there were and are also temptations. Not necessarily more temptings, maybe, more awareness. Then, prayers began slipping with more temptation to do something else. As the Ven. Bruno Lanteri said, I begin again, again and again.
@@ctmcatholic How do we let them know, those who don't know what it means to live in God's grace? St. Ignatius said the evil spirits give temporal wealth, pleasures etc. to their victims. They might not be willing to lose the trappings of success. The Protestant believes that their soul will have salvation. However, what if they are the ones who say, Lord, Lord. And their reply is, I do not know you. Out of five sisters and seven brothers, everyone except me left Catholicism and most became non-denominational Christians (Evangelical Protestants). I know what they are being taught. Even though I didn't leave my faith, I visited their churches for five years. They are told that Catholicism is a cult, and false. I rarely have any time with them. Now, they rarely attend their services. Little by little... they fall farther away and are more caught up in the culture, an informal cult.
@@Barbaramamato How is the Lord speaking to you about your relatives when you bring these concerns to him? What does it seem is his desire for them and what is the deeper underlying desire you sense as you intercede for them? I am personally on the road to becoming Catholic (along with my husband). I’ve prayed for nearly a decade that God would make a way if this was his desire for us and miracles have occurred. I am leaving behind all my Protestant family members and friends and a long legacy of those who I know love our Lord and have faithfully served him but didn’t really know about the power of the sacraments. I have been drawn to more. (I actually serve as a spiritual director with Fr Gallagher in Denver.) Ignatian spirituality has taught me to trust God in all things-including trusting him to work powerfully in the hearts of those I love. I go in and out of feeling fear and confusion about this conversion. But when I spend time in God’s presence, the fear is removed and I sense the beauty of this step. I wonder if you can find a similar peace about loving and waiting for your family members to experience the presence of Jesus and worship him as he deserves? This, I think, is what we ultimately long for and “he is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine!”
@@ctmcatholic Thank you for your prayers. Poetic version: Eternal light, directed individually. Facing light, intensity magnifies. Pure Eternal Light, undivided by time, unimpeded materially, undiminished and undiluted by space, changes absolutely who see it. It changes those encountered as rays refracting through recipients as a prism.
Great insight that I never thought about, even though I've heard both translations. I'll be giving this a try, and your video made me realize that means spending a lot more time in prayer to get the desire part right first.
🙏🏻🕊🔥So beautiful! Thank you so much!🔥🕊🙏🏻 Dear Father, Your words here have brought such joy and hope in my small weak soul... now i understand better that the growing burning desire to cease to exist and have Jesus exist in place of me... it will come to pass, since this is an ever growing desire i am given in prayer, therefore the desire of our Jesus. There is an ever growing desire in me to bring comfort to our sweetest Jesus, to bring Him much joy by allowing Him to suffer in me so that He can save many many lost souls...the desire to be one of His saints...in other words, His faithful friend, His source of consolation. +O, we pray to truly have the mind, emotions and will of our Eucharistic Jesus replace our minds, emotions and wills..and let Him have His beautiful Way with us+ +May Jesus be your comfort, peace and joy, may He always allow you to see that He suffers all things in you, that He lives in you, that it is no longer you, but Him+
Please pray for me and my Simon! That he learns how to date me and make more time for me. That solutions and improvements happen with his work. I believe Jesus will grant my requests. Increase my faith to believe
On another note, yes, father,.......I heard a while back something that struck a chord....when we pray, WE change....not God....most think if they pester God He'll eventually relent and give in (like He's some kind of ATM)...but God never changes...WE must change..so as you say, when in prayer, the desires we feel then are the real ones, rather than the fleshly ones :)
Lord, I DO believe! Help me in my unbelief! Let me desire Your will for me more than anything else!
Ditto! I mean AMEN 🙏😊
Amen. My prayers for you and me to yield to the one who loves us more and better and who knows all that we may gratefully submit to his will for us.
@@tracyann484 what does ditto mean ?
@@simeonfrasco4041means same
God bless you Father Columba! You are such a gift!
Bless you!
5:00: ‘When you pray, heaven opens up over you, the atmosphere of heaven, the dew of heaven comes down upon you; you start to breath more of Heaven’s air, and you start to think more like Jesus..’
This is BEAUTIFUL! And makes so much sense. Praise You Lord Jesus and thank You for coming near through your little brother’s words.
I have been praying for my own dream house every day for 60 years. I haven't lost hope yet. I work hard and pray every day.
We cannot give up on God to answer our prayers! I have one such example of God answering my prayers after 54 years.
When I was seven years old and was in preparation for my first confession my teacher said something to us that profoundly disturbed me for the following five decades! She said we can tell the priest all our sins because he will not scold us. Well right there and then I developed an uncontrollable fear that the priest would do just that and it made me unreasonably scared of confession! Through the years my fear became a phobia. I went to confession all my life, but not as often as I should have because I had this extreme fear! I would normally prepare carefully before confession, and as soon as I would enter the confessional I would get all nervous, fumbling on my words, and a lot of times I didn't remember my sins, or I just couldn't get my mouth to formulate the words! I was too scared to say my sins with my mouth. I prayed for God to help me, but help didn't come.
Many years later I had a massage therapist who attended daily mass and went to confession often. He and I talked about my fear of confession for several years. He knew how much I hungered for forgiveness and absolution. Then one day in 2018, he suggested I write down all my sins and bring the paper with me into the confessional.
So in preparation I prayed a novena and made a detailed examination of conscience, listing all those sins throughout my life that I couldn't formulate with my mouth or I had forgotten. Then in December 2018 I finally went to confession before Sunday mass. I am generally not an emotional guy, but the huge relief of finally being able to confess all those sins made me cry. I blubbered and cried throughout my whole confession, and for a good part of the mass afterwards. There is no feeling like the feeling of relief I felt that I had accused ALL my sins, they had been forgiven and I had received absolution! I felt CLEAN for the first time in 54 years!!!
I returned to confession soon after and I was no longer fearful! For 54 years I prayed for God to help me go to confession without fear! And it took 54 years for God to answer my prayers! I now go to confession every Sunday before mass when my priest is available, and I love going to confession!
The bonus with all of this is an additional miracle that God worked in me. Without me even noticing it, God gently cured me of my worst sin! It took me several weeks to notice I had not committed that sin. Of course I am still tempted, but the temptation is not as often and it is MUCH easier to resist temptation now! So God gave me two miracles!
GOD IS GOOD!!!!
That’s wonderful Daniel, He is indeed good!
Wow, I fumble with my words too. It's strange, a few days ago I bought a piece of paper with me as well and tried my best to make a good confession. Really say everything, I felt guilty and ashamed. Unfortunately, the confession was not conducted as well as I hoped, we didn't have a confessional and I hoped we would talk in a corner of the church isntead I confessed my sins to the priest while he was seated on a chair behind the altar, after mass while people where walking about. I felt pretty exposed. He seemed like he was in a hurry to get it over with. I've had several experiences like that. Once I confessed to the priest in front of a construction going own outside church. Maybe I should ask if we could go somewhere more private? I don't want to impose though. I still go cause I believe in it.
@@ABB14-11 I understand completely!!!
In confession I prefer to whisper so that people outside the door won't hear me, but my priest once asked me to speak louder. I didn't feel comfortable! And I don't feel comfortable when he speaks above a whisper when he talks to me after I have confessed my sins. I'm always afraid others will hear what he says about my confession! Besides that I have a wonderful priest!
In the 1990s during a closed weekend retreat, at confession I was scolded by the priest. It was my fear come true. I stayed away from confession for a while after that! I was so humiliated in the confessional, which intensified my phobia! I thought that should be the last thing to happen to someone during a closed retreat!
Can you keep it short?
I'd say your priest dreads you coming to confession.
@@Kitiwake That's quite rude! The message is the right length for what I had to share. If the message is too long for you, then don't read it! No one is forcing you to read any messages.
My priest does NOT dread me coming to confession! Just because you don't feel the need to confess every week, that is between you and God. My going to confession every Sunday is between God and me. If you have ever heard priests talk about confession, then you'll know that they NEVER DREAD people who come in for confession!
Deflating prosperity gospel in 10 min., fantastic.. thank you fr Columba for all you do... it is helping more than you can imagine...
Praise God, and thank you for your encouragement!
lol soo true!
Right before pandemics, I bought an airline ticket to visit my mother. Then, not even a month before my planned trip, I had assorted problems with my family not wanting me to go. I was really upset about the whole thing and I prayed before Most Holy Sacrament to tell me how to proceed. I prayed not with an intention I do or I don't want to go, but asking "please tell me how to proceed". This was a very complicated family situation. I prayed before Jesus with all my heart, then went to work. Not half an hour later I found out that the flights were cancelled and I would receive a refund. To this day, I think that God let me know in my own language what I needed to do. Thank you, my Lord and my God!
That’s beautiful, a surrender to His will it sounds like!
@@ctmcatholic If only I could more often stop acting like a stubborn 2-year old that screams "But I want to..."
❤️!!!
@@minorytka3163 Pretty much - it's a great spiritual exercise to seek God's own will or advice on certain matters, especially the more important ones! Doing it more often seems like a good ideas as well. Of course, it's not necessarily bad to also express our own wants & hope God answers those, and there are Scriptural examples of Him answering requests simply for what's personally wanted. However, Scripture also says to trust in God's understanding, and to *seek 1st* the kingdom of God and then all other needs will be added to you, and that the Spirit often has to teach us how to pray properly through groans beyond words, so it's a both/and, with relying on God and trusting His will taking the priority in most cases. Hope this makes sense though, as these are just my 2 cents!
@@minorytka3163 Pretty much - it's a great spiritual exercise to seek God's own will or advice on certain matters, especially the more important ones! Doing it more often seems like a good ideas as well.
I want my brother, my children, and their families to become Christians, to desire salvation. Thank you for these videos. They have been very educational and valuable to me. God Bless you!
This is the most incredible insight on prayer I have ever heard, thank you Father!
Amazing, praise God!
I love the Silver Chair reference - that is how I have always experienced prayer.
God bless you Father, and God bless everyone watching! :)
Thank you for your kind words, and glad this could help!
Amen ...
Father you are always so darn funny and cute with your introductions. Just love to listen to your teachings. P.S. you are a master teacher.
God does change us in prayer...He does...but as Father Columba says it takes time to let Heaven in ...worth the wait...just sitting with God in the silence will reap rewards you never imagined...it will...
Amen!
You've solved the mystery behind the WHY NOT? question when our prayers appear not to be answered. Thank you for your wisdom, and may God continue to bless you. 🙏
Father, may you please include me in your prayers, intercede for me and ask God to bless me with my desire and request- a happy and abundant life and for me to go back to my children. Thank you
I will pray for you
the chapelet of the divine Mercy of Jesus
Thank you Father for making videos like this. I’ve been learning to be a better Catholic from watching videos like yours from other priests also. May GOD give you many blessings and the blessed Mother give you buckets full of graces!
God bless you!
Thank you for having responded to God's call to become a priest and thank you for following His lead to create these videos. They are so so so helpful.
There are things I’ve received after praying. My wife, a job, sons. Then there are things I pray for that are for others and nothing. I’ve learned to be persistent and will never stop praying to our Lord for what others need.
I firmly believe that God does give the hearts desires for those whom he loves, but for the rest, continue praying… and trust me you will receive none of what you wished for yourselves.
Thank you Father. I am a witness for this but now I understood better. Your teaching made so much sense. God bless you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥😇😇😇😇😇I noticed that my prayers when I was a teenager were different now that I am in my 60s. Praying in God’s Divine Will will also make God answer our prayers.❤️❤️❤️❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
This is so profound yet so simple and spot on Fr. Columba! My best friend/spiritual brother taught me basically this. He had an awesome OPEN relationship with Jesus and Mom (Our Blessed Mother) and could communicate with them/hear Them often. He had several other charisms but he taught me how natural and entirely possible it is just by opening our heart to Jesus by telling Him that you desire to be with Him and love Him always. Ask Him what He desires of you today (aka what is Your Will for me today) and say, as often as you breathe, “how may i serve You?” “I only want what You want.”Also offer EVERYTHING you do up in union with His Passion and Death through Moms intercession, as a prayer.
“Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart make my heart like unto Thine. Please increase Your Will in me, increase my holiness, my faith and trust. Amen!”
So hear what God wants for you and then ask for it.
Essentially, and the whole transformation of heart thing - whereby we start wanting what’s good for us which is whatever God wills :)
@@ctmcatholic Thank you I had forgotten the transformation to want what God wants. That what be very handy.
Thank you so much, Father. What a great explanation!
YOU ARE THE COOLEST PRIEST..................I CANT GET ENOUGH OF YOUR VIDEOS
Wow, thank you! Appreciate it!
Lived in Derry, tell me about Sr Clare Crockett!!! 🙏🌹🌹🌹 ☘️
Our channel hasn’t covered her story yet but she is definitely worth looking up, a very inspiring woman!
This resonates so strongly with me. I try to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament as often as possible as I go through my week. When I’m sitting in the dark quiet chapel, just God and me, it’s as if I come to my senses again. I regain sanity.
It fades after I step back out into the world, so that I crave to return again to pray in front of Jesus as soon as possible.
These videos are class , much appreciated . God bless 🙏
I love the silver chair!
You made me smile!
Wow. Never understood it that way. A whole new perspective and understanding on the Words of Christ in regards to prayer being answered. And I am a middle-aged, cradle Catholic. Thanks, Father. Wonderful teaching!
Love this video! God bless & protect all priests!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is so so so helpful. Thank you so much father
You are very welcome
Gold dust, brother! Thank you. Aslan forever!
I thank the Most Blessed Trinity for what you said here and for all you do. May our Master, Jesus Christ shower blessings upon you always, Amen.
Hi Fr. Columba. I'm currently in a situation whereby I feel God is silent to my prayers, not for myself but my prayers for my loved ones. I've been praying for this problem for years but to no avail. At times, it makes me feel very foolish praying the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet every single day. I don't understand why Catholics choose to suffer so much. I'm very tired of seeing my loved ones suffer, especially my parents. And I don't intentionally pray every day with the hopes that God will answer my prayers, like "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". If it were not for Fr. Augustine (CFR), I wouldn't have persevered to this day. Maybe if I had a visual of how God looks like, it would help with my prayers instead of feeling helpless and useless. God bless.🙏🙏
Bless you, James. Please know God hears your prayers and he loves you deeply. Sometimes he can’t intervene (eg if an individual chooses to reject him), and sometimes he doesn’t intervene because (though we can’t see it now) the suffering in question will be brought to some greater good (eg spiritual gain). But I know those are only words and even if they’re true it’s hard to grasp when you see your prayers seemingly unanswered. Know we are also praying for you!
@@ctmcatholic Thank you so much, Katie, and the Called to More team for your prayers and for speaking from your heart. I pray that God indeed has a plan for a greater good for allowing my family to experience turmoil. God bless.🙏🙏
God bless you Father! God bless your ministry, God bless your priesthood 🙏🏼😇🙏🏼
God bless you.
This is soooooo good! A game changer for my prayer life! Thank you, Fr Columba!
You're so welcome!
You are a wonderful person, Fr. Columba. I find listening to you very calming and comforting (as well as amusing!) God bless you.
This is some real wisdom, Fr. Columba! I think it may be straight from the Bible even, as what you say reminds me of verses such Romans 8:26 which says that _"likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we _*_do not know what to pray for_*_ as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."_ As for earthly desires in prayer and unanswered prayer, some verses come to mind that I think also help explain this, such as Jesus saying *not to be anxious* what you'll eat or drink for our heavenly Father *knows* we need the & *seek 1st the kingdom* of God & all these things will be added to us, or Paul in Philippians 4 saying he has found the secret to contentment & that God will provide for all our needs. As for God not wanting to give us other *non-spiritual* things we desire in prayer *at all,* as said in 6:16, I don't think that's fully accurate if taken absolutely - in the verses mentioned above God does provide for our other needs, it's just that they aren't the priority - the kingdom and its desires are *the priority.* God still does care to an extent about our own *natural* desires even for non-necessities - Deuteronomy 14:22-27 has Him blessing the Hebrews so they can buy whatever food they desire to celebrate in the place He sets His name, so God can also sometimes answer prayers of for non-supernatural earthly things. It's just they're *not a priority* and God's desire for us in prayer is to focus mostly on the more important spiritual things most of the time, as He reveals to us in the Gospels.
What do you think?
Just WOW! At first when you read from scripture I thought it was going to go in a direction parallel to the new age self help gurus- by imagining you have already received it you approach it mentally in a state of gratitude etc. That aligns you with the goal and with prayer to God. But you took it to such a deeper level. There was so much in that talk. Thank you.
Praise God, ❤ 🙏 Thank-you for the blessed message. God bless 🙌 🙏
You are so welcome
Thank you father. I’ve been a Christian and a praying one for many many years but I learned something from your talk that I hadn’t heard before. I think it will change my prayer life. I’m so excited to go To prayer thank you
That’s wonderful, so glad it could be helpful!
Thank you, Father, for explaining this. It has helped a lot. God Bless you 🙏🏼
You are very welcome.
Thank God you said f. YES GOD BEST WORD5S EVER
Please pray for my mother who is in ICU at the moment and is gravely ill. God bless🙏🙏
That is one of the best and most illuminating talks on prayer that I ever heard. ❤
So glad to hear it.
Wow Father Columba 😮 Listening to your insights on prayer was very seriously and very sincerely positively life changing for me! Thank you! 🙏✝️
Oh Father, what a beautiful thought, that we can breathe the air of heaven! And I loved the bit from the Silver Chair. God bless you and thank you for this message!
Glad it spoke to you, Kelly! God bless
Oh my! I listened to this on friday when it came out and i didnt understand. Thank God today i listened again and now I understand..thank you Father Columbo..this is priceless. No one ever taught this..we just assumed Jesus didn't want to give us what we want. 🤣. Now i see so many of my desires during prayer are always given. Sometimes i recieve graces that i didnt ask for and i wonder how i got them, and now i see why. I am so thankful for your teaching today.
That’s wonderful, we’re so glad this could be helpful!!
Fantastic!!! Thank God for priests like you!!!! Your yes to God is a blessing to and an answered prayer for many of us! May God continue to bless you always, thank you for being a beacon and for leading us safely towards Him🙏 Amen!
Thank you so much! Bless you!
I do love all of your videos! Thank you for recording them and I hope you continue for a very long time. Praying for you. 💗🙏
Thank you for your kind words, and your prayers! We are praying for you, too.
Thank you for preaching the gospel.
AMEN FR. COLUMBA !!!
You totally nailed it Fr. as this was exactly my experience as a child and a young adult. Over the years however I have been privileged to have had some divine experiences that were undeniable and showed me that not only does God exists but how much he truly loves me.💙🙏💙
💙💙
I really needed to hear this today thankyou
Praise God.
God bless you, Father! Three Hail Marys for you! Thank you so much!
Thank you for your prayers, they mean a lot!
Thank you so much for making these videos Father! This one in particular was one of the best explanations of what happens during prayer I have heard - extremely useful. Thank you so much!
You are very welcome.
Such a beautiful talk! Thank you Father! Also, I love the Narnia reference!
Glad to hear it, Peter!
Remember me in your prayers father
Praying for you, Delna.
Today I was getting smashed by a truck that just didn't want to fix.
Satan was in my head telling me that Jesus didn't care about me and will continue not to answer any of my prayers.
I started to believe it! I thought to my self . "Maybe he isn't there, maybe it's all BS." U held on to my trust in him and after 2 hours of fighting this issue it fixed.
Jesus saved me from a world of financial hurt losing my but on this Job!
Thank you Fr Columba I always enjoy your videos. They are so full of heavenly wisdom. I also enjoy your sense of humor and joy. God Bless you Fr Columba!
Praise God, and bless you too, Friend!
That talk explains a lot to me about answered prayers, thank you so much for your teachings, Going to pray for your intentions😊
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you, beautifully said.
At min 6:20 so funny and true. The way you said with humor that if God doesn't want to give me something then He's not. Suddenly i don't want it anymore either. :)
Delighted that you enjoyed it! :)
Amen Lovely FR God knows best for holes
This is so very helpful for me... I have had something similar happen to me like that in prayer and hope it never ends...!!! I love that place,. but the world steals it away from me too soon. I'm not saying that I got a calling to religious life recently....I am married. But there are moments prayer become so much like what you mean... I don't want it to end!!🌹🙏🌹🙏🌹🙏🌹
That’s beautiful!
wow. this was really good. I guess I never thought of it that way. Very clear idea, obvious - and I never thought of that.
Glad it could be insightful!
I loove this! So beautiful! Thank you for sharing this father!!
Thank you for taking the time to watch.
I finally understand what it means to pray and how to do it. Thank you! Praise be to God! And happy Easter.
thankyou Er Columba, GOD BLESS
God bless you, Frank.
Amen thank you shower of blessings ❤️💖🙏 give my family and all of us St Theresa my little angel please pray for always amen amen amen
Okay I just got back from a dinner party where a couple said they were reading The Silver Chair aloud to their children and now Father is talking about it here. I devoured those books over and over as a kid, and I've never forgotten that scene. The red pilling of the prince lol. Thank you, Father, for another sweet and spiritual perspective on the mystery of prayer. I was just telling a friend that prayer is like completing a circuit with God for me.
I tested out this bible verse!!
I had a hard time believing it as well, and I thought I might as well put it to the test. It was winter and my children wanted snow, so we prayed that night and asked God to make it snow. A few days later, tiny snowflakes fell for 5 minutes, and then stopped. I realized maybe we needed to pray for a lot of snow, so that night we prayed for a foot of snow, and a few days later we got a good snowfall! Another time, my friends cat was going to die from a tumor, and I told her: "Don't worry, your cat's not going to die." To tell the truth, I wasn't convinced that was true! But another kind friend donated most of the money to pay for the cats surgery, and the cat lived!! A few times after that, I prayed and asked God for things, but I didn't get them :( I was perplexed. Then I realized, everything I have - even my faith, my ability to believe - comes from God. Without him, my belief is weak!!! It's completely shaken by the devil, filled with doubt and negativity. Yes, faith is a human choice and action, but it's also a gift from God.
Amen FR! Thankyou!!!!!
I found that too!
My prayers shift to things bigger & for others,the bitty things don't matter!
Beautiful!
Great message. Love and peace. Tim
Amen Hallelujah 😇
This was great. Thank you Fr Columba.
Wow! What a fantastic explanation! Praise God!
So glad it was helpful.
You are funny Padre 🐓
Glad you think so!
Makes sense you would be more Christ like in prayer to have those desires met through prayer.
Thank you Fr Columba, God has used you in a wonderful way to bring about my conversion back in 2018. I continue to be inspired by your words, God bless you, Caroline
Praise God, Caroline! That is so wonderful to hear. We love working with Fr Columba, he is such a gift to us and the Church!
“Pretty pathetic at it but I did my lousy best..”. I have been doing my lousy best for DECADES. Perhaps with this new understanding I too will discover the desire to marry my desires to His. If that makes any sense. If not, it is, after all, my lousy best. Thank you for your insights.
Yes that makes perfect sense! Bless you
Thank you Father! That was beautiful.. May His will be done!
Amen!
Thank you so much for this teaching, many blessings to you!
Thank you, and to you!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for supporting our work!
thank you father..Praise God our Lord Jesus Christ with Mary our Blessed Mother...❤❤❤
💙
This was so good, thank you!
Our pleasure, glad you enjoyed it!
Your explanations are filled with light and love. Thank you!
Praise God, thank you!
Amen alleluia shalom
Amen 🙏🏼
This was really, really helpful, Father, thank you. I needed that, especially now. I have struggled with understanding Jesus' very clear promises, especially as I watch several children go down the wrong path and I don't see my prayers "answered". Time to reread The Silver Chair!
Thank you Father. This was so beautiful and it helps us to “put out into the deep” - deeper waters of our desire. I learned this lesson very painfully 7 years ago when I lost my grandson and only son (mentioned this before) - after many years of praying for my son’s safety and conversion……I now know that my prayer was answered………just not the way I wanted………but I can offer God my “sacrifice of praise” - for what I received and what I didn’t. God bless you, Father🥀✝️
Thank you father!
Thanks Fr Columba....Great help on why we don't always get the flash car etc...think I will dig out the silver chair...God Bless
Glad you found this helpful!
Man oh man does this saint make me feel normal and hopeful for a fool such as myself
During the first months of Covid, I believed that we are called to pray and sacrifice more. I put more time into studying intensively about faith, theology, and growing by praying regularly after listening to Fr. Timothy Gallagher about the Spiritual Exercises. It was afterwards that my prayers were more consistent, constant and my prayer times structured. Now, time is limited again, yet, I still make time for regular prayers, just a bit less. The changes you describe were beginning to happen and there were and are also temptations. Not necessarily more temptings, maybe, more awareness. Then, prayers began slipping with more temptation to do something else. As the Ven. Bruno Lanteri said, I begin again, again and again.
That’s the call, to keep trying and rely on God’s strength, not our own! God bless you 🙏
@@ctmcatholic How do we let them know, those who don't know what it means to live in God's grace? St. Ignatius said the evil spirits give temporal wealth, pleasures etc. to their victims. They might not be willing to lose the trappings of success. The Protestant believes that their soul will have salvation. However, what if they are the ones who say, Lord, Lord. And their reply is, I do not know you. Out of five sisters and seven brothers, everyone except me left Catholicism and most became non-denominational Christians (Evangelical Protestants). I know what they are being taught. Even though I didn't leave my faith, I visited their churches for five years. They are told that Catholicism is a cult, and false. I rarely have any time with them. Now, they rarely attend their services. Little by little... they fall farther away and are more caught up in the culture, an informal cult.
@@Barbaramamato How is the Lord speaking to you about your relatives when you bring these concerns to him? What does it seem is his desire for them and what is the deeper underlying desire you sense as you intercede for them? I am personally on the road to becoming Catholic (along with my husband). I’ve prayed for nearly a decade that God would make a way if this was his desire for us and miracles have occurred. I am leaving behind all my Protestant family members and friends and a long legacy of those who I know love our Lord and have faithfully served him but didn’t really know about the power of the sacraments. I have been drawn to more. (I actually serve as a spiritual director with Fr Gallagher in Denver.) Ignatian spirituality has taught me to trust God in all things-including trusting him to work powerfully in the hearts of those I love. I go in and out of feeling fear and confusion about this conversion. But when I spend time in God’s presence, the fear is removed and I sense the beauty of this step. I wonder if you can find a similar peace about loving and waiting for your family members to experience the presence of Jesus and worship him as he deserves? This, I think, is what we ultimately long for and “he is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine!”
@@bettylarson6514 They are too set in their ways, hence all I can do is pray.
@@ctmcatholic Thank you for your prayers.
Poetic version:
Eternal light, directed individually. Facing light, intensity magnifies. Pure Eternal Light, undivided by time, unimpeded materially, undiminished and undiluted by space, changes absolutely who see it. It changes those encountered as rays refracting through recipients as a prism.
Great insight that I never thought about, even though I've heard both translations.
I'll be giving this a try, and your video made me realize that means spending a lot more time in prayer to get the desire part right first.
🙏🏻🕊🔥So beautiful!
Thank you so much!🔥🕊🙏🏻
Dear Father,
Your words here have brought such joy and hope in my small weak soul...
now i understand better that the growing burning desire to cease to exist and have Jesus exist in place of me...
it will come to pass, since this is an ever growing desire i am given in prayer, therefore the desire of our Jesus.
There is an ever growing desire in me to bring comfort to our sweetest Jesus, to bring Him much joy by allowing Him to suffer in me so that He can save many many lost souls...the desire to be one of His saints...in other words, His faithful friend, His source of consolation.
+O, we pray to truly have the mind, emotions and will of our Eucharistic Jesus replace our minds, emotions and wills..and let Him have His beautiful Way with us+
+May Jesus be your comfort, peace and joy, may He always allow you to see that He suffers all things in you, that He lives in you, that it is no longer you, but Him+
Praise God!! Thank you for sharing ❤️
Please pray for me and my Simon! That he learns how to date me and make more time for me. That solutions and improvements happen with his work. I believe Jesus will grant my requests. Increase my faith to believe
On another note, yes, father,.......I heard a while back something that struck a chord....when we pray, WE change....not God....most think if they pester God He'll eventually relent and give in (like He's some kind of ATM)...but God never changes...WE must change..so as you say, when in prayer, the desires we feel then are the real ones, rather than the fleshly ones :)
I was struggled to undertsant this verse until you explained it today 🎉
I believe we become our prayer.
Please pray that my husband get his job back . He gave it up to go on chemo for the family.
🙏🏽❤️🕯️