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Views from the Choir Loft

It’s Personal

Fr. David Friel · June 5, 2012

As a kid growing up, I went to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Sometime—I believe around 4th grade—a new kid moved into the area and joined our class. For whatever reason, I became friends with him, and I can distinctly remember the first time I called his house. Like most kids that age, I always got nervous before making phone calls, and my mom would prep me with what to say. So, when I called my friend’s house and his mom answered, I said, as though from a script, “Good morning, this is David Friel. May I please speak with John Smith?”

She replied, “Which one?” I froze. That wasn’t in the script! My mom never prepared me for that!

I came to find out that not only was my friend’s name John Smith, but his father had the same name. And not only that, but his paternal grandfather also lived in the house, and he, too, had the same name. We eventually came up with a system: my friend became just “John,” his dad became “Mr. Smith,” and his grandfather, inventively enough, became “Mr. Mr. Olenick.” Since there were three different people with the same name, I had to do something to specify to whom I was speaking.

When you pray, to Whom do you pray? If your answer is God, let me suggest that we should clarify that. We celebrated this past Sunday the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the day on which we highlight our belief in a Trinity of three Persons Who are one God—three distinct People, Who go by the one name of “God.” So, perhaps it would be good for us to specify, when we pray, precisely to Whom we are praying.

In the course of a single day, we might pray to all three members of the Trinity, but that doesn’t preclude us from having a unique relationship with each of them. Perhaps we had a troubled relationship with our human father, and so we feel most comfortable praying to God the Father. Maybe we can really relate to Jesus, since He has a human nature, so we want to pray to Him. Or maybe you really need special inspiration, and so you turn to the Holy Ghost.

Why does it matter? Why can’t we just pray generically to “God” and let Him sort out where the prayers go?

Because God is not just a cabinet with different mail slots; nor is He just some amorphous blob in the clouds. God is a Person—three distinct, though not separate, Persons. When I wanted to talk to my friend, I couldn’t just call and speak to “John Smith-ness.” I had to specify which John Smith—which person. In the same way, when we talk to the Lord, we can do better than just addressing “God.” We can specify the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit.

The fabulous news for us is that, because God is a Personal Being, we can have a relationship with Him. He’s not just a rock or a piece of furniture. He has Personality, to which we can relate. And, for that reason, prayer is a relationship, not just the filing of a memo with God.

If we learn to pray in this way, we may discover sides to God that we’ve never before encountered. We may come to experience the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit more deeply, more vibrantly, and more personally.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

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    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“How can we account for differences in the Gospel accounts? Well, suppose after we left Church today, there was a terrible accident or explosion or fire. Soon the news media would be here, interviewing people as to what they saw or heard. Each person would probably say or report what struck him—or what he saw or noticed. All these reports would be different and yet they would be true.”

— Fr. Valentine Young (February 2019)

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