Listening Prayer Guide

Bishop Finn holds session in St. Joseph

Parishioners focused on hurt and hope as more than 100 area congregation members met for a prayer and listening Saturday evening.

The Most Rev. Robert W. Finn, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, held the prayer and listening session at the Cathedral of St. Joseph Saturday evening. Community members and Catholic parishioners listened as Rev. Finn selectively addressed the recent allegations of sexual misconduct a priest.

“This is a terribly, terribly tragic time ... and we all need to be dedicated to try and improve our situation,” Rev. Finn told to parishioners. “We all know the reasons we are here in this church tonight.”

In May, Father Shawn Ratigan, was charged with three counts of possession of child pornography after Kansas City, Mo. police were notified of child pornography found on his computer by a technician in December. Rev. Finn told the gathering that it was important for anyone who was abused by anyone to come forward because abuse is unacceptable.

“As you know, I am not able to respond to any questions at this point because of litigation and so forth, but we have begun to put a plan into place in the Diocese,” he said. “I think as we plan, I think it will help us understand what has happened, what we can do better, review all of our policies and ... keep working on this with all my strength.”

Rev. Finn apologized to congregation members for the hurt caused by recent allegations of wrongdoing. Rev. Finn referred to the Bible reference of Bartimaeus where a blind Bartimaeus is healed by Jesus and requested parishioners to keep faith in God’s healing power.

“All hurts are unacceptable to the Almighty God,” he told parishioners. “We pray for the miracle of God’s miracle and peace.”

Parishioners wrote their hurts on a note card and their hope for the Diocese as Rev. Finn promised to continue the healing process for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Voluntary parties stood and read their hopes and hurts in front of Rev. Finn as he vowed to fully understand their concerns.

Kristin Hoppa can be reached at kristin.hoppa@newspressnow.com.

ENCOURAGED IN HEART » Re-trying listening prayer…again.

Month before leaving for our anniversary trip to Puerto Rico, was bananas….just bananas. I kept sensing God asking me to sit still and listen. And I did…five minutes here…five minutes there but I couldn’t really “hear” anything if that makes any sense.

Then, the day before we left for our trip I sat in an eight-hour seminar led by the incredible out-of-the-box-thinker-believer-author-speaker, Alan Hirsch , who also brought up listening prayer.

Then, once on the beautiful Puerto Rican beach, I opened my book, Home Tonight by Henri J.M. Nouwen. I’ll let ya take one guess what I read about…

Right, listening prayer.

I figured, what better time than now…on the beach with no distractions, to do some listening prayer.

For anyone wondering, listening prayer is basically when you log into www.zipit.com and sit quietly before God, tuning into your five senses, and listen.

So, I laid in my beach chair and savored the rthymatic crashing Atlantic waves, accented by the salted sea air aroma. My banana, peanut butter, honey, cinnamon, vanilla and almond milk smoothie lingered on my taste buds. The generous breeze enveloped my body with peace and coolness. The silver blue sky had abundant clouds and the smoke…cough, cough. The gal next to us started smoking. Who would smoke this close to other beach goers?? need to focus.

After we moved, I had an incredible time with God. I mean it was serene, lovely and felt sacred. Sacred is the word. And I can assure you that I don’t normally experience the sacred feeling while in a bathing suit.

I didn’t hear Him speak a message to me, but I did sense His presence and it was precious. Hours later, while el Finkstero and I were lounging, this time in the cabanas up by the pool (I interrupt this post with a message from the Reality Broadcasting Station: WHO HAS THIS LIFE????”), we were talking and had arrived at some answers that happened with an ease and grace. Answers to questions that were deep in our hearts about some people we care about and how we need to act, what we need to do/not do. It felt like a brickload was lifted off my back. Which is odd thinking of it, because God was asking us to love differently, deeper…which would “cost more”.