Keep your halo charged

Have you ever had the experience of looking down at your cell phone and seeing the low battery warning light on? You kind of get that sinking feeling. Most of the time it is not a big deal, you just put it on the charger and leave it there for a while so that the battery will get charged up. But there are other times in which you really need to use the phone and are not around a plug, or do not have your charger with you. Most of us now have multiple places that we can charge our electronic devices. I find it funny watching people hovering around the plugins at the airport charging their phones.

When you are not able to get to a charger and you are in the middle of something, you can feel panicked or worried that you will not be able to do that phone call or zoom meeting. This happens not only with our phone, but it can happen with our lives. We can feel that we are not charged up and are running on empty. This last couple of years more than most, we can feel more and more stressed, from pandemics, wars, strife, politics, and so many other things. All of this takes a toll on us and it can lead us to a sense of dread or depression.

We know that keeping the phone charged is important, especially when there is bad weather or we are traveling, but what about our prayer life. Do we keep our prayer life charged? One of my priest friends reminds us to “keep that halo charged.” Our prayer life is just like a phone, if we do not take the time to charge it up, it may not be there when we really need it. There are many ways in which we can get it charged up, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is the primary one, but reading scripture, spending a few minutes each day just in conversation with God is another, praying the rosary, or another devotion is good as well. I often remind people to attach ourselves to a particular (or multiple) saint(s), they can be an incredible source of strength and comfort.

There are so many times in our lives in which we don’t feel like we need prayer or even want to pray, but we always need to attach ourselves to Christ. Most people now days, would never think of walking out of their room without their cell phone, let alone leaving home without it, but how about leaving home without spending some time with God. There are so many different ways that we can pray, I often recommend turning off the radio in the car and praying during the time we are driving, it could be something as simple as praying the rosary, or taking some time in conversation with God. Just as we make sure that we keep those electronic devices charged, remember to take some time to charge up your prayer life and to always make sure that you are taking God with you wherever you go.

God bless,
Fr. Ken