{"id":3128,"date":"2008-05-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/05\/you-want-me-to-do-what.html"},"modified":"2008-05-21T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-21T14:00:00","slug":"you-want-me-to-do-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/05\/you-want-me-to-do-what.html","title":{"rendered":"“You want me to do WHAT??”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back on Ash Wednesday, I preached a little homily<\/a> about penance, and suggested some things we might do during that penitential season of Lent besides simply giving up chocolate.<\/p>\n

I mentioned praying for strangers, praying for those we don’t even like, even praying for our enemies. And in an off-handed way, I asked, “When was the last time any of us prayed for Osama Bin Laden?” <\/p>\n

Well, you could hear the gasps around the church. Several people in the first pews actually physically recoiled. And after mass, one woman said to me, “I’ll never do that. I’m not that holy.” <\/p>\n

Well, neither am I. But shouldn’t we try? The gospel mandate seems fairly clear to me — love your enemies, pray for your persecutors — and no less a figure than Christ himself prayed for his Father to forgive those who killed him. <\/p>\n

Which brings me, improbably enough, to Ted Kennedy. <\/p>\n

Two terrific bloggers, The Anchoress<\/a> and Julie at Happy Catholic<\/a> are tackling the subject of praying for those we don’t particularly like. They both offer ample food for thought. This is something far too many of us disregard or dismiss. “You want me to pray for HIM?”<\/i> Well, yes. Jesus says as much. And that sense of prayerful duty and empathy — and even, yes, love — is one of the great hallmarks of our faith. <\/p>\n

It is love Christ gave to us all, and asked us to share with all, as well. <\/p>\n

Even our enemies. <\/p>\n

Yeah, I know. I’m not that holy. But I can try. That’s why we are “practicing” Catholics. We keep practicing and hope one day to get it right.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/b> You can also add to the list of people blogging on this subject Rod Dreher at Beliefnet<\/a> — who reports on some of the reaction he got when he had the nerve to suggest that people pray for Ted Kennedy. Egad. See how these Christians loathe one another…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}