Why do we let ‘good manners’ get in the way of prayer?

How’s your Lent going? Did you make it at least a few days (unlike me) before breaking your Lenten practice?

If you’re trying to up your prayer game this Lent and haven’t quite figured out how to do it yet, you won’t want to miss this week’s guest. Luigi Gioia, a professor at the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, is the author of Say It To God: In Search of Prayer, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has chosen for his official Lent book of 2018.

“Far too spiritual, our prayer is asphyxiated by good manners,” Luigi writes in his new book. We ask Luigi about why almost everyone has a difficult time with prayer and what it means to truly find God everywhere in our lives.

In Signs of the Times, we give an update on Pope Francis’ handling of the sexual abuse crisis in Chile, the U.S. bishops’ national call-in to Congress day for Dreamers, discuss the Secret Service’s new chaplain and more.

In other news, we’re starting a Patreon page! We’ve been blessed to do the show for a full (liturgical) year, and we love the community that we’ve created so far. But if we want to keep it going, we’re going to need some help from our listeners.

We’d also like to make this a mutually beneficial relationship. If you pledge to support the show, you can get access to full-length interviews that don’t make it into the final podcast, Jesuitical shirts and swag, and monthly video chats with Ashley, Olga and me. Check out the Patreon page for full details.

Thank you so much to everyone who writes to give us adverbs and share your reactions from the show. It means a lot to us, and we want to keep hearing from you. Send us an email at jesuitical@americamedia.org and tweet at us @jesuiticalshow.

Links from the show:

1. Chile abuse victim: story is finally heard
2. Pope Francis revives lapsed commission on sex abuse
3. Vatican wants to hear from young about hopes, concerns
4. Secret Service chaplain called to the diaconate
5. USCCB calls on Catholics to take action for Dreamers
6. A Catholic parish in Parkland preaches love the first Sunday after the massacre
7. Say it to God: In Search of Prayer
8. Our Patreon page!