Maximizing Freedom Through Prayer, Scripture, and Reflection
The conversation revolves around Deacon Rick's insights on maximizing freedom through prayer, scripture, and reflection. He emphasizes the importance of a daily blog at deaconrickfriedberg.com, the Catechism's definition of freedom, and the role of prayer, scripture reading, and reflection in aligning with God's will. Deacon Rick also shares personal anecdotes and practical advice on reading the Bible, recommending starting with a New Testament book and using study Bibles. The discussion concludes with a Q&A session on reading the Bible and choosing the right translation.
MC: Adam Hohn
Parochial Vicar: Tyler Arens
Presenter: Rick Freedberg
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
Audio Trasnscription
participantOne:(880-30680): Many of us know Deacon Rick from his time serving at Queen of the Miraculous Metal Parish. What you may not know is that he has a blog, and it's a really incredible blog. It's a daily blog. If you go to deaconrickfriedberg.com, so you can pull out your phone now and go to deaconrickfriedberg.com, he posts daily reflections, and they're easy to read, they're quick to read, they're challenging, they're helpful.
participantOne:(30920-68020): They're, yeah, quite excellent. So deaconrickfriedberg.com. The theme, yes, Brian, Friedberg, the way that Charles is showing you. Perfect. Very helpful for everyone else. Yes. R-E-E-R-G. Yeah. Three E's. Yes, there are three E's, not all in a row, in Friedberg. Not all in a row. There are more? Yeah. Great. All right. Without further ado, let's welcome up our presenter, Deacon Rick. Thank you. Thank you.
participantOne:(70080-102780): I'm going to dispense with the microphone if that's okay. One last thing to hang on to. In case anybody is interested, Friedberg is a made-up name. My family is from Sweden. And when they came over, the Swedes aren't really attached to their name or they were trying to hide out. And so when they went through Ellis Island, you know, they're
participantOne:(103200-129399): There were lots of... the family name was Nelson. Yes, I would have been Ricky Nelson. But they said there's too many Nelsons. And my family did. They weren't made to change their name. So they just said, let's call ourselves Friedberg. It just means new city in Swedish.
participantOne:(129800-157780): You know, I'm not related to any other free birds, except those in my extended family, because it's a major update. But let's begin, in with a prayer. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Source of all love, we give you thanks and praise that we can meet here again today. We ask you to lead and guide, and through your grace, help us grow in our reflection on freedom.
participantOne:(158320-193519): We ask you to help us to be the men you want us to be so that we walk more fully in the footsteps of your Son. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, so it's freedom. Let's start with a definition of freedom. And why don't we use the Catechism's definition of freedom? That's something we should all have in our homes.
participantOne:(193760-221500): Catechism or if you don't get one Or you can read it if you're a technical course order person. You can read it online for free You go to usccb.org That's the United States Council of Catholic bishops dot org. It's our it's where the bishops from the United States It's their website click on resources and
participantOne:(221860-249160): It's a tab across the top. And it'll come down and Catechism is one of the options. And you can order one from them. I haven't checked the price lately. They used to be about 20 bucks. And it's a great book, a great deal for 20 bucks. It's cheaper than Amazon. Or you could just read it online. But here's their definition of freedom.
participantOne:(250520-281560): Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. So far, so good. You know, that's kind of what I think of when I think of freedom. But their definition goes on a little bit. Freedom attains perfection in the acts, in its acts, when directed toward God, the sovereign good. And that's kind of it.
participantOne:(282480-312240): We all have autonomy. Freedom is a gift. It's a gift of our creation. But it all depends on how we use that. And if it's not directed, if our efforts in life aren't directed toward God, they are going to be directed to our disordered passions. And what we think of as freedom,
participantOne:(312560-345420): suddenly becomes we're enslaved to something else. So freedom is free. It's freely given, but we have to do some work. We have to do some work to use that gift. We can't just leave it on the shelf. So what do we have to do? What does freedom with aim towards God mean? It means we need to know God.
participantOne:(346440-379840): We need to develop a relationship with God. In my Protestant youth, I was raised in a Protestant church by those same Swedish immigrants. Our sermons were occasionally in Swedish, and they lasted, get this, for an hour, or maybe an hour and a half. It depends on how wound up the preacher was. And the hymns were in Swedish.
participantOne:(381800-413740): And we have to do some work in our own lives, in our own parishes. And so freedom is not freedom without some effort. We've got to do our part. God gives us the gift, we do our part to unfold it. So how do we maximize our experience of freedom? And I think there's three ways. Count them on the fingers of one hand.
participantOne:(414100-445100): Freedom is more developed through prayer, through scripture, and through reflection. Now let's consider each one of those briefly. So prayer, it can be formal or liturgical type of prayers. We all know those. The Hour of Father, the model of all prayers, is a formal or a liturgical prayer.
participantOne:(445740-477280): Hail Mary is another one. If you pray a rosary, yeah, that's a formal or liturgical prayer. One of the prayers that I start off with every day, because it helps me align myself towards God, is the Sushi Pei. And the Sushi Pei is an Ignatian prayer written by Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
participantOne:(477560-507660): And sushipe just means, in church life, just means receive. And I'm not receiving. I'm telling God to receive. Here's the prayer. It's the translation I say every morning. Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and possess.
participantOne:(508040-544160): You have given it all to me, and I return it to you, Lord. Everything is yours. Dispose of it according to your will. Give me your love and your grace for me. That is enough. Amen. The Sushi Prayer. It's a great way to start the day. My own prayer life, I tend to start the morning, even before I get out of bed, with formal prayers.
participantOne:(544439-568340): written prayers. Why? Because I'm not awake yet. I haven't had coffee yet. And I do try to limit my coffee intake to no more than 50 cups a day. Moderation in all things. As a former health care provider, I'm giving you that bit of advice. Moderation.
participantOne:(569360-600940): So the formal prayers are ways that I can, one, wake up, and two, start my day with the conversation of sorts with God. So formal prayers are a great way. Sushi Pei is a good morning prayer to begin with. So we can have formal prayers. We can also have extemporaneous prayers. And those prayers can fall into like two different categories.
participantOne:(601860-635080): I can do petitions, which means God helped me with something. And I have maybe a list of things that I want to do. Help me be less of a jerk. Help me to be more attentive to the needs of others. Show me what you want me to do today, whatever the petition is. Most of us do a lot of intercessory prayer. We're praying for other people.
participantOne:(635579-665940): We're interceding on their behalf. We're praying for people who are so ill or so depressed or so despairing, they can't put their needs into words. That's what we do for them. That's what the saints do for us. When we pray for... I'm a secular Franciscan. When I ask St. Francis of Assisi for aid,
participantOne:(666160-700380): He's interceding for me. So formal prayers and then these extemporaneous prayers in our own words. Now they can get carried away. You know, I do. God doesn't need all kinds of flowery language in your prayers. It took me a while to go back to extemporaneous prayers. Because in my youth on Sundays,
participantOne:(700620-704900): We all used to go to each other's homes in our church.
participantOne:(705280-735080): and we'd go over for Sunday dinner. And we'd go to the Abraham's one week, the Gustafsens another week. And then they would come to our house. And then there was always a certain amount of pressure on my father or whoever the patriarch of that family was to give a good pre-meal prayer, saying grace. I've got to tell you,
participantOne:(735780-763540): Some of those prayers were like a half hour long, I'm thinking, past the roast and the mashed potatoes and my mother would go, he's not done yet. So your extemporaneous prayers don't need to be lengthy. They need to be heartfelt.
participantOne:(764199-790940): So before you start your conversation, your pleading with God, think, what do I want to say? Sometimes you don't know what you want to say. That's the time to remember St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 8, verse 26. When we can't pray...
participantOne:(791720-818480): That verse says the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. It's a neat verse. So instead of praying these prayers, here are our own words. There's also something that people kind of call contemplative prayer or centering prayer and that's
participantOne:(819520-851860): Where we sit, you know, I, in my contemplative prayer, I, in my mind, I have an image of me, six feet, 180 pounds, crawling up into God's lap, Dad's lap. That's what Abba Father means, Dad. Crawling up into my Dad's lap, and just resting in his embrace. And prayer can be without words.
participantOne:(852439-887700): It can be feelings. It can be feelings of security. Or if I'm apprehensive about something, I'm just in dad's arms and I'm giving it to him. So centering prayer. So think about prayer for a moment. What is your prayer life like? Remember, we're supposed to pray without ceasing. So it's not once in the morning and done.
participantOne:(889060-921760): When I was ordained, I promised the bishop. We make five promises when we're ordained. One of them is to pray the liturgy of the hours. And there are seven offices in the liturgy of the hours. We have to pray morning and evening prayer. Just like every priest, every deacon, most religious in religious orders. And worship.
participantOne:(922020-951660): Millions of lay people pray morning and evening prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. For the last 10-15 years I've been praying all seven. I always have a book with me. The book itself is kind of beat up, so I got a cover for $24 to put on the book to hold it together. Which brings, well we'll come back to that.
participantOne:(952060-979700): So, if you haven't tried the Liturgy of the Hours, give it a shot. The books cost 40 bucks a piece. There's four of them because you rotate your way through the books. But online, on your phone, and I've got it in my mind, there's something called iBrieBrie. It's a free app.
participantOne:(980780-1011280): So if you don't know how to spell brevery, it's B-R-E-B-I-A-R-Y. With a little I in front of it to look cute. I-brevery. And it's a free app. Try it out. And it has all the words that you're supposed to say, all the prayers. So it's a good place to start. That's formal or liturgical prayer.
participantOne:(1011520-1054180): and it might give you a jumping point into more scripture. So we've got prayer, we've got now let's talk about scripture and sacred reading. If you don't have a bible in your house get one. How can you know what the Lord's will is for us if we don't pray, if we don't read? When I pray
participantOne:(1054540-1086940): I'm speaking to God when I read His scripture, His word. I'm encountering God, and that's one way He speaks to me. And people will say, well, I go to daily Mass, or I have a Magnifica, and I read the Mass readings for each day. And my response is, great start.
participantOne:(1088600-1116220): I read the daily readings every day too. In part because I'm preaching most days. Either at nursing homes, prison, jail. I'm going to jail tonight, but only for an hour or two. I'm going to prison Monday night, me and Deacon Pat. But they let us out.
participantOne:(1116820-1146340): So, yeah, so I have the daily readings. We do communion services, which for us is everything except in a mass, except the Eucharistic prayer. Because we deacons do not have the faculties, it's called, to confect, it's called, the species with bread and the wine.
participantOne:(1146580-1178920): into the sacred body and blood. Only a priest can do that. So when we have communion services, deacons go to the local church. I go to Queens, the Adoration Chapel, and pick up Jesus and carry him along to wherever we can. So yeah, if you read the daily readings every day throughout the three-year cycle, how much scripture do you get?
participantOne:(1180120-1218300): So you get 70% of the New Testament and 90% of the Gospels. You get not quite 14% of the Old Testament. We're missing a lot. We're missing most of the Old Testament. And we are called to know that. It's not just picking up the New Testament and starting there.
participantOne:(1219520-1257080): We lose that sense of God acting in the lives of humanity since creation began. We lose that thread. We lose coming to know God in a more complete way. So reading scripture. If you don't have a Bible, usccb.org They have one online. You can read for free. I also have
participantOne:(1257600-1294440): ESV, English Standard Version. It's a free app on the Bible, or on my phone. But I always have one in my case, or in my truck, or in my car. And, uh, read it. So, again, find time to read it. Ask yourself, what is my pattern of Bible reading? What role does it play in my life? That's worth some thought.
participantOne:(1295900-1330160): Now, prayer, scripture reading, the last of the three colors that I'm going to call them is reflection. This isn't meditation, although that could be part of it. It isn't contemplation. Contemplation is a gift from God. It's reflection is engaging our rational mind and trying to use it to think about it.
participantOne:(1330820-1370160): What should I be praying for? And how do I see my prayers working? What have I been reading in Scripture? What meaning does it have for me? How can I apply it to my prayer? Father Tim, or Father Chaz, or Father... other Father Tim, preach at Mass. What do I think about that? And what is my take away? So reflection is safe. I'm in the process.
participantOne:(1370980-1406540): We live in such a rushed world that we lose that. We lose that quiet time. So, prayer, scripture, reflection. Those are the ways that we can maximize our understanding of freedom, what it entails. And we can align ourselves to God's will, to God's plan for the world.
participantOne:(1407120-1448920): to help in his ongoing work. But we can't do it without prayer, reflection, and scripture. I'm a spiritual director, and I have lots of people coming to me. And the most common question is, how do I discern God's will for my life? And it's not going to come, POOM! There it is! God asks us to engage in the tools that he's given us. And that helps us align. What's the end result?
participantOne:(1451760-1489080): That is understanding that my freedom rests on acknowledging my own limitation, my own dependence, and that my own desire to grow in my own life. It brings us equanimity. In my own life, I was joking with somebody that I've only been retired for four and a half years.
participantOne:(1490900-1524960): But I've had six surgeries so far. Don't I know how to have a good time in retirement? These golden years are truly gold, let me tell you. And three of them were, you know, just kind of easy surgeries, you know, cataract and ETI. But a couple of them were pretty rigorous and pretty, you know, potential-laden for bad things happening.
participantOne:(1525960-1570840): And I'm still, I've got three more years to go before my surveillance for my colon cancer. So nothing yet so far, praise God, but it shows up. I'm still getting up every day in the morning, saying my prayer, spacing out my physical counseling. So in the discussion groups, there are some questions there. Reflecting on your own.
participantOne:(1571440-1607080): your own experience with prayer, with scripture reading, with reflecting, time for reflecting. What roles do they play in your life? How would you like to change them? And this morning, what can you commit to in front of people to grow deeper?
participantOne:(1610860-1644660): All right, so grab some coffee and listen to a few words from our leader here. All right. A round of applause for Deacon Rick. Thank you, Deacon Rick. While I was listening to him, I realized you could also go the other way. If you want to maximize your slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil, all you need to do is stop praying, ignore the Bible, just tune it out,
participantOne:(1645020-1672980): you know, get rid of the Bible that you own, and then also live a life totally devoted to distraction. So if you want to maximize slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil, just ignore everything that he said, because we have a choice. We have never had an official Q&A session, but today we could make an exception.
participantOne:(1673740-1709760): Today we could make an exception. All right. How do you read the Bible? I tried to ask you. I have a fifth person. Sure. The question is, how do you read the Bible? The absolute worst way to begin is to start with Genesis 1-1 and go to the last chapter or the last verse in Revelation. Lord Jesus, come. Maranatha.
participantOne:(1710400-1744100): It can be done. It takes some grit, some determination, but what I would recommend is pick a book in the New Testament and maybe a gospel and just say, I'm going to read Luke, let's say, and start off reading and pray first. Before I sit down and read, I'm going to pray, Lord,
participantOne:(1745220-1776760): we can see in this passage today. And then it's got these chapter things and the separation. So read the chapter or read until something really catches your attention. Stop there and reflect. It's not like you have to read. There's no deadline. There's no final exam except the last judgment.
participantOne:(1777560-1802640): And so it's not like you're under any pressure. But that would be a place to start. The other place, if you have your Bible, if it's a study kind of Bible with footnotes, it'll have little footnotes on particular verses that will link you to maybe an Old Testament reference.
participantOne:(1803080-1847440): or if it's something that appears in all the Gospels, and then explore the footnotes. But it's slow and easy, I guess is my idea. Slow, easy, and daily. Father Mike Schmitz on the Bible is my point of view. Sure. The Bible in the air, he also has catechism in the air. Does that help?
participantOne:(1849020-1876360): St. Vincent de Paul stores, if you go in and tell them that you want to get a Bible, they pretty much do it for you. It's no charge. So what version of the Bible should we use? The translation that's used in our Mass is the New American Bible. You can get a New American Bible Revised Edition.
participantOne:(1876660-1906260): and it's got, you know, minute revisions in it, but it's essentially the same. The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition is approved also for Catholic study and meditation. There's all sorts of things, of translations. Now, there's three or four or five translations. There are different versions.
participantOne:(1906700-1932580): So if you don't have a Bible yet, get a study Bible. Check out St. Vincent de Paul, the Catholic shop where I live, and just look for a Catholic study Bible. There is a difference between Catholic and Protestant Bibles. In the Protestant Bible, their Bibles lack seven Old Testament books.
participantOne:(1933040-1965180): and we won't go through the reasons why. But if you get a Protestant Bible, and I've got four or five of those, and I've got maybe six or seven Catholic Bibles, moderation in all things. But if I'm having trouble understanding a particular verse or passage, then I'll compare it to different translations since I don't speak more Greek.
participantOne:(1968100-2011060): Any other questions? Go ahead. I have a comment, but a question. I just want to ask you for that morning prayer. Please, my question is now and everything else. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Were there any other questions? Okay, we're going to do things a little bit differently. I asked a couple of guys to be table discussion leaders. Would you guys get up and pick a table so you're not sitting at the same table as the other guys?
participantOne:(2011580-2044714): I don't remember how many guys I asked. I asked at least three guys, possibly more. Three guys, okay. And then, uh, Steve Berkemeyer, would you lead discussion at a table? And Michael Philpott, would you lead discussion at a table? Is that a yes? Okay. All of you guys pick a table and then everybody else, you can gravitate to whoever you like best in the back.
