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Catholic Diocese of Saginaw | CC BY-ND 2.0
By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Feb. 01, 2023
Have you ever been so annoyed by someone’s behavior in church, you were tempted to yell at him? It happened to me today. The culprit was…myself.
Praying before the Blessed Sacrament, in a nearly empty chapel, I felt the urge to shout—at myself—“Shut up!”
If you let me explain, I think you’ll understand. Maybe you sometimes feel the same urge. Maybe you should.
It goes without saying that I was distracted in my prayer. Who isn’t? St. Teresa of Avila, from whom so many people have learned how to pray, spoke about the “madwoman of the house,” who would come barging into the conversation, persistently introducing irrelevant thoughts. …
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Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.