“…we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the
sea of God’s boundless love, to enjoy its tenderness.” --Pope Francis' Ash Wednesday Homily
Yesterday,
our Holy Father called us to lead a more ardent life of prayer during this
Lenten season. Prayer is what brings us
closer to the Lord. I have used the
metaphor that the Pope used yesterday of the sea to illustrate the immensity of
God’s love and that we are the ones called to dive into that sea to feel his eternal
embrace. One can get lost in that
immense sea. But is this wrong? How can we get truly lost if we are
surrounded by God in prayer? He focuses our attention on what is important, and
who and what to pray for, and on our heart’s need to never be satisfied with
whatever time we devote to prayer. I
know that in my personal prayer life, when I enter into deep prayer with the
Lord, much like when I’m in the sea, I don’t want to get out. But mission
calls. Prayer spurs us to charitable
action. It is also in prayer where we
present our needs to the Lord and present to him all those who have asked for
our prayers. Just yesterday, I was
answering phones and a young man simply said, “Can you please pray for me?” I said of course. But he was insistent in wanting to hear over
the phone some sort of prayer directed heavenward specifically for him. So many depend on our prayers: the sick, the
lonely, the desperate, and let us never forget the blessed souls of purgatory
who depend on our prayers. May we
dedicate ourselves more firmly this Lent to daily prayer, and spend more quality
time before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
(And if you’re reading this, know that you are in my prayers as well.)
