How often do we pray? Do we pray just once a week at Sunday Mass? Do we enter into prayer once or twice a day when blessing our meals? How about several times throughout the day with devotions and short prayers? Is prayer something we just fit into our schedules whenever we can?
Yet, we should follow the example of Our Lord who sought to pray always. The Gospels show us Our Lord frequently at prayer before He made any major decision or undertook a journey. Throughout the Gospel of Luke, we see Our Lord at prayer; today’s reading is no exception to the rule. Before speaking to His disciples, Our Lord is praying in solitude. Jesus sought to be always at prayer, to be always in union with Our Heavenly Father. This should be our desire as well. We should also desire to be in union with Our Lord, in union with God our Father.
We might ask: Why do we need to pray? Isn’t it good enough to come to Mass? As Christians, we know that following Our Lord is not easy. In fact, Our Lord tells us that we need to “deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow him.” To truly follow Our Lord is not a simple thing, and we need help. We need to seek help from Our Lord, we need His assistance to follow Him.
We have a promise which has been given to us from the Prophet Zechariah that God our Heavenly Father will “pour out […] a spirit of grace and petition.” As Christians, we received that spirit when we were baptized, the fulfillment of the other promise God made through Zechariah, that God will “open […] a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.”
Through our baptism, our sins were cleansed, and we received the grace of the Holy Spirit poured down upon us, which allows us to pray to God. St. Paul tells us that we “who were baptized unto Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” By doing this, we became “children of God in Christ Jesus.” As children of God, we need to be emulating Jesus during His life on earth when he regularly spent time in prayer.
Through prayer, we gain the assistance from God we need, so I ask you again, how often do you pray? Do we take time throughout the day to pray a Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet? Do we take time throughout our day, doesn’t have to be much more than a few seconds, to say a brief prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the gift of life and everything God gives us throughout our lives? When we reach a moment of difficulty in our lives, do we turn it over to Our Lord, or do we first become angry, frustrated or annoyed?
Some may find prayer difficult, but we been given the tools to pray. We have the devotions, like the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Litanies, or one of the thousands of prayers which have given to us throughout the history of the Church. The greatest devotion is daily adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, spending even just a few minutes before Our Lord in the tabernacle here within the church. Even better is daily Mass, being able to receive Our Lord daily in Holy Communion, but if that’s not possible, we do well to spend some time in adoration.
Do we take advantage of sacramentals, those objects which have been given to us by the Church to aid us in prayer, draw us closer to Our Lord and the Sacraments He gave us? We have Holy Water, which reminds us of our baptism, medals of the saints to remind us of their lives and place us under their intercession, scapulars of Our Lady that place us under her protection, and so many more. Do we take advantage of these tools to help us grow in grace and draw closer to Our Lord?
We are daily called to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Though following Him will be difficult, we have been given the tools to undertake the journey. May we this day and every day for the rest of our lives use these tools to draw closer to Him.
