Prayer - An Essential Part of the Spiritual Life

Homily for Thursday of the First Week in Lent

Both readings for today highlight an essential element of our Lenten journey; namely, prayer. First, we are given an example of prayer in the person of Esther from the Hebrew Scriptures. Her prayer is obviously prayed from the heart as she is not using some rote or memorized words. We are also told that she lies prostrate on the floor in a posture of prayer. She also includes a memory from the history of her ancestors who also placed their needs before God and the favorable answer that they received. Judaism as well as Christianity are religions that depend heavily on memory.

The Gospel also teaches us about prayer, particularly about the need for us to be persistent and patient in our prayer. God has promised us to hear our prayers and to grant our petitions. Though God acts in God’s own time, because we live in a different reality, we must be patient.

These are all words that we have all heard before. No one can prove to any of us the intrinsic value of prayer for a disciple of Christ. In many ways, prayer must be learned by doing. A continual deepening of our prayer life, a more consistent dependence on it for our life in Christ is the heart of Christian prayer life. Once it becomes as natural and continued as our breathing, it affects all we do and makes possible a Christian response to all that happens.

We also have the example of Jesus at prayer. Perhaps the most convincing prayer that he offered was as he was approaching his passion and death. “Your will be done.” Another way of saying the same thing is “Let me do what you want me to do, God, and help me to bring others to you.”

We have often been told that the Eucharist is the highest form of prayer. The Eucharist is a memory, a memory that recalls that sacrifice is an important part of prayer. Any prayer, coupled with a sincere desire to let one’s self become a sacrificial offering, is pleasing to God just as the sacrifice that Jesus made was very pleasing to God.