While carrying out my Lenten
discipline of prayer I’ve found that God has a sense of humor. This Lent I’ve felt a need to spend some time
in quiet prayer listening to God. I’m obligated to pray daily the liturgy of
the hours, morning and evening prayer. I’m
pretty good at doing this on a daily basis but I fell out of the habit quiet
prayer to listen to the Lord. I used to schedule weekly an hour of prayer in
Eucharistic adoration. So this week I
planned to go to a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel on the North side of
Indianapolis after a morning meeting. I was really looking forward to going to
this chapel, as it was isolated and away from distractions. After 5 minutes of quiet prayer some loud banging
and clanking noise came from just outside the hall. This continued on for about
10 minutes and I was getting a bit annoyed.
It was very distracting to listen to God, but I was determined to
stay. Finally the noise stopped and it was
quiet…for about 30 seconds. Then a loud
vacuum started up and I was getting distracted again. An inspiration came to me from Peter in
today’s Gospel, “Master, it’s good that we are here.” So instead of being distracted I was content
to be in the Lord’s presence. Amazingly
after making this peace with the noise stopped, and it was finally quiet
again. Praise the Lord! This lasted for about another 30 seconds and
until a very loud drill started up. I
think this was God’s humorous way of telling me that things always don’t go as
planned.
At the start of today’s
Gospel Jesus goes up to the mountain with Peter, James, and John to do
something very important: to pray.
Jesus takes time to pray quite often so he can be in relationship with
the Father. If you listen to many of the
Gospel stories you’ll find that Jesus takes time to pray before and after
ministering to those who are in need.
It’s essential for his ministry. So
while Jesus is in prayer, what are Peter, James, and John doing? They were
overcome with sleep possibly missing the transfigured Jesus because they were
too tired to pay attention.
Our busy and hectic lives can
make us tired and leave little time for prayer. We’re on fast-paced schedules
from the time the alarm goes off in the morning till we get home at night. If we get a break we’re using social media to
catch up on family or friends. After we
get home we’re taking kids to practice, preparing dinner, and make sure that
homework is done. After the kids are in
bed it’s finally quiet time to get things done for our self to get ready for
the next day. After all that’s done maybe there’s some time pray, but
exhaustion sets in. So you decide to pray a rosary and after 2 Hail Mary’s your
sound asleep. Does this sound
familiar?
Peter, James and John did
finally wake up in time to see Jesus transfigured as well as Moses and
Elijah. Peter didn’t know quite what to
make of it, and told Jesus, “Master, it’s good to be here. We should build
three tents.” Peter may have thought Jesus was one of the prophets, but the Father
reveals that “This is my Chosen Son, Listen to him.” This revelation of Jesus’ special
relationship to the Father provided them insight into who Jesus was to give
them strength to endure the trials accompanying Jesus in his ministry. This revelation would soon be made known to many
of Christ’s saving ministry as he journeyed to Calvary.
Would you like the Father to
reveal Jesus to you? How can we do this? By following what God invited Peter, James,
and John to do: Listen to him. What’s a good way to do this? By following
Jesus example of frequent prayer! All of
us are off to a great start for our week because the Mass is the greatest
prayer of all. Jesus is present to us in His Word and the Eucharist. Do you desire for the Mass to be a richer and
deeper experience and to grow in your relationship with Jesus? If so consider scheduling
time each day to listen to Jesus by reading the upcoming Sunday’s Scripture. There are four readings for each Sunday that
are listed each week in the bulletin or easily found online. If you spend just
5 minutes each day reading and reflecting on one of the Scripture passage you
will be listening to Jesus daily. Knock
out these four and you’ll have a few more days listen to Jesus in prayer.
I shared my prayer experience
earlier to let you know that prayer doesn’t have to be perfect. You’re going to get distracted. Your mind is will wonder. You’ll get interrupted. That’s all ok. The important thing is spending time to
listen to Jesus. There’s also going to be times that you may hear him. But most
often it will be in encounters with people in your every day experiences that
God is working through. It could be
through the kindness that another person extends to you or you being present to
someone who’s struggling. By taking time
in prayer you’ll be more awake to the presence of God in your experiences
throughout the day.
I’ve suggested scheduling
time to be in prayer. If you really want
to listen to Jesus, make an appointment calendar to be with Him. Most of us schedule appointments for important
matters in our lives. Why not do the same
for prayer? A friend of mine shared a
saying with me about finding time to pray by Fr. Hilary Ottensmeyer, a
Benectine Monk. Until you’re convinced
that prayer is the best use of your time, you will not find the time for
prayer. Blessed Mother Theresa of
Calcutta also said, “There is nothing more important than prayer.” I hope
you’ll find that time in prayer is worth it.
I invite each of you this week to schedule some time to listen to Jesus in
prayer and hope it grows into a regular habit. Let us now proceed to be
strengthened by Jesus in the Eucharist so we can be prepared to listen to
him.
