We pray to Christ as our God, Christ prays for us (as our Priest), and He prays in us as our head. (St. Augustine)

Lent has launched, and we are starting on our forty day journey into the wilderness of our lives. The intersection of naturall and supernatural receives a nudge in Lent as we look around for a way closer to the One who rose fro the dead.

In the past I have given up desserts, alcoholic drinks, chocolate, and T.V. I believe that all of that did help remind me to pray and to read the Bible, but this year I believe that the biggest nudge my spirit can receive is much simpler: more and more regular prayer. In the lives of saints like St. Augustine, it’s often in prayer that God spoke to them, until their lives were prayers themselves. St. Thomas Aquinas was said to have remained silent for the last year of his life, neither speaking nor writing, but wrapped in prayer.

I don’t aspire to be like St. Thomas, but I do believe that internalizing Lent might be more meaningful than skipping dessert. I have decided to “clean up” my prayer life by not allowing so many diversions to keep me from praying at least daily, and perhaps twice daily in a purposeful way that does not include hasty prayers while I’m doing something else. I will never abandon those, but the deeper ones need more attention now.

When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. . . Do not be like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:6-8) Jesus said this just before he gave his disciples the very words to have in their mouths and in their heads, the words that have become known as the “Lord’s Prayer”

Equally as valuable as this prayer gift is the prayer that Jesus prayed at Gethsemane: “Abba, Father, he said. “Everything is possible for you . Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

In these two prayers, the son of God gave us a blueprint for our relationship to his Father and our Father, as well as for our relationships to one another. These prayers have been the wellspring for preachers and teachers, and even just for friends praying for one another. On battlefields and in hospitals and sick beds at homes world-wide, these words have advanced the kingdom, and we may go freely to this well every day.

Love in Him,

Prue