Lent Week 1: Tuesday

We hear a lot at the beginning of Lent about fasting, almsgiving and prayer as the three practices which should mark this season. In the case of fasting and almsgiving, at least, it’s fairly obvious what they involve, though that doesn’t mean we don’t struggle to do them in the right way and with the right spirit. With prayer in particular, however, it can be very difficult to know if you’re doing it right, and thus very easy to get downhearted and give up trying.

Today’s readings, though, bring us right to the heart of the question. In the Gospel, Jesus himself says quite simply, ‘This is how you are to pray’ (Matthew 6:9) as he gives to the Church, through the Apostles, the Our Father. As St Augustine says, ‘if we pray rightly and fittingly, we can say nothing other than that which is found in the Lord’s Prayer.’

As we seek during this Lenten season to grow in prayer, let us ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to give us an ever greater insight into the prayer which Jesus taught us. Thus may we be ever more closely united with the prayer of Christ, which reached its consummation on the Cross. So united, we can be sure our prayer will “work”, for Christ is the word that goes forth from the mouth of the Lord, who ‘shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it’ (Isaiah 55:11).