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Thursday after Ash Wednesday – Lent and Prayer
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Thursday after Ash Wednesday – Lent and Prayer

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Today’s readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1; Luke 9:22-25

We are in the middle of the great shift in the liturgical year, as we begin the forty days of Lent. We have enjoyed Shrove Tuesday with a nice meal and pancakes in different flavours. In this way the last day before Lent has been properly marked, and so we have entered Ash Wednesday in silence and prayer. We have been marked with the cross on our forehead, and we have witnessed how the liturgy changes, how the prayers of the Church and the psalmodies lead us in to deeper layers of our faith. And most of us have heard or remember the “golden triangle” through which God invites us to come closer to him, that is by fasting, almsgiving and prayer. Each one of these cornerstones is fundamental in our Christian life, and today I would like to pay attention to the latter, the prayer.

Some days ago, someone gave me advice concerning prayer: “If you wish to pray because you think it will make you feel better – just forget it!” There is a point. Prayer is not a question of “what’s in it for me”. Nevertheless, we may find a positive answer to this question if we twist it a little and ask ourselves, ”what do I get out of it?”. The answer is: myself. Let me explain. Our prayer life is not a remedy to feel better, as if God was a “drug” we take to get in a better mood. The Christian prayer life has a very different objective. To be Christian is to conform ourselves more and more to Christ Jesus. When we confess ourselves as Christians, we confess that we are called to a gradual transformation where we grow closer to Christ himself. That is, to live life as Jesus did, to search for the same relationship with the Father, to see the needs of humanity and to act upon all this in whichever context we may be. We are called to change the focus point in our life, from ourselves towards Christ, and towards our neighbour. In this way, prayer is not a question of what I might get, it is rather a question of getting out of myself, of my inwardness and self centeredness.
But to “get out of myself” in this sense is not a self-denial as if we rejected our own person. Prayer leads us towards our God-given humanity and dignity. Prayer opens our hearts for the Holy Spirit, for an open relation with our God. Prayer won’t necessarily make me feel better. But it may make me feel more whole as a person, as it leads me towards a deeper understanding of the meaning of my existence. Let us then enter the daily life of Lent with faith and confidence in our God, sustained by prayer and silence.

Bror Haavar Simon Nilsen OP

Categories:
Lent

fr Haavar Simon Nilsen is a son of the French Province, resident in his native Norway. He studied for a masters degree in Applied Theology at Blackfriars, Oxford.

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