2nd Sunday of Lent 2023

Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart, make our hearts link unto Thine.

The Desire for God Waning

We live in a world that grows ever more secular and ungodly, and we are faced with the ever-increasing difficulty of leading a holy life. Many souls have a vague desire for truer spiritual life but fail to seek it. Prayer, which is like the life sustaining air of spiritual life, is often neglected. Many people feel that there is something wrong with their prayer life, you may be one of them. Some people think that it is a waste of time to go on "praying" as they do; others find the time given to prayer a burden and maybe even intolerable.

With that said don’t we desire that we would have a more spiritual life.

What is Spiritual Life?

Simply put, spiritual life is the relationship one has with God. What is spiritual death? Simply put it is the separation of one from God. Our lack of relationship with God.

As biological/physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, So spiritual death is the separation of the grace from the soul/spirit.

The devil and demons are spirits who are spiritually dead. They have freely chosen to live without God. The damned and those in mortal sin are also spiritual dead. These people also have chosen sin over God and His commandments. Having done so they either are too proud to confess their sins to one of God’s ministers, a priest or care not to ask God forgiveness, they may even believe that they have done no wrong.

What is Prayer?

Prayer is an elevation of the mind and heart to God, to adore Him, to praise Him, to thank Him for His benefits, and to beg His grace and mercy. Four types of prayer: Adoration; Thanksgiving; Petition; Reparation;

A homily from the early Church explains prayer (Pseudo-Chrysostom): The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because it means that we are in God’s company and in union with Him. When light enters our bodily eyes our eyesight is sharpened; when a soul is intent on God, God’s inextinguishable light shines into it and makes it bright and clear. I am talking, of course, of prayer that comes from the heart and not from routine: not the prayer that is assigned to particular days or particular moments in time, but the prayer that happens continuously by day and by night.

Prayer is the light of the souls, true knowledge of God, a mediator between God and men. Prayer lifts the souls into the heavens where it hugs God in an indescribable embrace. The soul seeks the milk of God like a baby crying for the breast.

I warn you, though: do not imagine that prayer is simply words. Prayer is the desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man but brought about by God’s grace. As St Paul says: For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit Himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be put into words.

In today’s Gospel we read how Our Lord takes three of His disciples up the mountain, separating them from the world below to spend time alone with God and heavenly companions. And being so separated they are blessed with heavenly revelations and visions. We hear about this being repeated in the lives of the saints, St Bernadette vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes, St Margaret Mary vision of Our Lord in the monastery Alacoque, St Anthony, St Padre Pio, St Frances, etc.

Follow the movements of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit often tries to lead us to Christ who we often find in the quiet of the wilderness of prayer, on the lonely mountain top of contemplation. The Holy Spirit moves us to heavenly and holy things, while worldly spirit will lead us to the things of this world which will perish. The holy desires to pray and make sacrifice can be dampened or even extinguished by the worldly desires and the desires of the flesh, the world and the flesh will try to lead us astray, away from God.

I encourage you all to try to shut out the world’s noise with its continual distractions, the noise of the media and entertainment. By means of our fasting, abstinence, prayer and almsgiving we will resist the evil spirit’s influence and find God in our lives.

CS Lewis in one of His books of The Chronicles of Narnia warns us of the worldly atmosphere/environment:

I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.

― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia