Dominica II in Quadragesima - Prayer

LESSON: Prayer sustains penance

We have now completed our first full week of the Lenten season, and most if not all of us here will at this point have experienced at least one of two things if not both. Either we have had a moment of serious regret about choosing the penance that we did, or we’ve had a moment of serious temptation to cheat on the Lenten resolution that we made.

If we haven’t experienced at least one of those two things, then it means that we are either so advanced on the road to sanctity that our passions are perfectly subordinated to our will, or it means that the penance that we’ve chosen is not the right one for us, or not serious enough to help us grow in holiness.

Assuming that we’ve had that moment of struggle though, we now move on to the next subject of our Lenten reflections, the second pillar of Lent, and the one that is going to sustain us through those moments of trial and temptation, prayer.

Prayer is, of course, essential every day of the year, it’s impossible to sustain the Christian life without the sturdy backbone of the daily rhythm of prayer, but in the season of Lent it becomes all the more important to sustain us in the battle against temptation, and against our own fallen nature.

The Catechism puts it like this:

Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) Article 2: The Battle of Prayer

Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? Against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. The “spiritual battle” of the Christian’s new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.

ILLUSTRATION: The holy man’s temptation

There once was an old man who had chosen St. John the Baptist as his patron, and tried to follow his example by leaving his home and his friends to live in a lonely place in the wilderness and spend his days in prayer and penance.

When he had been doing this for about 10 years, the devil began to fill his mind with thoughts of despair, and to make him think that all of his holy efforts were fruitless. When the temptation reached its height, he decided that he would return home. As he began to depart he heard a voice say to him, “What are you going to do?”

He was filled with fear and began to look around for the source of the voice, but could see no one. He cried out, “I am going to return to my home in the world, since I cannot save my poor soul here.”

The same voice answered, “That is a temptation of the wicked one. Remain here in your cell. During these ten years you have spent in this place you have had to fight against many temptations, and you have overcome them all. For each of them there is in store for you in Heaven a bright crown of glory.”

The old man was consoled by these words, and returned to his life of prayer and penance until the day of his death.

Even the saintliest people still experience temptations, but it is through persevering in prayer that these temptations are overcome, and we can persevere in our works of penance.

APPLICATION: Prayer for the Lenten journey

The battle of prayer becomes all the more important in the season of Lent if we are to sustain ourselves through the challenging road of penance. There are certainly many wonderful devotional prayers that are common in the Lenten season.

For some praying the Stations of the Cross can be a wonderful way to recall the events of Our Lord’s final hours on earth, and the sufferings he endured. Many pray this prayer every Friday of Lent, some take it up as a daily devotion for the whole season.

The seven penitential psalms are a staple of Lenten prayer, and for nearly a millennium, they formed a part of the Divine Office during Lent. They can be a source of both great contrition, and great devotion. St. Augustine, as he lay dying, had a monk write them out in large letters and post them near his bed so he could continually pray them in his final days on earth.

However, perhaps the best way to sustain ourselves during this season of penitence, is to meditate on the subjects of Our Lord’s Passion, and the Four Last Things.

The Catechism describes the practice of meditation in these words:

Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) II. Meditation

Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) II. Meditation

To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. We pass from thoughts to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

Meditating on the Passion of Our Lord reminds us of the great sufferings that Our Lord willing endured out of love for us, and can inspire us to endure our sufferings out of love for God.

Meditation on the Four Last things reminds us that the price of sin is death, and that the just reward for sin is Hell, but sustained by God’s grace, if we truly repent and do penance for our sins, then it sustains us in our hope of a Heavenly inheritance.

However we have chosen to pray during this Lenten season, it should be for us that source of sustaining grace that allows us to live our penance well each day, and perhaps even joyfully.

Today when Our Lord comes to us in Holy Communion, in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, let us ask him for the grace of sustaining prayer throughout this Holy Season, and beyond.