Time for a Year of Faith progress check!

Why do we pray?  At first our response may be “because it’s the right thing to do” or “because I was taught to pray growing up and have continued that habit.”  Looking deeper though, really—why DO we pray?  Something draws us in to prayer, something that may not make sense to us, something beyond us, something bigger than each one of us.  No, not someTHING, but SomeONE. That Someone is God the Father through His Son and Spirit.  In Mark’s Gospel (Mark 6:34) the people in the crowd similarly felt drawn to Jesus.  They may not have understood why, but they followed Jesus, they were drawn to Him.  The Gospel says, “They were like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus is our Shepherd; He is the more that we are drawn to.  St. Augustine says, “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.”  Through Jesus Christ’s presence among each one of us, especially in the Eucharist, we are drawn to God where we find truth and happiness, just like the apostles and crowds were drawn to follow Jesus.

In this Year of Faith we are asked as Catholics to enter into deeper faith, a deeper relationship with God, deeper prayer.   We are almost five months into the Year of Faith; how is prayer going?  Have we responded to God’s call to enter into a deeper relationship of prayer with Him?  Have we followed in Mary’s example, saying ‘Yes!’ to the Lord?  I know I haven’t, not in all of the ways that I can.  The good news is that the Year of Faith is just that, a whole year long.  We aren’t quite halfway yet, there is still opportunity to respond fully, to say Yes to the Lord.  It’s a great opportunity today to reflect on our prayer life and what we have done for the Year of Faith so far.

Not sure what to do for the Year of Faith?  Saint Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews (Heb 13: 15-17) gives us a good place to start.  “Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.” 

Everything we are, every gift we have is from God.  We should live our lives knowing that and offering our lives back to God in praise.  Today, enter into prayer not as merely saying words, but to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to listen to Him and how He speaks to your heart through His Holy Spirit. Then take that prayer, that relationship to your daily life.