Be The Good Soil

- Mark 4 -

DAY 6 Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Reading I: Isaiah 55:10–11 Psalm: 34:4–5, 6–7, 16–17, 18–19 Gospel: Matthew 6:7–15

Prayer is a relationship. In fact, it is the most profound, most intimate, and most important of all relationships. Aristotle was wrong when he declared friendship between God and humans to be impossible, for the God–Man Himself tells us otherwise: “No longer do I call you servants, . . . but I have called you friends” (John 15:15). Prayer, or relationship with the divine, is essential to our nature. Without prayer, our lives lack that vertical dimension that gives us direction and meaning. St. Ephrem the Syrian is recorded as saying, “Birds fly, fish swim and human beings pray.” Precisely because prayer is such an integral part of who we are and precisely because of its relational importance, we must at all costs avoid letting it become a kind of mindless babbling which Our Lord warns against in the Gospel. Rather, let our prayer reflect the Word of God described in the first reading. Let our prayer be living and active, a sincere sharing of hearts with the One who gives seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats.

Let our prayer be a heartfelt expression of trust in Our Father, He who already knows our needs better than we do.

How can I rekindle a spirit of love in my prayer even on the days when it feels tedious and routine?

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