Written by Sr. Rosemary Finnegan, O.P.
For most of us, Lent means 3 things: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Another way to say these 3 things are:
- Give Up
- Take Up
- Lift Up
- Give up: things or activities as a practice of penitence. I met 2 active teens this week who told me they’re giving up all carbs for Lent, and during the last 2 weeks, they’re giving up all meat. At the school Mass last week, Fr. Walsh asked ‘what were some things they were giving up?’ My favorite response was from a little girl who said she was giving up ‘vegetables’. When everyone laughed, she very seriously said that she really likes vegetables!
- Take up…which means doing charitable habits that care for others and help our sisters and brothers in need. On Saturday at our Haiti celebration, one woman told me that every Monday during Lent she calls her representatives to voice her support of not ending the TPS legal status for Haitians.
- Lift up…which are practices that help us offer our hearts to God in prayer, like visits to the Blessed Sacrament, saying the rosary, going to daily Mass, etc.
In our Gospel, Jesus helps us in our Lenten practice of prayer by giving us words to use when we pray… words of praise, contrition, and petition. We call those words the Our Father.
Jesus Himself is our source of inspiration and example of praying. He often departed to the mountain to pray. The precious time he spent with His Father in prayer was the lifeblood of his ministry, and the foundation of his peace and wisdom. Prayer came naturally to him, and he did nothing without consulting his Father in prayer. After he prayed, Jesus choose his 12 Apostles, healed the sick, performed miracles, and taught the crowds.
Jesus encourages us to be women and men of prayer. Today’s reading another invitation to take some time to think about our own prayer life, especially during Lent.
- What is God teaching me through my prayer?
- Do I have a regular or daily time of prayer?
- What effort on my part would improve my prayer life… be more consistent? pray more for others? listen more?
When the apostles asked him “how” to pray, Jesus gave us a pattern for prayer in the ‘Our Father’. He taught us to praise God, repent of our offenses, and trust that God will give us our daily bread.
Today, as we “give up” and “take up”, let us also “lift up” our hearts in earnest prayer.
