On the Third Sunday of Lent in the Catholic Church's Scripture readings, we hear King David's plea to us to join him as he turns to God in prayer.
PSALM 95 ...
"COME !
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS.
LET US COME INTO HIS PRESENCE .....
LET US BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP....
LET US KNEEL BEFORE THE LORD WHO MADE US..."
It is Spirit Lord, whose words are given voice through His servant King David, Who is beseeching us to kneel down alongside His servant in this passionate call to come into God's Presence with deep humility, reverence, awe.
Spirit Lord's appeal to us in these words of King David is an urgent call to prayer.
Do his words, echoing to us down through the millennia, resonate in our souls now, today?
As we set out on our Third Week of Lent, we may be given to recognize if we have been tempted to be less vigilant in our Lenten prayer promises. If so, we may dig deep and begin to identify the subtle strategies that have been utilized to tempt us to turn away from our walk alongside Jesus on His journey toward Jerusalem. Spiritual weariness? Spiritual apathy? Stress at work, at home? Have we been permitted to endure the sense of a spiritual fragility that taunts us by suggesting to us that these steps to Calvary are too risky, painful, too filled with potential life-changes that may cause our "normal" to drift out of our control?
It is with great spiritual joy that we realize, yes, we have been tempted to abandon our Lenten sacrifices.
A temptation is not a sin. Jesus the Lord was tempted by Satan himself in the Judean wilderness (Matthew 4; Luke 4). Lent is our wilderness time and when we are being tempted during these precious weeks, our proximity to the Living Furnace of Love is fine-tuning our souls for Divine possession and transformation.
It is good to remember an insight from St. Therese of the Child Jesus who was sorely and endlessly tempted, whose physical and emotional and spiritual temptations assaulted her, simultaneously, and without rest.....
"It is so consoling to think that Jesus, the strong God, experienced all our weaknesses, that He trembled at the sight of the bitter chalice - the cup that He had longed for so ardently."
And her advice to us as we falter? ...
"Always keep lifting your foot to climb the ladder of holiness, and do not imagine that you can mount even the first step. All God asks of you is good will."
"It is God Who, in His good will toward you, begets in you any measure of desire or achievement. "(Philippians 2:12-16)
HE IS THE GIVER. HE IS THE GIFT. HE IS THE DESIRE. HE IS THE REWARD. HE IS NEVER NOT PRESENT IN OUR SOULS.
HE IS THE ALL, IN ALL.
PRAYER IS OUR GOOD-WILL STEP IN OUR MOUNT TOWARD GOD.
"OUR FULCRUM IS GOD; OUR LEVER, PRAYER; PRAYER WHICH BURNS WITH LOVE. WITH THAT, WE CAN LIFT THE WORLD." (St. Therese)
To turn toward God is already to pray.....the desire to pray and the power to pray are gifted to us, rising
from the depths of our soul, inspired and graced and given breath by the movement of the Holy Spirit dwelling in those depths. To breathe is to pray if the pray-er loves God.
Does the plea of Spirit Lord, calling us to pray through the words of King David,
now resonate more loudly in our souls ...
"Come! ...bow down.....kneel before the Lord Who" made us?
Perhaps, when we are bowing down and kneeling before Him, we may breathe in the words of Our Lord Jesus as He rushes to come to us in our act of humility and His invitation to us is a deeply personal one...
"... (Hear Him speaking our name) ... Come away by yourself with me to a secluded place and rest a while." (Mark 6:31)
We may have pre-arranged to meet Him for a regular 10 minutes each night of Lent, in a darkened , silent place, with a little artificial candle for light.
A prayer of petition first prayed by St. John of the Cross may begin and conclude our wordless conversation with Our Lord each night...
"NOW I ASK YOU, LORD, NOT TO ABANDON ME AT ANY TIME IN MY RECOLLECTION
FOR I AM A SQUANDERER OF MY SOUL."
(Maxims and Counsels)