During Lent, prayer takes on even more significance as Catholics reflect on Jesus’ 40 days of prayer and fasting in the desert. Lenten prayer tends to be deeper and more reflective.
Prayer is a conversation with God that leads to a relationship with Him and a transformation in ourselves.
Like all prayer, Lenten prayer can be vocal, meditative, or contemplative.
Lenten prayer practices include many rote prayers as well as attending Mass and practicing devotions like Stations of the Cross or Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Prayer is one of the disciplines that make up the three pillars of Lent, along with fasting and almsgiving.
Prayer brings spirituality to our Lenten practices:
Focusing on the big picture:
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Matthew 6: 5-8
P.R.A.Y:
Listening to God:
During the entire Lenten period, the Church offers us God’s Word with particular abundance. By meditating and internalizing the Word in order to live it every day, we learn a precious and irreplaceable form of prayer; by attentively listening to God, Who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism. Prayer also allows us to gain a new concept of time: without the perspective of eternity and transcendence, in fact, time simply directs our steps towards a horizon without a future. Instead, when we pray, we find time for God, to understand that his “words will not pass away”, to enter into that intimate communion with Him “that no one shall take from you”, opening us to the hope that does not disappoint, eternal life.
Pope Benedict XVI, Message for Lent, 2011
Reaching out to others through prayer:
Prayer presupposes an effort, a fight against ourselves and the wiles of the Tempter. The battle of prayer is inseparable from the necessary “spiritual battle” to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ: We pray as we live, because we live as we pray.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2752
A time for self-examination:
Being intimate with God:
In imitation of Jesus:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Body, Bride, and Temple of Christ:
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