Pray For Lent

We are in the period of Lent.  Lent is about realizing that all of us—every one—fall short of who God wants us to be.  It’s also about realizing that we, as a church, fall short of what God wants us to be.  

Because of that, I’m asking everyone in our parish to do something.  I’d like you to participate in it, too.  I’m asking everyone in our parish to pray for at least ten minutes a day.

I know that some of you already do that, and that’s great.  In fact, I’m sure some of you pray more than ten minutes a day, and that’s great, too.  I’m not telling you to cut down.  The ten minutes is intended as a minimum, not a maximum.

There’s more to it than that, though.  I’m asking everyone to spend at least part of that time praying in a specific way.  I’m asking everyone to pray that God will help you truly open your heart and your soul so that God’s Holy Spirit will come in.  Pray that God will help you truly surrender your will to God’s will.  Pray to do that as an individual, and pray that we will do that as a parish.

If we all pray in this way every day for the entire forty day period of Lent, and if we’re really serious about it, I believe God will act, and we will see things happen.  I don’t know what those things will be--they may be things I never even thought about.  But I do believe that if our entire parish prays for God’s Holy Spirit to come into our hearts and into our souls, and if our entire parish prays for our will to be surrendered to God’s will, God will answer our prayer in some way.

So please, spend at least ten minutes in prayer every day.  And as part of that prayer, pray that God will help you open your heart and your soul to God’s Holy Spirit.  Pray that God will help you surrender your will to God’s will.  Pray that our parish, and the churches of our parish, will do that, too.  Who knows?  We may just see some amazing things happen.