Bishop Anthony writes:

Many within the Catholic Church have a special vocation of consecrating their lives to prayer – we think firstly, of course, of all in the Religious Life and then more vaguely of “the clergy”. They are meant to be praying, aren’t they? We can leave it to “them” to pray, can’t we? There is a great temptation for the rest of us to think that God’s invitation to prayer is not specifically addressed to us – but, my dear brethren, it is! Let us now in the middle of Lent and as we approach our annual, joyous celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, think seriously about the role of prayer in our lives. Our Holy Father Pope John Paul has reminded us: “It would be wrong to think that ordinary Christians can be content with a shallow prayer that is unable to fill their whole life. Especially in the face of the many trials to which today’s world subjects Faith, they would be not only mediocre Christians but Christians ‘at risk’”. The Pope goes on to talk about our Faith itself being progressively undermined if, as followers of Christ, we do not maintain an active life of prayer. It is prayer that will keep us strong in the true Faith because it is prayer that will lead us into a closer and closer union with our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the only Salvation.

We all know the perilous position of Western Society today and how, at every opportunity, the devil is at work to undermine Christianity. Without maintaining a strong life of prayer we run the risk of failing to notice the daily wearing-down of our Faith, the dismissal of it, that is all around us. Without a strong life of prayer we will be in no position to be ambassadors for Christ < Champions indeed of the Catholic Religion> because we need that inner strength which comes from prayer: that daily, continuous communication with God, in which we speak to Him and listen silently for His voice. Now the Holy Sacrifice of the MASS is the greatest prayer of all but do not fall into the trap, as some Catholics do, of thinking that our attendance once or twice a week at Mass is sufficient time given to God, or that the occasional decade of the Rosary is enough. Not so! Holy Mass is our vital obligation on Sundays and certain feast days; and the Rosary is one of the most powerful tools of prayer - but we need to be in constant touch with Our Divine Lord, in sincere and heartfelt prayer, if we are to be any use to Him as His own eyes and hands and feet in this world – which is what He calls us to be.

Let us remember that Our Lord Himself, when on earth, was in a constant union of prayer with God the Father. And we know from so many passages of Scripture (not least the giving to us of the Pater Noster) that we too must be in such a close union with God. Let us look at just one example from the Gospel of Luke: Chapter 18, vv. 1 to 8. In these verses Jesus relates the parable of of the unjust judge and the helpless widow who no longer enjoyed the male protection which was so important in traditional societies then (indeed, even now). Her persistent pleading before the judge eventually results in his granting her petition and this illustrates precisely what Jesus wants us to understand: that if the plea of a powerless widow triumphs over a corrupt judge, then how much more can the constant prayer of faithful Christians achieve? For what is an unjust judge when compared with a gracious and all-loving God? “Will not God then do justice to his chosen who cry out to Him day and night?” (verse 7). But the ultimate point of this story is not about God’s help for his people; rather it is whether our dear Lord’s followers will remain faithful to Him always when He is no longer amongst them as the God made man! Surely the stimulus for prayer lies in fidelity to God – but above all things that necessary fidelity to God will be nourished deeply (and more and more) by our constant communion with God. As Father Emmanuel Mary, Superior of our Cameroon Community puts it: we must all be in a constant union of prayer, not just with God, but with each other.