1st Week of Lent 2025 - Tuesday - Minds made radiant with yearning for God

 Listen again carefully to this morning’s Collect prayer, as it contains some profound lessons for our Lenten journey. 

“Look upon your family, Lord, that, through the chastening effects of bodily discipline, our minds may be radiant in your presence with the strength of our yearning for you.”

Through the bodily disciplines of Lent, our minds are made radiant with the strength of our yearning for God. This is some rich spiritual theology which helps us understand why we are undertaking this Lenten journey.

We might be tempted to think that our spiritual disciplines are simply ends in themselves—that the point of our fasting is just to fast because Jesus fasted, or that the point of prayer is just to pray just because Jesus prayed.

But this collect reveals that something deeper occurs when we engage in the Lenten practices. Our disciplined spiritual practices have a profound effect upon us. 

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving deepen our yearning for God. We hunger for God, we have a deep desire to know, love, and serve God, and the Lenten practices deepen that desire. And this spiritual yearning isn’t weak sentimentality; this yearning for God reorients our lives more directly to God. It purifies our hearts so that we come to value God above all else.

Prayer fasting and almsgiving make our minds radiant—we receive illumination, clarity, purity as we draw closer to the fire of God. This is why the saints radiate God’s presence because they have drawn close to God through spiritual disciplines that we typically only dabble with. For the more intensely we desire God, the more we set aside lesser desires. When we deeply long for God, distractions fade away, our minds open up to divine illumination, and then that same divine illumination can be detected in our manner of life.

This is why in the Gospel the Lord teaches his disciples, when you pray, don’t just babble. Our prayer is so important, because through it we begin to desire the things that God desires, our wills grow in proximity to His most holy will.

Similarly, Isaiah in our first reading speaks about the word of God showering down upon the soul and making it fertile and fruitful. Our prayer, as well as our fasting and almsgiving are meant to change us, to convert us, and make us deeply yearn for God who alone satisfies the hungry heart.

May we respond generously to the call to the Lenten observances, that our minds may be radiant in God’s presence with the strength of our yearning for Him, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - - 

We should pour forth prayers at all times dear brothers and sisters but above all in these days of lent we ought to watch more intently with Christ and direct our petitions more fervently to God.

For the Church, that through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, she may grow in holiness, reflecting God's radiant presence to the world, we pray to the Lord.

For those preparing for baptism and reception into the Church at Easter, that their hearts may grow pure and radiant through prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, we pray to the Lord.

For all Christians, that their prayer may be genuine and heartfelt, aligning their wills more closely with the holy will of God, we pray to the Lord.

For those struggling to sustain their Lenten commitments, that they might be strengthened by God’s grace and find renewed meaning and clarity in their spiritual practices, we pray to the Lord.

For all who have become lukewarm or indifferent in their faith, that this Lent they may rediscover the joy of longing for God above all things, we pray to the Lord.

For the sick, suffering, and those who carry heavy burdens, that they may experience the comforting presence of God, who draws near to those who earnestly seek Him, we pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed, that their yearning for God may be fulfilled in eternal communion with Him in heaven, we pray to the Lord.

Grant we pray our Lord that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

February 23 2021 - St. Polycarp and the many fruits of Prayer

 

We have many great saints whose feasts days fall within the Lenten season.  Today is the feast day of saint who was born just about 40 years after the death of Jesus. His name was Polycarp, and he was the bishop of a place called Smyrna, which is in the modern-day country of Turkey, not too far from Ephesus, where St. John took Mary to live after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact, Polycarp was a student of one of the apostles, of St. John.

In the middle column of stained glass windows here in the eastern narthex is a series of scenes from the life of our Patron St. Ignatius of Antioch. And In the top window, there he is with St. Polycarp kneeling at the feet of St. John the Apostle, as he reads his Gospel. Polycarp and Ignatius were ordained bishops by St. John—and each sent to their respective dioceses—Ignatius to Antioch and Polycarp to Smyrna.

Ignatius and Polycarp continued to correspond after their ordination.

Ignatius begins his epistle to the bishop of Smyrna praising Polycarp’s rock-like faith, the blamelessness of his life, and then encourages him to press forward in the race of the Christian life and to work for the salvation of all people. “In all circumstances be “wise as a serpent,” and perpetually “harmless as a dove”, Ignatius tells Polycarp, quoting our Lord in explaining to his disciples how they must deal with the worldly.

Then Ignatius tells Polycarp, give yourself to unceasing prayer, asking for more wisdom than you already have. A bishop must be a man of unceasing prayer and wisdom. While a bishop must certainly be out in the streets preaching the Gospel, administering his diocese, setting good example for his flock, a bishop must be a man of unceasing prayer seeking God’s wisdom always. 

This is good advice for all of us, too. Our Lord in the Gospel today, tells us that we must be people of prayer, who go to our inner rooms, shutting the door to the distractions of the world, and praying to the Father in secret. It is in that secret prayer that we will derive much strength and wisdom in dealing with all the challenges of our vocations. And in prayer, the word of God, as we heard in the first reading, waters our soul like the gentle rain, bearing fruit. In fact, Polycarp's name means "many fruit", no doubt, fruit cultivated through prayer.

St. Polycarp, like our patron, Ignatius, would go on to be martyred for the faith--the greatest of the fruits cultivated in his spiritual life--the courage to give that ultimate witness--becoming a fruit that nourished the church and continues to nourish us to this day. While he was bishop, at the age of 86, a violent persecution broke out in Smyrna against the Christians. Christians were being forced to give up their faith or face death. Because he was a bishop, Polycarp was arrested.  He was led directly to the roman judge, who ordered him make sacrifice to a pagan God and commit blasphemy. 

Some of his Christian friends had urged him to make the sacrifice in order to save his life.  But, Polycarp responded, “for 86 years I have served Jesus Christ, and he has never abandoned me.  How could I curse my blessed king and savior.” So refusing to give up his faith, Polycarp was sentenced to be burned alive.

No doubt, it was through his prayer, that made his love for Jesus stronger than the flames of his martyrdom. In fact, descriptions of his martyrdom claim that, as Polycarp prayed during his execution, the fire created a sort of dome around him, and instead of his flesh burning, his body was like bread baking in an oven, like gold a silver in a furnace, he began to radiate the light of God. And a sweet fragrance like burning incense filled the place.

May we like Polycarp, cultivate a love for the Lord through prayer that is stronger than any earthly flame, a prayer life that sustains us in all of our challenges and duties, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -  

That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.