Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
The prayers of the Mass and the readings speak about prayer.
The first form of the three forms of penance that I mentioned yesterday
that we should be practicing during this period of Lent
is prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
And prayer is absolutely necessary to obtain that interior renewal
that we desire to bring about during this period of Lent.
That interior renewal.
That is, less sin and more virtue.
Less darkness and more light.
Less disordered self-love and more ordered love.
Charity.
Love for God and love for neighbor.
And one of the great effects of prayer is that it's a help towards humility.
Because while we must be humble,
in prayer, it's also true that prayer helps us to be humble.
Because by placing ourselves on our knees
and having recourse to our Father in Heaven,
it not only recognizes the truth about God,
that He is our Father, omnipotent,
and infinitely greater than we are,
and the truth about ourselves,
that we are His sons and daughters,
and practically in His sight, nothing,
and in great need of Him,
not only does it recognize that fact,
but puts it into practice,
puts it into action,
when we get on our knees,
when we ask God for our needs,
when we recognize that we are needy in prayer,
as sons and daughters before our Father.
And we especially need to recognize this during Lent.
That is,
to humbly acknowledge our sins before God,
that we have offended our Father,
who is worthy of infinite love,
and that we are worthy of punishment because of the offense.
As we pray in the Collect of the Mass,
O God, who by sin art offended and by penance appeased,
mercifully regard the prayer,
and the prayers of Thy suppliant people,
and turn aside the scourges of Thine anger,
which we deserve for our sins,
through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.
And see how important it is to recognize the fact
that we have offended God,
and because of that offense,
it is deserving of punishment.
But at the same time,
we recognize that God is appeased by penance,
and mercifully regards our prayers,
as we pray in the Collect of the Mass.
Many times,
when you run into people who pray,
and they fall into complaints
that they don't obtain what they want by prayer,
and then you find out that
a lot of these people aren't living good lives.
They're not living according to God's commandments,
and in friendship with God.
And they treat God as a hip-pocket God.
That is,
whenever God is in a situation,
whenever they have need,
and usually it's material need,
some temporal need,
they go and they pull out God,
and they ask Him to supply for their needs.
Then once they're met,
they put Him back,
and they forget all about God.
Well, that is the completely wrong way
to develop our relationship with God, our Father.
As one priest said it,
we have to continually be on speaking terms,
with our Father.
We need to pray above all for our spiritual good,
and then secondarily for our material good.
We need to pray for our material good
only when it's in view of our spiritual good.
And we also need to seek and try to live good and holy lives,
to be in friendship with God.
We look at the example of Ezekias in the first reading.
If only we could pray for our spiritual good,
we could say and pray as Ezekias,
when he says,
O Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth,
and with a perfect heart,
and have done that which is good in Thy sight.
Ezekias was a just man,
and for this reason God heard his prayers,
and granted him a temporal blessing.
He gave Ezekias 15 more years added on to his life.
Now this, of course,
was also ordered toward the spiritual good of Ezekias.
If it wasn't,
then God would not have granted that temporal gain.
And if God didn't grant it,
Ezekias being a just man,
and always conforming himself to the will of God,
would have been satisfied,
and would not have complained.
Now we have another example in the Gospel, perhaps,
we aren't just like Ezekias,
and we can't speak those words that he spoke.
But if that's the case,
we can humble ourselves before God,
and recognize our unworthiness,
as the centurion does in the Gospel.
He says,
Lord, I am not worthy that Thou should enter under my roof,
but only say the word,
and my servant shall be healed.
So we can always come before God,
humble ourselves,
and ask for all of our needs.
And I mentioned the three types of prayer
that are particularly efficacious during this time of Lent.
It is the Holy Mass.
If we can make it to daily Mass,
this Lent,
even if it costs us and is difficult.
The Stations of the Cross,
every Friday,
to pray those who remember our Lord's Passion and Death.
And also the Holy Rosary,
especially the Sorrowful Mysteries
in the Seven Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.