“This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” These are the words in today’s Gospel that God speaks about Jesus. It reminded me of my pastor when I was growing up and thinking about the priesthood. He said to me, just pray and God will guide you. At first I was excited in prayer and it felt good. Then it became routine and not so exciting and it didn’t always feel so good. When I went back to my pastor, he told me that prayer is not about feelings. Just keep showing up and pray. He would say, show up each day no matter how you feel or how inconvenient it might be. Just keep praying and let God do his work on you. And He did. I never gave up on that call to priesthood because I kept showing up, praying, and letting God do His work with me.
It is Lent and prayer is one of the attributes of this penitential season. So just keep showing up to pray – whether that be Mass – Stations of the Cross – Adoration – or just taking a quiet meditative moment. Then let God do the rest.