In the time of Lent, we are invited to persevering prayer, to fasting, to penance and to the works of mercy. All these acts are complementary and they become one, all are important and proceed one from the other. The time of Lent is a time of walking through the desert. This desert is not a useless solitude. The desert is the space for our silence and for the word of God. The desert is not a space in which we would be abandoned; it is the space of the encounter. It is important to know how to stopour rushing. It is important to hear the right word in the middle of such an amount of talking. One author wrote: “So much talking - but only one true word. So many sounds - but which is the right one? So many ways - but only one way is true.”

The space of the desert has to be filled by the spirit of prayer and so create a spiritual oasis. Only prayer enables us to understand the time of loneliness and of trial. Jesus was praying, and this is how ha came to understand the will of the Father. The Virgin Mary is praying and so accepting the plan of God. Moses was praying, and this is how he found the way of the exodus. Prayer is an encounter, the encounter between God and man. It is the encounter, which makes us live. This is why Jesus is saying that we should pray unceasingly. Our Lady is often repeating this in her messages.

Our prayer must be humble and free from our personal plans. In prayer, we must be freed from any haughtiness. We should always remember what Jesus said about it: to pray in the secret of the heart. In prayer, we receive everything and we do not give much. We offer an empty heart, and God fills it. In prayer, it is also necessary to know how to wait. The cardinal Michael Faulhaber wrote: “Be trustful and patient in each prayer, even when the hours of God pass so slowly.” God never remains silent; he is perhaps speaking the most when we have the impression not to hear anything.

Fr. Mario Knezovic