From the Desk of Rev. Charles Warren
Just this week at our Men’s basketball game I had a student ask me to “pray for us”. We bumped into each other again by the gym doors so I asked what specifically we wanted to pray for. “For us to win”. Focused, simple, effective. Why complicate it anymore than that?
We’ve prayed as a community for Ukraine, we’ve prayed for human dignity to be upheld for all peoples and all stages of life, we’ve prayed at daily mass for the sick in our community.
So what? What has prayer accomplished? Here’s three things to think on:
One, prayer does not change God. That student at the game was not changing God, but he was focusing on the good of his classmates who were playing in that game. He was moved to a place of concern for others, that’s real love. We are changed by prayer. God changes us.
Two, Jesus prayed. If it’s good enough for God, it’s good enough for us.
Three, God wants us to participate in his saving plan. God doesn’t need us, but he loves us. So much so that he wants us to be part of his plan for drawing all of humanity into his perfect love. Prayer sets aside our own ego to say, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ”. (Phi 3:8)
Lent starts with Ash Wednesday next week. All believers must pray, fast and give alms. So pray at a certain time each day for your student and their classmates. Fast from a tv show so you have time to go to a sports booster club meeting. Give to our students who fundraise for various needs in our area.
We have students who take time every day to go to the chapel, even if just for a minute or 2. We had seniors and juniors take multiple days away from their plans in order to experience what God wanted to give them on our Kairos retreat. We have faculty and staff who pray with and for one another. They pray for our students too.
Marian Central must be first a place of prayer and second a place of action. We cannot give to our community what we do not first have. Our prayer, our studies, our discipline are all, in fact, God’s work for us. God is the one who accomplishes all things, we open ourselves to God’s work in prayer. Nothing else will do that.
So don’t just do, pray.
