Coffee With God 26 November 2022 - To be mindful and to pray.

Reflection: Luke 21: 34-36 Pope Francis suggests developing two attitudes to live between now and Christmas. To be mindful and to pray. Have you ever experienced a lack of direction and restlessness in life? It could result from our self-centeredness and lack of concern for others. We are so focussed on our projects and plans that we forget to be mindful of the needy brother or sister in our neighbourhood whom we come across on the streets. We are being blocked by our own lives, with their sorrows, joys, and suffering, and we are constantly turning around ourselves. “I … me and mine,” that’s all that concerns me. But this attitude destroys the virtues of charity and empathy; it makes one’s life so dull and drives us away from hope. The root of lethargy and laziness that the Gospel speaks about begins with our self-centred and selfish attitude. The Advent season invites us to a commitment to vigilance, looking beyond ourselves, and expanding our minds and hearts to open ourselves up to the needs of brothers and sisters and the desire for a new world. It is the desire of many people tormented by hunger, injustice and war. It is the desire of the poor, the weak, and the abandoned. This is a favourable time to open our hearts, to ask ourselves concrete questions about how and for whom we expend our lives. The Gospel is a caution: “Pray constantly” is the invitation. We await Jesus in prayer and vigilance. Praying, awaiting Jesus, opening oneself to others, being mindful, and not being withdrawn to ourselves. Speaking at the general audience on May 19 last year, Pope Francis spoke of three enemies of prayer: distractions, spiritual dryness, and sloth. “Praying is not easy: many difficulties present themselves in prayer. It is necessary to know them, recognize them and overcome them,” he said. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins because “it can lead to the death of the soul.” The pope urged the faithful to fight against distractions, developing the often-forgotten virtue of vigilance. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus instructed his disciples to practice this virtue. In a moment that we do not know, the voice of our Lord will resound: on that day, blessed will be those servants whom He will find industrious, still focused on what really matters. Progress in the spiritual life consists of persevering under challenging times. The pope asks us to “Learn to pray like the biblical figure of Job, protesting at God’s actions. We too, who are far less holy and patient than Job, know that in the end, at the end of this time of struggles, during which we have raised to heaven silent cries and asked ‘why?’ many times, God will answer us our prayers.”