Always Find Time To Pray
Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Jesus was very busy. When word got out that he could cure people of illnesses and demons, people flocked to him from every-where. Like a hospital emergency room after an earthquake, wherever Jesus went the house was soon running over with people looking for a cure. At the home of Peter’s mother-in-law whom Jesus had just cured from a fever, we’re told that “as evening drew on, people brought him all who were ill and those possessed by demons. Before long the whole town was gathered outside the door.”
When everybody finally left I imagine he headed straight to bed. Do you suppose he first said his night prayers? Maybe, maybe not. Our passage doesn’t say. But we are told that “rising early the next morning, he went off to a lonely place in the desert; there he was absorbed in prayer.” His apostles looked for him. “And when they found him, they told him, ‘Everybody is looking for you!” Another busy day.
Is your life busy like that? Mine too. Slows down sometimes but never seems to stop for long. Nearly every day is a busy day. But! We, like Jesus, must find time to pray. And a time when we are awake enough to know what we are doing. Jesus might have gone immediately to bed that night after all that curing, he might have been much too tired to say his night prayers. But he made sure to get up before everyone else and get in some morning prayers. That’s a lesson for us. We are to find some time when others are busy elsewhere. We are to find time to pray. If we don’t, our spiritual energy will run down and conk out like our physical energy. And the quality of our performance will become anemic. We sure don’t want that. So - pray! Sometime every day!
