Prayer: to help us judge what's important

By Fr. Steve Hansen

“It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not.”

These words from Pope Francis and the rainy portico of St. Peter’s in Rome are still etched in my mind. This March 2020 special Urbi et Orbi speaks to us of the many difficulties with Covid-19 and its variants. They are not a time of God’s judgment on us, but a time for us to open our hearts, minds and actions to what is important to God!

We could say that asking what’s important to God is an opportunity for us to be happy. Doing God’s will leads to true happiness. But how? How do we discern? Saint Augustine describes prayer as an “I, Thou” encounter. In prayer, we discover who we are and who God is. Saint Josemaria Escriva says it in another way, “You write: ‘To pray is to talk with God. But about what?’ About what? About him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions; and love and reparation. In a word: to get to know him and to get to know yourself — ‘to get acquainted!’”

In a recent December Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis said: “(T) he Gospel reminds us of something important: life has a task for us. Life is not meaningless; it is not left up to chance. No! It is a gift the Lord grants us, saying to us: discover who you are, and work hard to make the dream that is your life come true! Each of us — let’s not forget this — has a mission to accomplish. So, let’s not be afraid to ask the Lord: what should I do? Let us ask him this question repeatedly.”

When we consider such things as being engaged in parish life, let’s go to God in prayer. Taking in a good spiritual book and the New Testament for just a few minutes before going to bed will no doubt leave us with an underlined phrase or two to pray about. Taking those phrases to prayer in the morning with our coffee or before Mass, asking God to help us, as the pope said, “discover ourselves” will give us the privilege of giving ourselves away in a way that pleases the God we also, as Saint Josemaria said, “get acquainted” with. Let’s pray regularly and discover what’s really important.

Father Steve Hansen is pastor of the Cathedral of St. Joseph and St. Mary Parish in St. Joseph.