2nd Sunday of Lent

My dear parishioners, 
On this Second Sunday of Lent, Catholics all over the world hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus in the Gospel today. It is said that this event on Mount Tabor took place forty days before Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection as a preview of the glory that would come to Him from His obedience to God the Father and in His love for us, shown in His Crucifixion. The actual time of the Transfiguration is not as important as the vision Jesus was giving to Peter, James, and John, and we might wonder why Jesus didn’t have all 12 of the Apostles present for this glorious manifestation of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, but we have to trust Jesus’ decision in only bringing these three up the mountain with Him. This event also reminds us that we don’t have to always have something to say when we have an encounter with God, as Peter felt he had to comment on the vision instead of just taking in what Jesus was revealing to them. Jesus doesn’t even respond to Peter’s statement, indicating that it’s not pertinent to the vision. We can apply this lesson to our personal prayer time: our silence, along with the prayers we may pray out loud or to ourselves, should be an integral part, no matter how short or long we may be silent. This silence on our part allows us to hear what the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have to say to us, and if we don’t leave time for listening, we won’t hear or receive what They may have to say to us. Not that we are going to always hear a specific message or instructions, but we can’t hear what God has to tell us if we’re always talking in the prayer time. Our silence also applies to our adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, whether the Host is exposed or we’re simply sitting in the church with the closed tabernacle. I will be the first to say that this silence during prayer doesn’t happen at the snap of a finger or overnight – to be silent during our personal prayer time takes work and patience with ourselves and God. Because prayer is a conversation with God, we must let God respond and talk too, just as a conversation between two people is not just one person talking constantly. The verb, converse, literally means to talk with, not to talk to. If we strive for silence in our prayer time, if we’re not doing it already, God will help us to listen to Him. The key is to always strive to pray, first and foremost – conversing with God.