Holy Hour

Today is the third in a series of Holy Hour homilies that my seminary class has been sponsoring as part of our preparation for diaconate ordination. The basic concept is that during the normal time of exposition, which on other days is reserved for silent private prayer, our class invites a priest to preach on a particular topic relating to the sacrament that we will be receiving in October. The sermons have already covered the Promise of Obedience, and another one that was supposedly on prayer. Today's sermon will be delivered by Fr. Bob Barron, of Word on Fire Ministries, and will be on celibacy.

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The reason that the homilies on the life of a deacon are given in the context of a preached holy hour is simple: to highlight the importance of prayer in living the life of a deacon and later the life of a priest. In fact, prayer is important for any Christian that wishes to seriously live the Christian life. Christian claim to love Christ. Prayer is spending time with Christ. How can any serious Christian claim to love Christ, if he never spends any time with him?

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Prayer is part of each day. Each day there is Mass and Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer as a seminary community, along with a prolonged time of private prayer (usually about an hour). During walks to lectures I pray the rosary, and other prayers.

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I try to pray each morning, but when sleep seems to win the battle in the morning, I pray in the afternoon. What blood is to the life of the body, prayer is to the life of the soul. The body will not live long without blood, so the spiritual life of the soul will quickly be drained without the infusion of prayer. It is never to late to begin praying.