Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

O King of All the Nations
and Keystone of the Church
come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!

Lectionary: 198

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

As a young man who had only recently been shown his vocation, Francis wrote "A Prayer before the Crucifix." He asked for God's help as he pioneered a mendicant way of life: 

Most high, glorious God,

enlighten the darkness

of my heart and give me, Lord,

a correct faith, certain hope,

perfect charity, sense and knowledge,

so that I may carry out

Your holy and true command.

However, within a short time, he did not write any prayers about himself. He was rapt in the wonder and beauty of God, as we find in his praises of God. 

We find the same pattern in Mary's Magnificat. Only in the first two verses does she allude to herself: she confesses that she must praise God, and then she expresses her amazement that she will be remembered as most blessed among women. But then she disappears from her song. She can sing only of God's goodness, and especially of his care for the least among us. 

Saint Luke tells us that her Son frequently withdrew to prayer, and we can well imagine what happened when he did so. 

• Luke 5:15-16: The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray."
• Luke 6:12: "In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God."
• Luke 9:18: Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
• Luke 9:28-29: About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.
• Luke 22:39-46: Jesus prayed intensely in Gethsemane before His arrest. 

Mary and Jesus set the pattern for us. As we begin every Mass we remember our sins and ask God's forgiveness. From that moment, we have better things to do than worry about our guilt or innocence. We must listen to his Word; and then we must enter Communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Faith has assured us of God's particular concern for each of us, and with that assurance our attention turns to the worship of God. There is only one exception, that solitary moment of self-awareness when we pray, "O Lord, I am not worthy...."

We might watch to see the progression of our private prayers. Do they proceed from myself and my worries to God's praises? We can do so without judgment, for there are times when our emotions are so riled up they will not be solaced by any amount of time in prayer. That's okay! In those moments we can surrender our helplessness to God and say, "Here I am. This is the best I can do today."

And then we can notice those other days when our souls rest with Mary and all the Saints in God's presence. Our minds may wander, but we're not paying much attention to our minds. If we're asked what we were thinking about while we prayed, we won't remember. Whatever it was, it wasn't important. And then we thank God for that calm; it is a foretaste of that peace which the world cannot give.