Heart to Heart Chat

June 13, 2021

What are some of our daily habits? Is doing workout an inseparable part of your daily chores? I try to make it as a regular habit so that it brings in such a freshness in our body and spirit. We can never underestimate the positive impact it creates in our muscles. Do we ever think of strengthening our spiritual muscles? There is one habit that we all can grow into that can ensure the strength of our spiritual muscles. It is prayer.

Pope Francis says that “A Day lived without prayer risks being transformed into a bothersome or tedious experience.” I have felt this personally. If I am not doing my prayer on a particular time, I set apart, then I feel that I am missing something. It bothers my mind and makes me restless till I complete my prayer. The reason we need to pray every day is that “Every day God passes and sows a seed in the soil of our lives.” If we are not in the habit of regular prayer, we will miss that seed. Just imagine when God is ready to sow a fresh seed of wisdom in our soul when we are praying and if we miss that day then we are bound to miss that precious seed of wisdom. If we are to develop a habit of daily prayer, then we need to start praying at the same time every day. An ideal time to do that is at the beginning of a day. When we pray at dawn, we are inviting God to be with us every step of that day. As Pope says, “It is prayer that transforms this day into grace, or better, that transforms us: it quells anger, sustains love, multiplies joy, instills the strength to forgive.” When we receive so many graces through prayer, how could we start a day without prayer? As we pray at the very beginning of the day, even the problems we face become very insignificant or do not seem to be large. Those things we face on a day do not take away our joy, because we are strengthened by prayer. If we can get in the habit of starting each day with prayer, it is a 100% guarantee that we will all be more courageous, freer and happier. Let us make a firm decision that we will all start a day with prayer that we can enjoy each day with true happiness and freedom. Let us not postpone the decision to pray. Every good habit needs to start on a day. Why not today itself!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Xavier Ilango