Our readings today focus on perseverance, persistence, and prayer, unceasing prayer.

And, if we are honest, it seems rather idealistic, for how can we possibly sanctify every moment of every hour of every day? Granted, there are countless stories from the saints showing us that it is possible, but how do we, ourselves pray always? 

The simple answer comes from the saints and is found in the saints, because they were us here on earth at one time. And, what the saints show us is that we must make prayer the beginning, the end and, indeed, the very essence of our lives.

Prayer must become more than just certain moments that we carve out of our day; it must become a constant turning of our minds and hearts always to God. In fact, St. Maximus the Confessor, an early monk and theologian puts it this way, he says: “Unceasing prayer means to have the mind always turned to God with great love, holding alive our hope in him, having confidence in him whatever we’re doing and whatever happens to us.”

Of course, the only way to reach such a point is to make sure that we set apart times throughout our day in which to pray, and to make sure that those moments are not extinguished by the activities of our day to day life, but rather, become also the means and opportunities to bring that prayer in the midst of them.

So that, by doing so, we find the more we pray, the more we need it, the more necessary it becomes in our daily lives, so much so, that when we neglect our prayer, it becomes immediately noticeable as if we did something as drastic as stopped breathing or eating. Yet, in a sense, spiritually starving ourselves of prayer is the equivalent of physically starving ourselves of food.

Our prayer should become as natural, important and as necessary to us as taking a single breath or eating a single meal, so that, indeed, our souls are nourished, sustained and fulfilled. Because, as St. John Cassian, a monk and mystic put it: “Perfect prayer, is that wherein he who prays is not conscious that he is praying.” 

Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, for most of us, it is not that we don’t want to pray, rather, it is that we falsely believe that we don’t have enough time to pray, so that constant prayer becomes an ideal, becomes something that only the saints can do, which is not true.

Because prayer is not just simple words, falling from our lips, it is an expression of love and an intimate experience with God, spoken or unspoken, it is a lifting of our hearts and minds to God, it is something that is so powerful that it can change the world, in fact, prayer is so powerful, that as St. John Climacus, a 7^th century monk puts it: “Prayer is by nature a dialogue and a union of man with God. Its effect is to hold the world together. It achieves a reconciliation with God.”

That is why prayer is seen as a gift and why each and every moment of each and every day we should take advantage of that gift, allowing it be an expression of our love and an effort to bring sanctification to every moment of our lives. Perhaps, indeed that is what is wrong with our world today, not an increase of evil, but a decrease in prayer.   

Years ago, when I was discerning a vocation with a group of contemplative Franciscans, every night before going to bed they would pray a Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, ending it with the following words: “And because I cannot praise my God while I am asleep, may You give praise to the Most Holy Trinity as many times as my heart beats this night.”

And that, in the end, is what it means to pray always, to find opportunities to simply sanctify each moment of our lives, and to offer those moments, every moment to God. Because, as St. Claude de la Colombiere, a Jesuit priest who propagated the love of the Sacred Heart puts it: “We always have need of God, therefore we must always pray. The more we pray, the more we please Him and the more we obtain.”

Therefore, let us work towards being men and women of prayer, not just momentarily or sporadically, but constantly and unceasingly, always mindful of our need for prayer, so that, as we just heard in our Gospel today, when the Son of Man comes He indeed may find faith on earth and He may find it in us.