Watch and Pray
Today marks the beginning of Holy Week. During this week, the foundations of the Christian faith are set in place through the passion and death of Our Lord culminating in Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Our Lord. For most of my life, I always thought I knew and understood everything I needed to be a well-informed Catholic on this subject, particularly after so many years of Catholic school. Despite this, I never felt a strong connection to Christ through his passion and death because it just seemed so foreign to me. In recent years, however, I discovered how little I actually knew and understood about the Paschal mystery.
It was here at Jesuit that I finally began to nurture my faith. It was St. Ignatius and his recognition that prayer is vital is to move closer to Christ that began to have an impact on me and my life. In the past, prayer to me was simply vocal traditional prayers like the Our Father or Hail Mary which are still good and necessary. But, this was new - the idea that prayer needed to be both contemplative and meditative in order to really start developing a personal relationship to God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus stresses the importance of prayer as He scolds Peter for sleeping. He tells Peter to “watch and pray” so that he would not undergo the test. This is not just a command He gave Peter, however, even Jesus prayed. Just earlier in this passage in the garden, we see Christ praying fervently to God the Father to receive the graces to accept His crucifixion, His ultimate Test. It was St. Ignatius that showed me how most of my life I had just “watched” and not “watched and prayed.”
As Jesus said to sleeping Peter in the garden, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Jesus probably would have been a little more critical of me, however, perhaps saying, “The spirit and flesh are both weak.” He probably noticed that I just simply went through the motions in regards to my faith, that I never took it or a prayer life with God seriously. As I began to re-examine my faith life and how I practiced it in recent years, I realized I wasn’t really doing anything to nurture it.
It was here at Jesuit that I finally began to nurture my faith. It was St. Ignatius and his recognition that prayer is vital is to move closer to Christ that began to have an impact on me and my life. In the past, prayer to me was simply vocal traditional prayers like the Our Father or Hail Mary which are still good and necessary. But, this was new - the idea that prayer needed to be both contemplative and meditative in order to really start developing a personal relationship to God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus stresses the importance of prayer as He scolds Peter for sleeping. He tells Peter to “watch and pray” so that he would not undergo the test. This is not just a command He gave Peter, however, even Jesus prayed. Just earlier in this passage in the garden, we see Christ praying fervently to God the Father to receive the graces to accept His crucifixion, His ultimate Test. It was St. Ignatius that showed me how most of my life I had just “watched” and not “watched and prayed.”
St. Ignatius demonstrated to me how a strong prayer life can lead to a more personal relationship with Christ by making His humanity, passion, death, and resurrection far more real. It is in prayer that one receives the graces necessary to overcome any sufferings or tests. St. Ignatius recognized the necessity of prayer because he saw that Christ did it Himself. Christ humbled Himself to become human like us and in His humanity understood the very tests and sufferings that we go through in our lives. He learned in His own humanity that to overcome these tests and sufferings, prayer was key, and He demonstrated that to us. He showed that prayer life will ultimately lead to a deeper and stronger connection to Him. While I’m still on my own faith journey to follow more closely the command “watch and pray”, I’m thankful to St. Ignatius for encouraging me to stop just “watching” in my life.
As we enter this most holy of weeks, let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us both “watch and pray” a little more so we can increase in love, gratitude, and praise for Christ and His passion, death, and resurrection.
As we enter this most holy of weeks, let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us both “watch and pray” a little more so we can increase in love, gratitude, and praise for Christ and His passion, death, and resurrection.
Author: Dominic Golab, Science Department, Campus Ministry team
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Has been the place of struggle for me at times and a revelation for why I am not worthy to be who I am today. But God said I can earn or gain his love. I have to accept him as a gift and understand without his grace I am nothing.
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