Advice for Lent: Sit with God in silence

Andrés Arango has some guidance for South Jersey’s faithful this Lenten season: “pray more, but pray better.”

This was among the many messages Arango, Bishop’s Delegate for Hispanic Ministry and the diocesan director of evangelization, conveyed during two evenings of reflection hosted by Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Galloway. “How to Reflect Jesus as We Grow in Our Personal Relationship with God,” was offered March 15 in Spanish at Saint Nicholas Church, Egg Harbor Township, and March 9 in English at Assumption Church.

In his presentation, Arango discussed Jesus, prayer, spirituality and Christian witness, much through his own testimony. In understanding that a “life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of God and in communion with him,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “we can transform not only our lives, but those of others,” he explained.

Through different types of prayer – such as Adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise – and prayer methods, whether vocal, meditative or contemplative, one can listen more intently to the voice of God, and “find a personal relationship with [him] and what he wants from my life.”

An effective prayer practice for Arango, and one he recommends to others, is finding a quiet place away from all distractions, setting a 15-minute timer and “just sitting with God … who speaks in silence … and listening to hear his voice to calm our souls.”

Jesus, he continued, “is the perfect witness of prayer.” Further, Mary’s own witness helped her son learned how to pray to God the Father. Like Mary and Jesus, learning prayer can not only aid one’s spiritual life, but spread holiness to others. “In prayer, we dialogue with God, and with actions … transmit him to others.”

It is this witness that can foster Christian spirituality in our homes and communities, Arango continued.

“To be Christian is to be part of a community,” he said, adding that the first Christian communities were families, meeting together in their homes. Even Jesus developed this fellowship practice with his apostles and disciples, who grew together in faith and love despite their differences.

It is this commitment to others, in getting to know them and sharing “our struggles and blessings,” where one lives out the call to holiness, thus being witnesses of Jesus as vessels of the Gospel, he said.