Prayer is a Penance

Prayer is a penance, and it must be so. It is difficult to cast out distractions. Sometimes we have to fight the whole period through to remove thoughts that should not be there. At other times we are tired, or we don't feel like praying. Let me remind you that penance adds a great value to our prayer. When the three Kings came before Our Divine Lord, they did not bring only frankincense, which signified prayer. They also brought gold, which signifies charity, and myrrh, symbolic of sacrifice. A life of interior prayer is a life of sacrifice. One of the prayers we used to pray in honor of the Holy Kings begged that we might never appear before God empty-handed when we came to pray, but that we would always have some type of sacrifice to bring with us. ~Fr. Casimir Puskorius, CMRI

I came across the above in my reading the other day, and it was just what I needed to hear as I was feeling too weary to pray. Of course, that was no reason not to pray, and I knew that very well, but I greatly appreciated this reminder of the sacrificial nature of prayer. After all, it's not about me. Prayer is all about God, and I could not even begin to pray but for the many graces He so lavishly gives me in His goodness and mercy. That alone is enough for me to fall on my knees before Him in praise and adoration.

Fr. Puskorius mentions the Three Kings, bearing gifts as they traversed afar in search of the Holy Child of Bethlehem -- gold to crown Him, frankincense to to worship Him, and myrrh to anoint Him. "Myrrh is mine: its bitter perfume / Breathes a life of gathering gloom. / Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying, / Sealed in the stone-cold tomb." Sometimes I spend days, weeks even, in a stone-cold tomb. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's not the tomb of self-pity and slothfulness. The tomb of Christ is the womb of eternal life. If I die with Him, I shall also live with Him (2 Tim 2:11). The everlasting light shines into all our tombs, shattering every darkness. He is the living one; He died and behold, He is alive for evermore (Rev 1:18). Myrrh is mine, but life is His. He Himself is life! I live now, not I, but Christ in me (Gal 1:20). Thanks be to God! Alleluia!