The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me.

Help me to become deaf to these voices and more atten tive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life. I truly w ant to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, human respect, pleasure, power, and influence. It is a time to be with you Jesus in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death. So now, with Nouwen ’ s help and guidan ce, let us dedic ate oursel ves to the Lenten discipline of daily prayer and ask God to be with us in the solitude of our heart. Thus the discipline of solitude enables us to live active lives in the world, while remaining always in the presence of the living God.

W e will be able to live the spir- itual life in any place and any time. Once the solitude of time and space has become a solitude of the heart, we will never have to leave that solitude. Then we will be able to recognize Him even in the midst of a busy and active life. The more we train ourselves to spend time with God and Him alone, the more we will discover that God is with us at all times and in all places. As he explains so well: Although the discipline of solitude asks us to set aside time and space, what finally matters is that our hearts become like quiet cells where God can dwell, wherever we go and whatever we do. As Nouwen knew so well, half the battle of prayer is won by just showing up-being faithful to setting aside s ome time each day to really be alone with God, and as difficult or easy, as fearful or rew arding as that solitude might be, to encounter God’ s mystery an d dare to let God work on our hearts. His gift is that he is able to describe so well the fluctuations in the spiritual life, with its fits of success and its flirtations with despair, in such down-to-earth lan- guage that we can readily apply his ins ights to our own prayer. His practical and down-to-earth advice about prayer was the result of his many years of struggle with prayer in his own life. His wisdom and sound advice are nowhere more valuable than when he offers help with our constant desire to pray better.

Nouwen (1932-1996) was one of the most impor tant voices in the resurgence of Catholic spirituality i n the latter half of the twenti- eth Century.

Gracias by Henri J.M. Nouwen