I "googled" up Lent. It’s not a sin. What’s the meaning of the word Lent? For years I thought it meant springtime, and it does. It also means spring, it also means growth, which is related to spring, but interestingly, I found a meaning I wasn’t aware of. The word Lent, translated in Spanish and in Italian, is lento. What does that mean? Lento means to slow down. Musicians know that because sometimes a composer puts on a sheet of music a little note about how he wants this piece to go. If he wants it to go quicker he writes "presto", if he wants kind of a medium, he writes "adagio", and if he wants it slow, he writes, "lento". It’s a great thing with Italian people, eh? The thing that’s good about being Italian is that when you talk you get exercise to. Right Nan? Even the liturgy in Lent slows down. There are no flowers in Lent; the music is more sedate, quieter, and more reflective. That’s what Jesus did today in Mark’s Gospel, he slowed down, he left the busyness of the crowd, the needs of his disciples, he went out into the desert for a period of 40 days to go on retreat to be with his Father in prayer and to confront the tempter Satan. He calls us to do the same thing in these 6 weeks or so of Lent. It’s a period that we’re supposed to slow down, and by prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, to reform our alliance and be more faithful to the Gospel. We need to do that. We all know that. We all need to slow down especially in terms of the spirit. We know that. It’s good for us to do that. We need to take an honest look at our lives and ask ourselves the question, "What’s wrong with me?" I’m not asking you spouses to do that to each other. That’s the other 47 weeks of the year; this is a time we do it to ourselves. What patterns in my life are separating me from God and his love?

The problem is that we all know that we should slow down and do these things, but we’re too busy. We’re too distracted. People say to me all the time, "Father, I try to pray, but I’m too distracted." Me too. There is like a beehive in our heads, buzzing, from morning to night, you’re just going, going, going, going, and you never really stop, and if you do stop, the noise is still there. That describes all of us just about. We’re too distracted to pray, and there are worries and concerns, relationship issues, and family issues, and health concerns, and elderly parents. I’ve been watching the news, I watch the news religiously every day, of course I do everything religiously. Let me get that halo straight. There hasn’t been any good news on the news in months. The economy is terrible, 5.8% unemployment, the nation’s lost 2 million jobs in the last couple of years, we’re on the brink of war, a lot of concern here in Los Alamos with LANL and the University of California, that’s on many of your minds. I know it is. A lot of concerns and distractions, and then the dark cloud of war. We’re worried. You know the poster we have in the back with a couple of dozen of the servicemen and women representing our parish. Last week I prayed with two families over the picture if you will, praying for their loved ones. They’re worried, you’re worried, I’m worried. There is a lot on our minds. We’re too busy, you know, the old soccer mom thing? You know, it wasn’t always this way, and I don’t say that too often, because I don’t believe in the good old days, I don’t. They weren’t so good. But years ago things were slower.

Friday I had to get away and I took a trip to Chimayo, and I stopped in Cundiyo and in Truchas. They haven’t changed in 100 years. Take a ride to those beautiful little towns and it’s a different world. I stopped in the little general store in Truchas. There were 4 guys standing around and I walked in and they looked, you know the bell rings when you open the door and they all looked at me, they weren’t doing anything. It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and they say, "How’s it going? Nice day, que non?" My blood pressure went down 30 points, and I was so jealous of those guys, especially that guy drinking a Bud Light at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. I went to Chimayo. What a beautiful little town, a town of faith, and Father Roca. How many of you know Father Roca? Isn’t he great? He heard my confession. I always go to Father Roca for my confession because I don’t think he understands me. He says, "I am 50 years in Chimayo, I don’t know what I am doing here. You know, the Pope, the Bishop, they send me here, I don’t know why." If you don’t know Father Roca, go to Chimayo, you’ll find Father Roca. By the way, he’s brother will be, we hope, be canonized a saint. He was killed by the communists in the 1940’s in Spain as a martyr.

We’re too distracted, we’re too busy to pray, but the more that is true, the more you need to pray and I need to pray. The less time you have, the more you need it. Everyone agrees with me right? But we don’t do it, do we? This is the time to change that and to start to pray. I was reading an article by James Galway, the classical flutist, the great flutist. When he was 50, I think he’s probably about 65 or 70 now, when he was 50, he looked at the rest of his life and he was concerned. He didn’t want to become a has-been. So to remain the best at his art, he decided he would practice the basics of music for 2 ½ hours every day. That’s in addition to rehearsals and concerts. Two and a half hours to the basics, so he played scales, those rudimentary, mechanical things that one learns when one begins to learn music. The great flutist James Galway playing scales. When he started that, he didn’t realize how rusty he had become with the basics. He said, "I could play concertos and reparatory pieces, but the scales were stiff and they were inconsistent from key to key." The basics for the Christian, if you want to be good as a Christian, if you want to keep your skills, prayer is the key. Prayer is the answer to that, daily prayer. I used to, when I gave this sermon in the past, I said can you give the Lord 15 minutes a day? That’s not enough. Fifteen minutes the noise is still there. You’ve got to give the Lord a half hour a day, preferably an hour a day in prayer. Now you’re saying, where am I going to get an hour a day? I don’t know—that’s your problem, but you need to find the hour, you find it for everything else. You’ll never regret an hour spent in prayer. You will regret an hour spent in front of that mindless television set watching these reality shows. What is going on with that nonsense? I wouldn’t ask you to raise your hand if you watch that—be ashamed of yourself if you watch that. I’m going to watch 3 ½ hours of NASCAR today, but that’s different. That’s very different. I’m such a hypocrite, I know it. Someone’s got to do this. You’ll regret an hour in the casino. You’ll regret an extra hour in the cocktail lounge. You’ll never regret an hour in prayer. It’s nourishment for your spirit and for your soul.

There was a priest in Colorado Springs a couple of years ago wrote this in Priest Magazine. It’s Father Rollie Meyers, is his name. He said, "Since I’ve made a daily holy hour talking to Jesus I have found that peace that the world cannot give. This is so necessary for our restless, confused priests. I have found that my confusion has gone away. Not that I am suddenly enlightened, but that the confusion doesn’t matter anymore. I give all things to Jesus and I tell Him I can hardly figure anything out. My confusion now doesn’t bother me." Well, that’s the truth. If it worked for Father Rollie, it’ll work for you, and for me. We know that the foundation of our happiness and our peace is our relationship with Almighty God. We know that. We know relationships take time. We gotta find that 30 minutes. We’ve gotta find that hour to give to the Lord in prayer. I challenge you as you begin Lent for this 6-week period, today or tomorrow, spend some time to figure out your calendar. It’s really not as difficult as it sounds. What you’ve got to do is make the commitment and put yourself in that place for that half hour and the prayer will come. Don’t worry about the prayer, worry about finding the time to pray and it will happen for you. I guarantee that the Lord will bless you.