The life of St. Isidore is a most sensible proof of this assertion. He was born at Madrid, of poor but very devout parents, and was christened Isidore from the name of their patron, St. Isidore of Seville. They had not the means to procure him learning or a polite education; but, both by word and example, they infused into his tender soul the utmost horror and dread of all sin, and the most vehement ardor for every virtue, and especially for prayer.
Many object that their labors and fatigues leave them little time for the exercises of religion. But Isidore, by directing his attention according to the most holy motives of faith, made his work a most perfect art of religion … he applied himself to it with great diligence and care, in imitation of the angels in heaven, who in all things fulfill the will of God with the greatest readiness and alacrity of devotion. The more humbling and the more painful the labor was, the dearer it was to the saint, being a means the more suitable to tame his flesh, and a more noble part of his penance.
With the same spirit that the saints subdued their bodies by toils in their deserts, Isidore embraced his task. He moreover sanctified it by continual prayer. Whilst his hand held the plough, he in his heart conversed with God, with his angel guardian, and the other blessed spirits; … It was chiefly by this perfect spirit of prayer, joined with, or rather engrafted upon a most profound humility and spirit of mortification, that St. Isidore arrived at so eminent a degree of sanctity as rendered him the admiration of all Spain. (Fr. Alban Butler (d. 1773) — English mission priest, scholar, and hagiographer, best known for his monumental Lives of the Saints.)
Have you ever said, “I’m too busy to pray!”? Dr. Mary Healy of Sacred Heart Major Seminary says: “If you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy!” What are we doing that takes up so much of our time? You might feel convicted if and when you get a weekly report of your screen time—the hours spent checking email, social media, etc. Or perhaps the time in prayer is greater or equal to the phone time!
Jesus instructs us to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38). Not only does he call us to pray, he has specific prayer intentions he wants us to lift. As we watch things around us go from bad to worse, do we sense a strong need to pray, to pray for those around us, to pray that faithful people would respond to the call to share the good news of Christ with a world badly in need of God’s saving message? Are we willing to pray and respond if the call would come to us?
In our Lord’s darkest hour before his arrest, he was engaged in prayer. He exhorted his closest disciples who were there in body, but not spirit—they were sound asleep: “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40–41). Jesus was facing his ultimate test as a man, knowing that obedience to God would cost him dearly: pain, separation and death. Prayer enabled him to say to his Father: “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). That willingness changed the course of history forever, including the lives of the drowsy disciples, and your life and mine as well!
Prayer enabled our Lord to embrace his task and to offer it up to God in order to sanctify us. And “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2) and he “indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).
Am I too busy to pray? The truth is that I’m not—distracted maybe, otherwise occupied, probably. But too busy? Not with all that is at stake for my eternal soul and those for whom I have been asked to pray. My flesh is weak. Help me to respond as if my life depends on it. Because you know what? It does!
I know no one who prays as much as you do, my love!