Exodus 90

Introducing “Teach Me to Pray”. A new 46-day guided Lenten meditation to help you enter more deeply into your daily Holy Hours through guided meditations and sacred art.

Lent is a time in the wilderness, fighting the great spiritual battle against sin, following the way of the Cross. This season should offer us added impetus to focus on growth in prayer and to be vigilant in our practice of asceticism. To support this growth, beginning today, you will find “Teach Me to Pray” on the app’s Home Tab. Whether you are half-way through Exodus 90 or just starting Lent with Exodus, “Teach Me to Pray” is a Lenten retreat on prayer to help you enter more deeply into your daily Holy Hours through guided meditations and sacred art. It follows Rob as he makes daily visits to a local monastery to receive spiritual guidance from the monk, Fr. Benedict. Their daily conversations become the springboard for exploring the writing of the saints and the beauty of sacred art, inviting us more deeply into our own meditation and prayer.Day 1 of “Teach Me to Pray”

Still uncertain if you want to join? Let us share Day 1 of “Teach Me to Pray” with you. Take this to prayer this evening and tomorrow join us for Day 2 in the Exodus 90 App.

Day 1 – Teach Me to Pray

It wasn’t in my plans to stop by the monastery today. I was thinking more of Valentine’s Day and picking up some flowers, last minute as usual, for my wife. Instead, I followed the interior nudge to drive the extra twenty minutes outside of town for the noon Ash Wednesday Mass with the monks.

Set up on the hill, built of weathered stone, the place had always intimidated me. And yet, every so often, I can’t resist the urge to come out for a moment of peace. Maybe that’s why the monastery intimidates me: it reminds me of the peace I need to find.

Walking up those stone stairs, like climbing a mountain, I looked up to see Fr. Benedict, with his long, grizzled beard, as if he were waiting for me.

“Have you driven out here to see me today, Rob?”

“Yes, Father,” I answered earnestly, even though I hadn’t realized it until that moment.

“Very good. Let’s talk after Mass.”

The monks traced the sign of the Cross on our foreheads at the beginning of Mass, preserving as they do the strands of our ancient tradition. “Remember you are dust.” A sober thought to begin Lent, reinforced by the prayer they recited after: “Grant us, O Lord, to begin with holy fasts the campaign of our Christian warfare: that, as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial.” My thoughts went back to Fr. Benedict’s unexpected appearance, and I imagined him as my captain directing the battle ahead.

I thought back to Lent last year, or what I could remember of it. Not much had happened. At the end of it, I appeared just the same in the mirror of the spiritual life. No major conversion. No growth in prayer. Not many charitable deeds. I gave up a few things, but it wasn’t hard.

“This Lent needs to be different,” Fr. Benedict told me when we were seated face to face in the monastery parlor.

“I don’t really know how to pray, Father. Can you teach me?”

“You’ll have to commit to prayer seriously every day. Are you willing to drive out to meet me after Mass each day this Lent?”

“Yes.” I felt confidence welling up from some hidden spot within.

“Good. Let’s begin today. I’m going to give you some snippets to read each day to feed your mind, to help you to meditate in your holy hour each day. In addition, I’ll lend you a print from the monastery library. We monks are attuned to the body too, and images can help us to meditate when the mind wanders. Beauty will keep pushing your heart back to God’s truth, engaging all of your senses. Keep a journal too, and we’ll track your progress throughout Lent. How does this sound?”

“A little overwhelming, but God seems to want it. I can’t even believe that you’re willing to meet with me, even briefly each day. Thank you, Father.”

“Well, you’re right. God wills it. We all need help to make progress. Do you have a group of men to support you in this battle?”

“Yes, Father. I meet weekly with my fraternity.”

“Excellent. You can share your insights with them, and you can all help each other to grow in prayer this Lent. I want you to begin today with the beginning of my namesake’s Rule for monks. Even though you live in the world, you need to respond to God’s call to fight under the banner of Christ the King. William Holman Hunt’s Light of the World will go along with it as a proper call to prayer, answering the call of Christ. He’s looking for men to respond. Until tomorrow then.”Download Exodus 90 App Free

The Rule of St. Benedict

Listen carefully, my child, to your master’s precepts, and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20). Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father’s advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience. To you, therefore, my words are now addressed, whoever you may be, who are renouncing your own will to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King, and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience. And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He who has now deigned to count us among His children may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds. For we must always so serve Him with the good things He has given us, that He will never as an angry Father disinherit His children, nor ever as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions, deliver us to everlasting punishment as wicked servants who would not follow Him to glory.

Let us arise, then, at last, for the Scripture stirs us up, saying, “Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep” (Rom. 13:11). Let us open our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with attentive ears the warning which the divine voice cries daily to us, “Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps. 95:8). And again, “Whoever has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Matt. 11-15; Rev. 2:7). And what does He say? “Come, My children, listen to Me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 34:12). “Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you” (John 12:35).

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What can be sweeter to us, dear ones, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life.

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So, brothers and sisters, we have asked the Lord who is to dwell in His tent, and we have heard His commands to anyone who would dwell there; it remains for us to fulfill those duties. Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands; and let us ask God that He be pleased to give us the help of His grace for anything which our nature finds hardly possible. And if we want to escape the pains of hell and attain life everlasting, then, while there is still time, while we are still in the body and are able to fulfill all these things by the light of this life, we must hasten to do now what will profit us for eternity.

Lord, I heard you calling me, but I don’t know how to respond. I can say “yes,” but what comes next? How do I put this “yes” into action? I don’t know what to do.

What I do bring to you in prayer today is desire. I want to change. I want to live differently. I want to experience freedom in you, my lord and king. You are calling me to battle and I will fight. But I have a sense that I need to fight against myself more than anything else.

What do I have to show for the last twenty years? I’ve been floundering, making progress, falling back, getting up again, but not really changing. Can now be different? Can today be a new start to learn how to pray and to become your soldier?

Today, I begin with a simple “yes.” Lead me, Lord, in your ways. Help me to welcome you into my life anew.Join Us for Day 2