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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Thought for the Day # 79 - Monday, June 22, 2020

“Personal Prayer in the Church”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, Monday, June 22nd, brings us to the 79th Thought for the Day.
When we first started, we did a Thought for the Day every day. Then for a few
weeks, we offered Thoughts for the Day twice a week. This week is going to be
the last week for that plan. We will continue with one Thought for the Day per
week, on the weekend, because we are now at a stage in the process of re-opening
that allows churches to open and celebrate Mass. We will do this gradually and
slowly, because each parish needs to form a team, to equip itself, so the
process of re-opening goes smoothly and calmly.

Today, the Cathedral opened its doors and I went in the afternoon to spend
two hours in the Church so I could pray and greet people while respecting and
maintaining physical distance.

I could see people walk into the Church just to pray. What they wanted
was to go into the church, recollect themselves, sit down, or kneel down and
pray privately. There are some who came for the 5pm Mass but arrived an
hour earlier. They arrived early because it has been a long time since they had
prayed in a Church, and they wanted to prepare themselves before the Mass.
They want to be able to put themselves in the spirit of prayer. Even though
they had prayed before in other places, to pray in a church was important to
them because there they were also in the Presence of Our Lord in the House
of Prayer.

I invite all of us to rediscover the Church as a House of prayer not only for
its communal prayer, its Eucharistic celebrations and liturgical events, but
also for personal prayer.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 95