The Making Disciples Today Blog has reflections to help you grow in your journey of missionary discipleship, reviews on recommended Catholic evangelization resources, and practical insight on how to evangelize in your daily life.
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
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It all Starts with Prayer
Without prayer, our Lenten observances (getting ashes, giving up sweets, abstaining from meat on Fridays, dropping coins in the Rice Bowl) are traditions without meaning.
St. Clement of Alexandria (third century) defined prayer as "conversation with God" - a conversation that never ends. In the Scriptures, St. Paul says: "Pray at all times" (Eph 6:18); "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:1); and "be constant in prayer" (Rom 12:12). He saw prayer as endless conversation.
Mike Aquilina understands that this call seems a tad unrealistic to many of us:
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While following Christ can sometimes be treated as a primarily mental or seasonal activity, the reality is that discipleship engages the whole person. But effort alone does not make a disciple. Discipline forms us only when it is ordered toward relationship with Jesus Christ.
"The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and turns our attention towards others."
Benedict XVI, Lenten Message 2010
St. Paul often compares discipleship to athletic training – not to glorify effort, but to clarify intention (cf. 1 Cor 9:24–27).
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
While following Christ can sometimes be treated as a seasonal or primarily interior activity, the reality is that discipleship engages the whole person. But effort alone does not make a disciple. Discipline forms us only when it is ordered toward relationship with Jesus Christ.
“Fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God.”
Benedict XVI, Lenten Message 2009
St. Paul often compares discipleship to athletic training – not to glorify effort, but to clarify intention (cf. 1 Cor 9:24–27).
Weight Training: Fasting
Fasting does not make us powerful. It teaches us how to be free.
Fasting is often compared to weight training. But instead of strengthening physical muscles, it trains our capacity to choose God freely. Fasting does not reject the body or its needs. It teaches us that desire does not have to rule us.
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
While it can sometimes be treated as a primarily mental or seasonal activity, the reality is that following Christ is a full-time, full-contact way of life. But effort alone does not make a disciple. Discipline only forms us when it is ordered toward relationship with Jesus Christ.
As Father Sergius Halvorsen points out, St. Paul often uses sports imagery when speaking about what it means to be a true disciple of Christ.
He says that he does not run aimlessly, nor does he "box as one beating the air." Rather, he "pommels" his body and subdues it. (1 Cor 9:24-7)...[he] encourages us to "run with perseverance the race that is set before us" (Heb 12:1) because our goal is a heavenly prize.
St. Paul points out that athletes exercise self-control in all things in order to be victorious (1Cor 9:25). If athletic discipline was obvious in St. Paul’s day, then it should be even more obvious in our culture with its preoccupation with professional sports. The athlete cannot pigeonhole his or her athletic life.
St. Paul’s point is not intensity for its own sake, but intention. Discipline without direction does not lead to the prize.
Cardio Training: Prayer
Prayer does not begin with technique or duration. It begins with encounter – with the decision to turn toward Jesus and remain with Him.
If prayer feels confusing, performative, or hard to sustain, How Do You Pray? offers a starting point focused on encounter rather than output.
In the same way that cardio-vascular exercise strengthens our physical heart, prayer strengthens our spiritual hearts. To pray means taking time each day to turn our attention toward Jesus – to listen to Him in silence and Scripture, and to speak honestly in return. Over time, this kind of prayer deepens attentiveness and availability, not performance.
Prayer opens our hearts and minds to the love of God, and allows us to be filled with the grace which God abundantly pours out upon us.
