I went to Knock Shrine recently. Pilgrims go there to pray; some to seek a cure, others a job. Many come to serve. All come simply to be touched by the place where Mary silently appeared in 1879. One woman told me that she had learnt to pray seriously at Knock. It had a spill-over effect in her life. Family relationships improved. Problems that once depressed her became manageable. And others noticed a new spring in her step, a softening of facial lines and a deeper peace.

 We need to remind ourselves that prayer does change things. It changes situations as well as people. In today’s Gospel we have an astonishing glimpse of prayer at ‘extra high voltage’. The transfigured Jesus at prayer puts us in touch with the unseen side of life, the side that is just as concrete as the person sitting next to us. Prayer puts us in touch with another world, God’s world – the world of the communion of saints (even those of the Old Testament); of people we have known and still love.

 Last week we heard how Jesus encountered an evil angel in his prayer. Soon a good angel will comfort him in a lonely garden. Perhaps, this week, we might respond to the Lenten invitation to put a new spring into our prayer life.

                                                                                                      Sr. Kathryn, pddm