“…he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed” (Mk 1:35).

   What a full day Jesus had that Saturday in the city of Capernaum! He had spoken in the synagogue and astonished everyone with his teaching. Then he freed a man from an unclean spirit. After leaving the synagogue he went to Simon and Andrew’s house where he healed Simon’s mother-in-law. In the evening after sunset, people brought all the sick and the possessed to him and he healed many afflicted with various illnesses and expelled many demons (see Mk 1:21-24).
   After such an intense day and night, Jesus managed to get up while it was still dark and left the house before daybreak.

“…he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”

   He was longing for the life of heaven. From there he had come to reveal the love of God to us, to open up the way to heaven for us, to share every aspect of our lives. He had traveled the roads of Palestine to teach the crowds, to cure diseases and sicknesses of every kind, and to form disciples.
   But the life-giving power that flowed like “rivers of living water from within him” (Jn 7:37-38), sprang from his constant relationship with the Father. He and the Father know each other and love each other; they are in each other, for they are but one (see Jn 10:15,30,38).
   For him, the Father is “Abba,” which means “daddy,” the dad he could turn to with infinite trust and boundless love.

“…he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”

   Since the Son of God came on earth for us, he was not satisfied to be alone in this privileged relationship of prayer. By dying for us and redeeming us, he has made us sons and daughters of God, his brothers and sisters.
   Therefore we too can call out to the Father with his divine invocation, “Abba, Father,” with all that that this means: certainty of his protection, security, and blind trust in his love, divine consolation, strength and ardor——the ardor that is born in a heart confident that it is loved.
   Once we have entered into the silence of our “inner room” (Mt 6:6), within our soul, we can then converse with him, adore him, declare our love for him, and thank him. We can also ask him to forgive us, and entrust to him all our personal needs and humanity’s too, as well as our dreams and hopes. What can’t we say to someone we know who loves us immensely and who can do anything?
   We can also speak with the Word himself, with Jesus. Above all, we can heed his voice and allow him to repeat to us: “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” (Mk 6:50), “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). He also invites us to follow him: “Come, follow me” (Mt 19:21), “I say to you, [forgive] not seven times but seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:22), “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you” (Mt 7:12).
   These conversations can be lengthy, or they can be brief and frequent moments throughout the day, almost like a glance of love we throw in his direction, like whispering to him for example: “You are my only good” (see Ps 16:2), “This action of mine I’m offering to you.”
   We cannot do without prayer. We cannot live without breathing, and praying is the soul breathing, the expression of our love for God.
   With this dialogue, this relationship of communion and love, we will be refreshed and ready to face our daily lives with new strength and confidence. We will also discover a more genuine relationship with others and with the things around us.

“…he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”

   “If we do not close the shutters of our soul by recollecting ourselves, you, Lord, would not be able to keep company with us as your love sometimes would want to. But once we have set everything else aside in order to recollect ourselves in you, we would never want to turn back, for so sweet to the soul is union with You and so fleeting all the rest.
   “Those who sincerely love you often feel you present, Lord, in the silence of their rooms, in the depths of their hearts, and this sensation moves them each time as if they had been touched to the quick. And they thank you for being so close to them, for being everything for them, for being the one who gives meaning to their living and their dying.
   “They thank you, but often they do not know how to, or what to say. They only know that you love them and that they love you, and that there is no sweeter thing on this earth that comes even close to this feeling. What they feel in their soul when you appear is Heaven, and they say: ‘If Heaven is like this, oh, how beautiful it is!’
   “They thank you, Lord, for their entire lives, for having led them up to this point. And even if shadows still exist on the outside that could darken their paradise here on earth, when you manifest yourself all these other things seem remote and distant: they no longer exist.
   “You alone exist.
   “That is how it is.”