This is what the Lord says: “ Let my people go, so that they may worship me” (Exodus 9:1). This was God’s design for the people of Israel when He led them out of Egypt. God desires that His chosen people serve and Worship Him as their one true God. In the book of Exodus, we see Moses fulfilling this promise as he led Israel to prayer and worship. Our God is a jealous God who does not want to share His glory with anyone. All He wants is to have a true communion with us, His chosen people. However, for us to enter into that intimacy with God, we must be men and women of prayer.
According to St John of Damascus, prayer “is the raising of our minds and hearts to God or requesting of good things from God.” This notion of prayer calls each of us to give of ourselves to a true friendship with God. For scripture tells us that, “The Lord use to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another.” This is what true prayer means. Prayer leads us to a deeper level of dialogue with the person of God who is all loving and gracious. When we pray, we must come to God as we are, for our God cares for us. We must cast out all our fears. For God desires to enter into a deeper relationship with each of us. As we know when two people are in love, they wish to be with one another, and they always want to share their thoughts with one another. This is what God is inviting us to do when we pray. Prayer is not about us talking to God and pouring out our minds to Him, but on our part we have a duty to listen to  what God  wants of us as His beloved children.
It is true that as humans, we may have moments in our lives when we feel too distant from God. This feeling or experience of separation from God may happen to anybody, and St. Ignatius calls this experience desolation. In such moments we must remember that God is ever present to us, and that he has not withdrawn His love from us even if we do not feel His presence around us. For some of us, these  moments could be moments when we struggle with one form of sin or one form of addiction. But we must know that our Lord is kind and merciful. He does not deal with us according to our iniquities. God sometimes humbles us when we sin so that we can turn to Him for grace and strength.
The Psalmist tells us, “Merciful and gracious is the Lord… nor does he keep his wrath forever.” Our God is a God of patience to all His creatures. God does not desire the death of a sinner. Because of His nature He wants each of us to be saved. He wants each of us to be with Him in his everlasting kingdom where we shall see Him face to face and offer Him True worship like Moses did in the desert.
Friends in Christ, let us not give up in our struggles to maintain a good relationship with God, for what God desires of us. Like the children of Israel who offered true worship to God, we also have been set apart in baptism for this special task. Let us ask God to give us the grace to truly love and serve Him in this world and in the world to come. Amen.