We find the same with the Church today. We get used to the way things have been done and expect them to continue unchanged. We do it with the buildings we own, with the people we employ; we do it with parish structures and the way we say Mass. But a Church can never be defined by what she owns or by the people she employs. It cannot even be defined by her behaviour or that of her members.

At its very core, a Church is defined as the community in which we grow closer to God, in which we fall increasingly under His influence. Get that right and everything else will follow.

As we grow in love of God, so we will desire to give Him praise and worship - and every aspect of our liturgy will burst into flower. As we grow in love of neighbours, so we will long to share what we have with them, will see their needs as our own. If in order to do these things we need buildings or employees or committees or councils, then we find the means to provide them.

But growing closer to God does not just happen automatically and it does not happen just because we vaguely desire it. It is a living and growing relationship and, as such, has to be rooted in daily contact with God - and that means it has to be rooted in prayer. If our liturgy is not so rooted, then, however beautiful it is, it becomes mere concert-giving; if our service of the sick and the poor does not grow out of prayer, it becomes mere do-goodery; if our preaching and other catechesis does not arise from our personal acquaintance with God, it becomes the mere mouthing of words. And in all of this, what should be a light to the world becomes an exercise in sterility!

That is why I am not only devoting this letter to prayer, but also those for Pentecost and next Advent. Prayer is the work of the Christian, but, when I say that, I don't want to give the impression that it is grim and back-breaking, an imposition. It is the name we give to all aspects of our intercourse with God.

In that context, may I say something almost insultingly obvious? We cannot have a relationship of any quality with anyone unless we are prepared to spend time at it, to concentrate on it. The biggest single cause of marital breakdown is husbands and wives becoming too busy with other things to spend time with each other. If you know young people, you know that, more than anything else, they want to be listened to; all too often we adults, despite our love for them, find it easier to give them things and money rather than time and attention - and the result is alienated youth. It even takes time and effort to build a relationship with your dog! Why should we suppose that a relationship with God can flourish if it is based on a few minutes of prayer pushed haphazardly into a corner of the day when it does not get in the way of really important things - like watching football or going to the gym? Why should we suppose it can flourish if what prayer we do make consists only of words we learned forty years ago, repeated with our lips, while our minds are firmly fixed on what we are cooking for supper or the most peculiar behaviour of the woman next door?

The biggest obstacle, I suspect, preventing people from praying is that it is seen as boring. Well, if that is the case that is where our starting point must be, because prayer shouldn't be boring. After all, prayer is time spent with God - and that is time spent with my Love, my Joy and my Delight. This is time spent with that which rescues me from my past, gives meaning to my present and hope to my future.

You see, if I find prayer boring, it is not because prayer cannot be anything except boring; it is, rather, that I have not yet discovered the kind of prayer that works for me. And, if that is the case, then I must ask myself: Just how much effort have I put into trying to do so?

If the honest answer to that is, "Not very much", don't despair. It is never too late with the Lord to put things right. As St Peter says in his second letter, "The Lord is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance". Our relationship with God stretches over our entire lifetime.

But I do urge you all to use this year to launch yourselves into a new dimension of prayer:

• Those of you who have a rich and rewarding prayer life: open your minds to the fact that the Lord has delights yet in store for you that pass all human understanding.
• Those of you who do pray, but do so out of duty alone: open your souls to the love and the joy the Lord promises.
• Those of you who do not pray or do so only occasionally: open your hearts to the fact that God thinks you - yes, you - are so special that He is longing to have a personal, loving relationship with you; make this the year when you give Him the chance to do so.

Don't imagine you are going to scale the heights of prayer in a simple, elegant bound. That is not what prayer is like. It is a lifetime spent in a growing, deepening relationship with God. But, all right, given that we will not complete the journey during this Lent, how do we start? We start by taking stock of where we are, being honest with ourselves and honest with God. Use the six weeks of Lent to see how you could put your relationship with God onto a sounder footing.

This is not a complicated theoretical exercise. Imagine you have just met someone who attracts you very much. What would you do? Well, you would want to spend time with her, get to know what she thought about things, discover the things it felt good to do together, discover the things you do that really upset her and stop doing them. Discover your happiness in making her happy.

It is the same with God; it's that easy. Spend time with Him; discover what He thinks about things (you have a whole Bible for that); stop doing the things that upset Him; discover your happiness in making Him happy.

When we take stock in this way, when we stop thinking about how well we are already doing and focus instead on what more we could do, we discover plenty of scope for making a new beginning. Then we go to the Lord and say, "I'm sorry for all the time I've wasted. Please, let's make a fresh start." What could be easier than that? Why should it suddenly become difficult if we use the other name for taking stock of our relationship with God and call it 'facing up to our sin'? Why should the conversation with God become difficult just because we realise that He has been waiting for our approach to Him and call it the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Don't throw away a pearl of great price for no better reason than that you have an emotional reaction against the language used to describe it!

One of the most important lessons of Lent is that it is about being willing to let God make us ready for a wonderful future rather than about being sent to a celestial internment camp in punishment for sins past. Don't be afraid of it, don't turn it into something it is not; use the time and use the sacraments as they are intended to be used.

God bless you all,