It’s not true that there’s no time for praying. The statistics tell us in fact that “in Belgium people spend on average 3 hours and 45 minutes, almost 4 hours, before the television set everyday”, points out Bishop André-Moutien Léonard of Namur, recalling in his message for Lent that one “of the practices that Jesus and the Church recommend for the ‘Christian Ramadan’ is prayer”. For Belgium, this duty points out the bishop is doubly felt, given that the bishops of the country have decided to designate 2006 the “year of prayer”. “I often hear the objection writes Bishop Léonard -: ‘But Monsignor, we would like to pray more, but we can’t find the time. But this argument no longer holds. Every evening we find the time for a domestic liturgy that lasts almost four hours. That’s longer than a Byzantine-rite mass! We take our places as in church, in front of the ‘tabernacle’ which we have devoutly installed in a small altar in our home. And often we watch it in great silence. And all this lasts a long time, even if this kind of television mass always presents the same ingredients”.
