My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Whenever we begin our conversation with Jesus, we might go with our imagination to that quiet place

where Jesus has led the Apostles so that they

can rest and spend time with him in intimate conversation. Perhaps our goal is to imitate

St. John, who has taken the prized spot right next to the Master in order to deepen his friendship with the Lord.

Then reality sets in. Once again, we find our concentration shattered after two minutes.

Giving into distraction day after day has left the muscles of our attention span flabby.

For that reason, we beg the Lord right now to help us tackle head-on this malady

that has cast its spell over much of the world.

Our beloved Pope Leo XIV did not waste any time putting his finger on the wound.

During the first week of his pontificate, he said,

think of the isolation caused by widespread relational models,

increasingly marked by superficiality, individualism,

and emotional instability, of the dominance of lifestyles and rhythms in which there is not enough space for listening, reflection, and dialogue, in school, in the family, and

sometimes even among peers, with the resulting loneliness.

Jonathan Haidt, a professor at New York University, has been getting a lot of attention lately, in part due to his 2024 book, The Anxious Generation.

He recently gave a lecture at Princeton University, examining the huge transformation that is taking place in the minds of our young ones,

as well as those not so young.

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