The Lord’s own prayer is an example for all of us. As the master has done, so must the disciple. We need prayer, every day, to refresh us, and strengthen us, and guide us, in which we go to a quiet place, to church or a quiet room in our house, to focus our minds and hearts on God, in which we lift up our needs and the needs of our families, and we allow God to speak to us. Quiet solitude is often the place of divine encounter.
In the first reading from the first book of Kings: there was this loud earthquake, but the Lord was not heard in the loud earthquake, there was this loud booming fire, but the Lord was not heard in the booming fire, there was a strong driving wind, but the Lord was not heard in the wind. Rather, it was in the tiny whispering sound. God’s voice was detected and heard in the quiet. The lesson here is that we must become quiet in order to hear the voice of God. We are often deaf to the voice of God because we have failed to become quiet enough to hear Him. He wants to speak quiet piercing words to our hearts which help us to fall in love with Him; but if we have the television going, the iphones going, the video games going all the time, and so we do not hear him.
Recall the Gospel story of the Lord healing the deaf man: the Lord places his fingers in the ear of the deaf man and says, “ephphatha” and his ears are opened. The Lord opens our ears so that we may hear his voice. The Lord wishes to perform that same healing for us. Prayer is part of the remedy for spiritual deafness, but also that healing requires the removal of those things which are causing too much noise.
Oftentimes its our own anxious thoughts keep us from prayer. Now of course, we are allowed to bring our anxieties to God, and we should. Daily we should be honest with God, and let him know what is causing us fear and anxiety: “Dear Lord, these are the things that are causing me anxiety right now.” But anxious fretting is not prayer. Rather, prayer is needed which surrenders to God and hands over those anxieties so we can experience the peace of his presence, to ask God to give us strength to bear our crosses, that his will be done, like Our Lord prayed in the Garden.
With the busyiness of life, it is often difficult to find time to pray, but it is necessary to make time. Christians do well to recall that prayer is essential for the Christian life. It’s essential. It’s a pillar without which the temple will crumble, the foundation without which our houses will fall. The Scriptures are clear: Christians need to pray. Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation.
The Christian Life involves learning how to pray, learning to imitate the Lord, who himself drew near in faithful communion to his Father. And it does involve learning; for St. Paul admits, “we do not know how to pray as we ought”. But just because they are unknown waters, doesn’t mean we aren’t to traverse them, or become immersed in them. The Holy Spirit will teach you how to swim in the ocean of prayer, if you let him. But you have to practice, and you have to prioritize.
And the more we pray, the happier we become. The more we pray, the less anxious we become, and we are filled with a greater peace of mind and heart. The more we pray, the more we understand ourselves, for we come to know God more intimately, and we really only know ourselves to the degree that we know God personally. The more we pray, the more we begin to see the hand of God in our day to day life—we see Him acting in our life. We begin to see that He loves us, personally.
Prayer isn’t to be a sporadic or undisciplined practice where we only pray when we need something really badly. Rather, the Christian is to develop a habit of prayer, a habitual practice, as habitual as eating, maybe more so. Because there may be days where we don’t get to eat, but we must still pray. I think of so many Christians who have been imprisoned, where prayer sustained them.
Prayer brings protection from the waves and storms which seek to overcome us. Through prayer, the Lord deepens our faith and trust, enabling us like Peter to walk on the waters toward Him.
Prayer also protects our hearts from going astray toward sin. Prayer keeps us from greed that seeks to secure happiness in created things. Prayer keeps us from lust that seeks happiness in the pleasures of the flesh. Prayer keeps us from pride which seeks to build a life without God’s help. Failure to pray is a sign that we’ve failed to put our lives in God’s hands. That we are failing in the first beatitude, for to be poor in spirit is to allow God to be in control. Prayer surrenders control to God.
Prayer also protects us from the deceptions of the evil one. The Devil is superior to us in intelligence and willpower. We are not smart enough to outwit him and to see through his lies on our own. We need God’s help and that comes through prayer. Where there is division, hatred, unforgiveness and animosity, there is a failure to pray.
At bare minimum, each day we need, what I call a prayer sandwich, like two thin slices of bread, with a bunch meat and goodies in the middle. Begin the day, with simple prayer, as I mentioned last week, a prayer in the morning asking God to guide your day, to fill your day with His light, and then pray the hail mary; and then a prayer at the end of the day, before laying down to bed, in which you make a brief examination of your conscience and repent of your sins and thank God for the blessings. And then pray the hail mary, or the hail holy queen.
But then, you still need the meat, the stuffing, and that’s where scripture reflection, meditation, and contemplation, come in. A break, somewhere in the day, where it is just you and God, like Jesus in the Gospels going to that secluded place to pray. Bring to God the deep stuff, your deepest struggles. Open the Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you how to pray with God’s word, to open your mind and heart to be pierced and illuminated by God’s Word.
St. John Vianney wrote, “When we pray with attention and humility of mind and heart, we quit the earth and rise to Heaven. We reach the outstretched arms of God." Recall how in the Gospel, the Lord extendshis hands to lift Peter out of the depths. This happens to us when we pray.
May we accept the invitation of the Lord to walk on the water toward Him in prayer, toward Him who is our delight, our Lord, that he may be the firm foundation of our lives for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
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