Beyond Reciting Prayers: Building a Living Conversation with God
Homily for Seventeenth Sunday of Year C
A few nights ago, at a pilgrimage Mass on the Camino, the priest invited all those present to pray the Our Father in their own languages. We heard the prayer in Spanish, Italian, French, Polish, German, English, Korean, and a few other languages. It was a beautiful reminder of the universality of the Church, and also the universality of this prayer given to us by Jesus himself. Think how often we pray this prayer ourselves. Think of how much this prayer is part of our lives. This Sunday we are invited to pray to God for what we need, trusting that God will answer our prayers by giving us what is good for us.
In the first reading from the Book of Genesis we see Abraham as a model of prayer. He is direct and honest before God, but his boldness is not without respect. He knows that he is talking to the judge of the whole earth, as he himself says in his prayer. He knows his humble position. There is a boldness and directness in his prayer, and also a beautiful honesty and humility in the way he approaches God.
In the Gospel, the disciples see Jesus praying and ask him to teach them how to pray, and Jesus gives them the Lord’s prayer with its simple set of petitions. Jesus goes on to encourage us to persist in prayer, with the vivid example of the reluctant friend, persuaded into giving what is requested, despite every attempt to refuse.
The essence and foundation of the spiritual life is prayer, yet regular, faithful prayer is difficult for us. Despite the priority of prayer, and despite what it does for us in terms of orienting us to God; despite the strength, peace and consolation it gives, it takes tremendous self-discipline on our part. In our busy lives, prayer is likely to be the first thing to be compromised, both in the time we spend in prayer and the quality of our prayer. We are always only beginners at prayer; we need to be constantly starting again to pray.
We might well ask: Why do we pray? After all, God knows us and our needs much better than we can explain them. Well, we pray because prayer is relational; it is the cement that keeps us connected to God. And in God’s wisdom and generosity, he chooses to collaborate with us and allows our prayer to bring about good.
Remember that we need to go beyond just reciting set prayers. Prayer can be informal conversation with God. It can be talking to God about what is important to us and telling him about our cares and worries as well as what we long for. Prayer can be thinking about God and the things of God, in the presence of God. Because we all need regularly to start praying again, it is helpful to go back to the basics. So, here are some foundational points about prayer for those who are starting again to pray and those who are seeking to deepen their prayer. Perhaps one or two of these points will resonate with you and help you.
First, take the time. Thomas Merton, the great spiritual writer on prayer of the last century, believed this to be the most important aspect of prayer. We have to actually commit to taking time to pray. The discipline of a regular time at the same time every day will fine-tune the art of praying.
Second, practice intentionality. We can remind ourselves of what it is that we are doing when we pray and why we are doing it. When we take time to recognize why we do something, it holds more meaning, and when it holds more meaning for us, it’s more likely we’ll follow through and actually do it! Similarly, each time of prayer will be enriched by this intentionality.
Third, prayer is lifting the mind and heart to God. Keep it simple. St Teresa of Avila, the great doctor of prayer, said that prayer is nothing more than spending time with the One who loves us.
Fourth, we can keep a list of prayer intentions for ourselves and others. Pope St John Paul kept a list of intentions of people on his kneeler in his chapel. We can put this list in a place we will see it every day, perhaps inside our Bibles or in a journal. During our prayer, we can read through the list, stopping to ask God to answer each of these needs according to his will.
Fifth, in addition to the discipline of praying regularly at the same time each day, we can pray often and whenever we are alone. Whatever we are doing or wherever we may be, God is always available, always wanting to listen to us.
Sixth, we can find special places to pray. Even if there is a space of prayer in our homes we enjoy, we can seek out a quiet church or go on a retreat or a pilgrimage. Sometimes, we need to take ourselves out of a distracting environment in order to be able to focus on prayer. The great privilege we have as Catholics is praying in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
Finally, in our prayer and in the different kinds of prayer we pray, we also need to take time to just be silent in the presence of God. Simple as that. Don’t think about anything other than God. Think about who he is, what he has done for us, how much he loves us. Just be still and sit in his presence. We can simply allow God to love us.
Prayer is like learning a new language. In the early stages of learning a new language with its vocabulary and grammar, it is difficult to actually say something in the language. We lack the confidence. But, like learning to speak another language, with prayer we need to just do it anyway because we learn to pray by praying.
Of course, there are different ways of praying and different forms of prayer. The Our Father prayer which Jesus gives us in the Gospel today has been called the perfect prayer because it represents all the different ways of praying, from praising and worshipping God, surrendering to the will of God and making God our highest good, to praying for our daily needs, and asking for forgiveness and protection.
The part of today’s Gospel passage which speaks of prayer as asking, searching and knocking reminds us that there is a longing in each one of us for meaning and purpose, a longing for the things of God. The beautiful promise of the Gospel is that our desires and longings will not be left frustrated.
The word, seek, which used to describe prayer, has a rich meaning in the Scriptures. In so many ways our seeking God is an expression of our relationship with him. For instance, the Psalmist prays: “It is your face, O Lord, that I seek. Hide not your face from me” (Ps 27:7-8). But we remember that it is not merely that we human beings seek God, but it is also God who seeks us out. So, another important aspect of prayer is to seek the face of God, but above all, to put ourselves in the space where we become aware of the God who seeks us out.
Similarly, the word, knock, has a double significance. In the context of prayer as we heard in the gospel reading of today, prayer is us knocking on the heart of God. But also, as we hear Jesus say in the Book of Revelation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person's side” (Rev 3:20). Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts. So, prayer is also becoming aware of the sound of the knocking of the Lord on the door of our hearts.
Prayer is the substance of our relationship with God; it the lifeblood of who he is for us and who we are for him. We need to constantly start again in this love conversation with the one who loves us.
