A Final Word About Prayer

I have been writing about prayer, but everything I have said is simply an "aid" to prayer, a way of waiting upon the Holy Spirit, Who Himself will teach us to pray.  Romans 12:1 says, "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- which is your spiritual worship. ... then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--- his good, pleasing, and perfect will." 

When we come to pray, this is what we are doing -- offering ourselves to God, who then can perfect His will in our lives.  At the well, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."  When we come to pray, we are asking for living water to spring up within us, to carry us along as a bubbling brook.  Teresa of Avila instructed her sisters in prayer by telling them that at first, prayer is like drawing up and hauling water by hand to our garden, but soon it begins to be easier to draw the water from the depths of the earth, and then at last, it flows out without any effort of our own.

And her analogy exactly matches the description in Sirach 24 of "the book of the covenant of God Most High:" It sends out wisdom in full flood like the river Pishon, or like the Tigris at the time of firstfruits; it overflows like the Euphrates with understanding or like the Jordan at the season of harvest.  It pours forth instruction like the Nile, like the Gihon at the time of vintage.  No one has ever known wisdom fully and from first to last no one has fathomed her, for her thoughts are vaster than the ocean, her purpose more profound than the great abyss. 

As for me, I was like a watercourse leading from a river, like a conduit into a pleasure garden.  I said, "I will water my garden, soaking its flower bed";  all at once my watercourse became a river, and my river a sea.....Truly, I have not toiled for myself alone but for all who seek wisdom.

Jesus told us that the Father would not fail to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.  When we come to pray, we are asking for this great Gift of God -- the Holy Spirit, Who aids us in our weakness.  Indeed, He is called The Helper, the Advocate, the Paraclete for that reason.  It is He Who leads us in prayer, and when He comes, our effort ceases.  St. Augustine said, "Pray as you can, not as you can't."  Good advice, for the Spirit leads each of us according to His knowledge and wisdom, and no two of us will pray in exactly the same way. 

Prayer is worth whatever effort it takes to begin to develop the habit of what Teresa of Avila calls "a loving conversation with One Who we know loves us."  When we are engaged in conversation, whether deep or superficial, with someone who loves us, it is not an effort, and we don't worry that we are not doing it "right."  It just flows.  That is our aim in prayer -- just conversation with our Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit.  And the results of prayer are so worth it.  Isaiah 58:11 says, The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

When we come to pray, if all we do at first is to stare at the above passage, I guarantee the deep waters of prayer will begin to flow within you.

A Final Word About Prayer

I have been writing about prayer, but everything I have said is simply an "aid" to prayer, a way of waiting upon the Holy Spirit, Who Himself will teach us to pray.  Romans 12:1 says, "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- which is your spiritual worship. ... then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--- his good, pleasing, and perfect will." 

When we come to pray, this is what we are doing -- offering ourselves to God, who then can perfect His will in our lives.  At the well, Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."  When we come to pray, we are asking for living water to spring up within us, to carry us along as a bubbling brook.  Teresa of Avila instructed her sisters in prayer by telling them that at first, prayer is like drawing up and hauling water by hand to our garden, but soon it begins to be easier to draw the water from the depths of the earth, and then at last, it flows out without any effort of our own.

And her analogy exactly matches the description in Sirach 24 of "the book of the covenant of God Most High:" It sends out wisdom in full flood like the river Pishon, or like the Tigris at the time of firstfruits; it overflows like the Euphrates with understanding or like the Jordan at the season of harvest.  It pours forth instruction like the Nile, like the Gihon at the time of vintage.  No one has ever known wisdom fully and from first to last no one has fathomed her, for her thoughts are vaster than the ocean, her purpose more profound than the great abyss. 

As for me, I was like a watercourse leading from a river, like a conduit into a pleasure garden.  I said, "I will water my garden, soaking its flower bed";  all at once my watercourse became a river, and my river a sea.....Truly, I have not toiled for myself alone but for all who seek wisdom.

Jesus told us that the Father would not fail to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.  When we come to pray, we are asking for this great Gift of God -- the Holy Spirit, Who aids us in our weakness.  Indeed, He is called The Helper, the Advocate, the Paraclete for that reason.  It is He Who leads us in prayer, and when He comes, our effort ceases.  St. Augustine said, "Pray as you can, not as you can't."  Good advice, for the Spirit leads each of us according to His knowledge and wisdom, and no two of us will pray in exactly the same way. 

Prayer is worth whatever effort it takes to begin to develop the habit of what Teresa of Avila calls "a loving conversation with One Who we know loves us."  When we are engaged in conversation, whether deep or superficial, with someone who loves us, it is not an effort, and we don't worry that we are not doing it "right."  It just flows.  That is our aim in prayer -- just conversation with our Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit.  And the results of prayer are so worth it.  Isaiah 58:11 says, The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

When we come to pray, if all we do at first is to stare at the above passage, I guarantee the deep waters of prayer will begin to flow within you.

When "Thank You" is not Enough

Those who do not know God are those who refuse to turn to Him.  (Bernard of Clairvaux)

In my last entry, I recommended, before anything else, addressing the God to whom we are praying:  O Wisdom! O Truth! O Holiness and Goodness!  Mercy and Kindness! Justice! The One Who sees me! The One Who hears me!  If we do not yet know God the Father, we can address our prayer to Jesus Christ, Who comes to reveal to us Who God Is.  Our destiny is to know intimately the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ -- the One of Whom He spoke when He said, "The Father and I are One."  Once we begin to address Jesus -- and we have the words of Scripture to help us in our weakness -- we enter into the Presence of God:  You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  You are the Good Shepherd!  You are the Son of the Living God!  You are the Word of God made flesh!  You will never reject those who come to You!

Entering into the Presence of God, we stand silent.  Ultimately, the only thing we can say is "Thank You," and it is not enough.  When we finally see Who God Is, Who He has been to us all the days of our lives, our gratitude cannot be expressed.  We are mute before Him.  And that is really the best prayer of all.  When we try to say what is on our hearts, words fail us.  But how necessary it is for us to remember all that God has done for us!  Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior!  ....for He has done great things for me!" 

The Psalms both teach us to recall the great things God has done for us, and at the same time remind us of the dangers of forgetting His deeds toward us.  Psalm 106 is worth studying for its progression or slide into idolatry -- just by failing to remember what God has done.  In the margin of my Bible, I once made a list of the results of forgetting what God has done:  They forgot what God had done; they gave in to craving and grew envious; they worshipped idols, and despised His inheritance.  They did not believe His promise, and grumbled in their tents.  They did not obey the Lord, and yoked themselves to Baal, sacrificing to lifeless gods.  (There is a parallel list in Romans, chapter 1, for those who are interested.)

The next "great step" in prayer is to recall all that God has done for us.  And here we have Psalm 103 to guide our thinking and our prayer.  The Psalmist is addressing his own soul in this Psalm -- that is, he is speaking to his mind and his emotions:  Praise the Lord, O my soul; and all my inmost being, praise His holy name.  Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Reading this psalm in two translations should take us directly into profound prayer, especially if we can remain in David's mindset of speaking to our own mind and heart:  He forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases; He redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.  He satisfies your desires with good thing, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.  If these words do not lead us into praise, thanksgiving, and worship, we are hard indeed!

And that brings me into another great help to prayer:  the words of Scripture.  They are there for us; we fail to use them daily.  Once we have created a 'sacred space,' a place to pray, once we have entered into the Presence of God by acknowledging Who He Is, the Scriptures will lead us deeper into prayer.  The Holy Spirit hovers over all our reading and study, to bring the words to life for us. The Word of God is our great Teacher and Mentor in prayer.  It gives us words beyond our own; it teaches us the ways of God; it ministers life to our dead souls.  Every prayer space needs a bible close at hand -- even if the one praying does not yet read the bible. 

St. Augustine was wrestling in spirit and in truth with the great truths of Scripture as taught to him by Ambrose.  But he could not bring himself to submit his life and his treasures to what he knew to be true.  And he heard a child singing, "Take and read; take and read."  Fortunately, he had the Scriptures close at hand.  Picking up the scroll, he read the words which changed his life:  "Put on Christ Jesus, and make no provision for the lusts of the flesh."  Now the word of God does not only "say" truth, but it carries within itself the power to do truth.  In that moment, Augustine received the grace to finally do what the Word said.  And the same is true of us.  If the Scripture is near at hand during our time of prayer, the Holy Spirit will direct not only our reading, but our response to the sacred words -- and we will finally bow our heads, our hearts, our minds, and our wills to the Word. 

When "Thank You" is not Enough

Those who do not know God are those who refuse to turn to Him.  (Bernard of Clairvaux)

In my last entry, I recommended, before anything else, addressing the God to whom we are praying:  O Wisdom! O Truth! O Holiness and Goodness!  Mercy and Kindness! Justice! The One Who sees me! The One Who hears me!  If we do not yet know God the Father, we can address our prayer to Jesus Christ, Who comes to reveal to us Who God Is.  Our destiny is to know intimately the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ -- the One of Whom He spoke when He said, "The Father and I are One."  Once we begin to address Jesus -- and we have the words of Scripture to help us in our weakness -- we enter into the Presence of God:  You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life!  You are the Good Shepherd!  You are the Son of the Living God!  You are the Word of God made flesh!  You will never reject those who come to You!

Entering into the Presence of God, we stand silent.  Ultimately, the only thing we can say is "Thank You," and it is not enough.  When we finally see Who God Is, Who He has been to us all the days of our lives, our gratitude cannot be expressed.  We are mute before Him.  And that is really the best prayer of all.  When we try to say what is on our hearts, words fail us.  But how necessary it is for us to remember all that God has done for us!  Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior!  ....for He has done great things for me!" 

The Psalms both teach us to recall the great things God has done for us, and at the same time remind us of the dangers of forgetting His deeds toward us.  Psalm 106 is worth studying for its progression or slide into idolatry -- just by failing to remember what God has done.  In the margin of my Bible, I once made a list of the results of forgetting what God has done:  They forgot what God had done; they gave in to craving and grew envious; they worshipped idols, and despised His inheritance.  They did not believe His promise, and grumbled in their tents.  They did not obey the Lord, and yoked themselves to Baal, sacrificing to lifeless gods.  (There is a parallel list in Romans, chapter 1, for those who are interested.)

The next "great step" in prayer is to recall all that God has done for us.  And here we have Psalm 103 to guide our thinking and our prayer.  The Psalmist is addressing his own soul in this Psalm -- that is, he is speaking to his mind and his emotions:  Praise the Lord, O my soul; and all my inmost being, praise His holy name.  Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Reading this psalm in two translations should take us directly into profound prayer, especially if we can remain in David's mindset of speaking to our own mind and heart:  He forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases; He redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.  He satisfies your desires with good thing, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.  If these words do not lead us into praise, thanksgiving, and worship, we are hard indeed!

And that brings me into another great help to prayer:  the words of Scripture.  They are there for us; we fail to use them daily.  Once we have created a 'sacred space,' a place to pray, once we have entered into the Presence of God by acknowledging Who He Is, the Scriptures will lead us deeper into prayer.  The Holy Spirit hovers over all our reading and study, to bring the words to life for us. The Word of God is our great Teacher and Mentor in prayer.  It gives us words beyond our own; it teaches us the ways of God; it ministers life to our dead souls.  Every prayer space needs a bible close at hand -- even if the one praying does not yet read the bible. 

St. Augustine was wrestling in spirit and in truth with the great truths of Scripture as taught to him by Ambrose.  But he could not bring himself to submit his life and his treasures to what he knew to be true.  And he heard a child singing, "Take and read; take and read."  Fortunately, he had the Scriptures close at hand.  Picking up the scroll, he read the words which changed his life:  "Put on Christ Jesus, and make no provision for the lusts of the flesh."  Now the word of God does not only "say" truth, but it carries within itself the power to do truth.  In that moment, Augustine received the grace to finally do what the Word said.  And the same is true of us.  If the Scripture is near at hand during our time of prayer, the Holy Spirit will direct not only our reading, but our response to the sacred words -- and we will finally bow our heads, our hearts, our minds, and our wills to the Word. 

Entering into the Presence of God -- 3

As I read over what has gone before, I get discouraged, realizing that once again, I am trying to reduce prayer to a "How-to" formula.  And yet I know that everything begins with the move of the Holy Spirit.  He alone draws us into prayer, makes Jesus real to us, and reveals all that He wants to give us.  And yet, Scripture (in James, I think) says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."  I think that is about all we can do if we want to pray well -- draw near to God and wait.

One of the Psalms says, "Enter His courts with praise and thanksgiving."  I think that is wonderful advice.  I have found that praise does draw us into the Presence of God, leaving all else behind except Him.  The problem is that, until we are instructed by the Holy Spirit, praise does not come easily to us.  Because we are by nature sinners, and self-absorbed, it seems difficult for us to really praise God, and when we make the attempt, it feels fake.  But that is only because we have not developed the habit of praise; it feels as if we have put on someone else's shoes and are trying to walk in them. 

In Advent each year, the church presents to us the ancient "O antiphons:" O Key of David! O Root of Jesse! etc.

I never really understood this form of prayer until I began spontaneously using it myself. When we come to pray, an excellent way to begin is to reflect on Who it is we are talking to.  Most of us begin addressing "God" without thinking about Who God Is to us.  When we allow ourselves to ask the question Jesus asked: Who do you say that I am?  the Holy Spirit descends to open our hearts and minds:  O Wisdom!  O Goodness!  O Truth!  O Gentleness!  O Mercy!  O Protector of the Innocent! O Helper! O Provider!  You are the Redeemer of the World!  You bend low to instruct the ignorant!
You have led me in right paths for your Name's sake!

As we recall Who God Is, Who He has been to us all the days of our lives, we enter into praise and thanksgiving, into His Presence.  To remember Who God Is is to stand before Him in Spirit and in Truth, just as Peter did when He confessed the Truth about Jesus.  Nothing more need be said if we remember Who God Is, Who He has been to us.  Prayer is worship, and worship comes from knowing God.

For those who do not know God, and who therefore cannot worship Him, we need to begin by asking Him to reveal Himself.  C. S. Lewis once wrote, "If there is a God, then He must be self-revelatory."  No one can reveal who God is except God. We cannot truly pray to someone else's God.  But God is ready and willing to give us His own Spirit so that we might know Him.  All we need to do is to ask---if you, evil that you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more is the Father willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask!

I don't know why we are so reluctant to ask God for the one thing He most wants to give us!

Entering Into the Presence of God -- 2

In Him we live and move and have our very being -- God is present to us at every moment.  But we are not always present to Him.  The goal of our prayer is to bring ourselves-- heart, mind, soul, and body-- into the very Presence of God, to hear His Voice, to experience His Love for us, to receive His Wisdom, His Guidance, His Truth into our very being.  How far away is that experience from simply reciting our prayers!

The very desire to pray is His invitation to us:  Come and See!  Come and Experience!  Come and Taste the goodness of the Lord!  Unless the Holy Spirit had been calling us, we would have no desire to enter into His Presence.  But if we desire it, it is only because He has willed to fulfill our desire.  C. S. Lewis tells us that our desires are keys to our destiny.  One does not desire water, except that our bodies were designed to be nourished and sustained by water.  We are designed to "run on" water, so to speak.  The same is true of hunger, sex, and our other natural desires.  Pope John II published his reflections on The Theology of the Body, saying that our bodily desires for union with another are an indication of our desire to be united ultimately with God Himself.

So if we desire to pray, we know that God wants to answer that desire, and that He will answer the deepest longings our hearts.  The question is, "How, with all the demands and distractions of our lives pulling at us, how do we enter into the Presence of the Almighty?"  I have come to believe from observing life, that if we want something to happen, we must create the space for that activity.  For years, I wanted to paint, but not enough to find the time and space to paint.  Real artists first set up their "space," and they set up that space with all the equipment they need to paint -- canvas, easel, brushes, etc.  Then, when they find or make the time to paint, they go to their space, and the magic begins to happen.  Without that space, the desire to paint soon withers.  Other things take precedence in life. 

So if we really desire to pray, we must first create a space to pray.  A certain chair will do the trick, preferably one close to a window.  Having a bible close at hand, or at least some kind of spiritual reading, is part of the equipment we need to help us listen to the guidance of the Spirit.  Once we establish a place to pray, prayer becomes easier for us; in fact, the physical setup alone begins to trigger prayer in us -- and the more we practice prayer in that place, the more our hearts, minds, and bodies associate the physical setup with prayer, the more natural it becomes for us.

But Time to pray is another part of the equation.  Mothers with infants and small children cannot plan their time, no matter how much they desire to pray.  That chair may become the place to hold and nurse a baby, to read to a toddler, to hug and talk to a small child.  All of these are forms of prayer, of God's love being poured out into the world that so desperately needs it.  But the exhausted mother may still desperately need a time to pray, or to receive within herself a renewal of the love she constantly gives to others.

When I was in that situation, having 3 children in 5 years, I found that I was adrift spiritually.  Physically, I was exhausted, since my children did not sleep at night.  I nursed all my children, so it seemed that I was up every hour and a half, either to feed a baby or to take care of a child with an earache, strep throat, tonsillitis, etc.  I recall one day that seems to sum up my life at the time:  the oldest child (5) was vomiting on the sofa; the middle child (3), in the midst of potty-training, was crying because she needed to go potty, and the youngest ( a few months old) was screaming with hunger.  No matter which direction I headed first, it was the wrong direction.  All my life, the two resources I had depended on for health and strength had been sleep and prayer -- and now I had neither.  I had no coping strategies to deal with my life at the time, and I did not know how to solve the problem.  If I got up early to pray, a baby woke up too and needed attention.  I knew I "should" be able to be a loving mother, giving all my children exactly what they needed when they needed it -- and that only added to my guilt and frustration.  I felt helpless and angry at my obvious inadequacy to cope with life.

Finally, I struck a "bargain" with God:  if you will only give me time to pray, I promise I'll take it, instead of rushing around trying to get something done.  Within a week of my promise, my neighbor across the street began to ask if she could take the children with her to the bank, to the grocery, to the post office -- whenever she would be out for just 20 or 30 minutes.  Now who does this?  I figured it had to be an answer to my prayer.  Whenever she took the children with her, I would run to my "prayer chair" and collapse into the arms of God for however long I had free.  That time began to steady and calm me, even if I said nothing that could have been construed as "prayer" during that time.  What it did was to convince me that God was present to me, even if I could not always be present to Him.  It built my faith that He was the Senior Partner in the enterprise of my life, and I began to trust Him a little more. 

More about prayer later.

Entering into the Presence of God

Someone asked me, "How do you pray?"  My answer is that there are as many ways to pray as there are fingerprint patterns.  I recommend The Book of All Saints by Adrienne Von Spyrer as an example. Von Spyrer was a Swedish mystic, a physician, wife, and mother, and a convert to Catholicism.  When she prayed, she was able to see into, and participate in, the prayer life of all the saints -- and even others who are not canonized, like Shakespeare and Dante.  As she saw, she reported her visions to her confessor and scribe, Father Hans Urs Von Balthazor, who wrote what she said.  Some of those she saw at prayer she had never heard of previously, but if her confessor suggested them, she could see them.  She remarked on the humility of the saints, who allowed themselves to be seen, weaknesses, faults, and all.  This is a very large book, but reading through it encourages us who all think we do not know how to pray.  On one page or another, we will surely find someone whose prayer resonates with our own.

But since the question was, "How do you pray?"  I decided to reflect on my own experience, for whatever it may be worth to someone else.  There is not a set pattern so much to my prayer, since at the very beginning, I try to keep in mind Jesus saying, I Am the Alpha and the Omega.  I know that He is the beginning and the end, and, being in His Presence, I try to be led by His Spirit in my prayer.  It is the job of the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray and to lead us in prayer, so being open to His influence is the most important thing of all.  But there are definite helps to being open to the Spirit Who wants to lead us into the Presence of God and to Communion with Him.

The first step is actually a very simple one:  we have to have a place and a time to pray, an "appointment" with God, so to speak.  I know many people say they pray all day long, and that is a fact for those who have learned to pray.  And there are those who pray first thing in the morning, but their routine is really a set of prayers that they "say."  Actually, it was one of these who asked me the question.  Although she prays regularly and frequently -- more faithfully than I do, in fact --- she is yearning for a deeper communion with God, and that is why she asked the question.

Saying prayers is indeed praying -- but the old Baltimore Catechism defined prayer as "opening our hearts and minds to God."  And if we imagine being a disciple of Jesus, walking with Him through the countryside, eating with Him by the way, and conversing with Him throughout the day, I think our "prayer" would certainly include listening to Him with our whole hearts, our whole minds, and our whole strength:  Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke?  In fact, I consider prayer much more as listening to God than saying anything at all to Him.  Whenever I sense the presence of God, everything in me shuts down and shuts up -- I cannot speak at all, and I understand very little of what is happening.  But He works in secret; He is not obligated to give me an explanation of what He is doing.

So it is important to find a time and a place to meet with God.  That is the very first step.  Tomorrow, God willing, I will write more about this important step.