Praying with the heart

WE are told that we should avoid praying like pagans, that is to say, just rattling and babbling words, multiplying them and making noise and a show of it, but actually not praying, that is to say, not conversing with God, not experiencing any enlightening and transformative effect, etc.

It’s an old reminder that continues to be most timely, since we always have the very likely possibility of praying simply with our lips but not with our heart. This, sadly, is part of our human condition, a consequence of a nature weakened by sin, both original and personal.

We also have to consider that our sin, if not corrected, tends to gather strength and create historical, cultural and social structures that can perpetuate sin in time, exerting bad influence on us. We need to be aware of this fact, and skillful in how to tackle this problem.

We therefore have to arm our heart properly, wary of its delicate condition especially in its beginning stage, and of the many elements, usually subtle and tricky, that it has to contend with.

Obviously, we have to understand our heart not simply in the biological or physical sense, but more importantly as the seat of our thoughts and intentions, our desires, dreams and of what make us excited or concerned.

Our heart tends to be unstable at the beginning. Unless disciplined, trained and nourished properly, it can be quite flippy and capricious, going from one thing to another without firm foundations and clear purpose.

As the gospel tells us, the heart is where our treasure is. We need to ask what our treasure really is. Is God our true and most precious treasure or is it something else, like something material and worldly—money, fame, power, or just food and drink, fun and pleasure?

We need to put more serious attention to the real needs and workings of our heart, so we can treat it properly. At the moment, we seem to take this responsibility for granted, allowing our heart to simply go anywhere, to get attached to what we consider would just come naturally.

For this we need to study the doctrine of our faith, since it is there that we get the ultimate truths about ourselves, and not just passing facts. It’s faith that refers us to God our Creator, the one who designed us, who gave us our nature and the laws proper to us, and besides, who actually keeps us in existence and leads us to our proper end.

Because of that, we need to develop a theological mind, that is to say, relying on faith first and foremost, before we make use of our common sense and the knowledge we derive from the sciences and arts.

This latter knowledge need to be rooted on faith, otherwise they can just lead us anywhere in some goose chase and can be highly dangerous. We have to disabuse ourselves from our proclivity to rely too much on common sense and our purely intellectual pursuits.

We have to learn to pray from the heart, which also means that prayer should be second nature to us. As such, prayer becomes a constant activity. We can and should turn everything into prayer.

Even our work and mundane affairs should be an occasion or even means of prayer also. We should end up praying as we breathe, and as our heart beats. Thus, St. Paul once said: “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5,17)

This is no fantasy. This is no gratuitous claim. If we look at this matter more closely, we will discover that we are actually meant to pray, we have been wired and appropriately equipped for it. But neither is it forced on us, nor does it come to us automatically. It has to be willed, and we also need to be trained for it.

With prayer, we keep our union with God, which can mean that we start to share his wisdom and his power. That’s why when we pray properly, we can somehow get to know what is right and wrong, what is fair and unfair, what is safe and dangerous.

With prayer, we can find meaning in any situation we can be in, whether we are up or down. With it, we would know how to handle our weaknesses and resist the temptations around. With it, we put into the play the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity that practically comprise the essence of our true life, spiritual and supernatural.