YES, that is actually what is proper to us. We need to
pray without ceasing, as St. Paul told us in his First Letter to the
Thessalonians. (5,16) To keep our spiritual life alive, to make it
survive all trials in life, let alone, to make it work effectively and
grow healthily, we need to pray without letup.
What food is to our biological life, prayer is to our
spiritual life. Prayer is like the breathing and the very beating of
the heart of our life with God and with others. It is the primary and
abiding link we have with God and with everybody else. Without it, we
would simply isolate ourselves.
In short, we can say that while God is objectively with
us, since he is present everywhere, we have to make sure that on our
part, we should also be subjectively with him. Precisely, St.
Augustine once complained about this problem of God being with us
while we are not with him. We need to correspond to this objective
reality of our unbreakable and intimate relation with God.
And more than just mouthing some vocal prayers, which are
also good moments of prayer, it’s the moment-to-moment awareness of
God’s presence, made alive by referring everything to him—conferring
with him, consulting, asking questions or help, etc.—that comprises
our prayer. The stream of our consciousness itself should be prayer!
We have to be wary of what Christ himself warned us: “In
praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be
heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father
knows what you need before you ask him.” (Mt 6,7)
Our prayer should come from our heart. It should reflect
the unvarnished reality of our heart. Never mind if it does not look
very beautiful yet. We just have to pray with faith, like a person who
feels a great need for God precisely because of his frailties, if not,
his sins, defects and failures.
With that attitude toward prayer, we can easily enter into
an intimate conversation with God, like a little child confiding to
his father who will always understand and help him regardless of the
child’s conditions.
To be sure, our filial prayer would not undermine our
common sense, our contact with the daily realities, our interest in
the arts, sciences and technologies, our involvement in all the
mundane and temporal human affairs—our business, politics, sports,
entertainment, etc.
Rather, our prayer sharpens and fosters all of these human
operations. If done properly, it would purify and deepen our
understanding of things, and strengthen our involvement in our earthly
daily affairs.
Praying all the time is always possible and doable,
because it does not need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a
spiritual operation that can transcend the use of our bodily
faculties. It is more a matter of attitude, of belief, which we can
always have even if it is not expressly articulated or bodily
manifested.
As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are
working, playing, resting, having fun, etc. But it would be good that
we spend some moments of vocal or mental prayer, engaging God in a
loving conversation, for these would help us to be prayerful in all
our other activities and situations in life.
Thus, we have to be ready to do some vocal prayers and
mental prayer. These are exercises that can build and fuel our life of
prayer. With them, we engage God in a more direct way, and in a more
loving way, giving him due worship and adoration.
Besides, those moments of vocal prayer and mental prayer
would be good moments to thank God for everything we have received,
and also to ask for pardon for the mistakes and sins we have
committed, as well as to ask for favors that we need.
With prayer, we can get to be receptive to God’s will and
ways. We become familiar with his words and his teachings that are a
sure guide in our life. With it, we are not simply living our life on
our own. We would be living it with God, which is how our life should
be, since we are his creatures, and creatures made in his image and
likeness, meant to enter and take part in the very life of God
himself.
We have to continually work on the proper dispositions for
prayer. We have to learn to pray with faith and love, confidence and
trust in God, with humility and simplicity, with spirit of sacrifice.
Thessalonians. (5,16) To keep our spiritual life alive, to make it
survive all trials in life, let alone, to make it work effectively and
grow healthily, we need to pray without letup.
What food is to our biological life, prayer is to our
spiritual life. Prayer is like the breathing and the very beating of
the heart of our life with God and with others. It is the primary and
abiding link we have with God and with everybody else. Without it, we
would simply isolate ourselves.
In short, we can say that while God is objectively with
us, since he is present everywhere, we have to make sure that on our
part, we should also be subjectively with him. Precisely, St.
Augustine once complained about this problem of God being with us
while we are not with him. We need to correspond to this objective
reality of our unbreakable and intimate relation with God.
And more than just mouthing some vocal prayers, which are
also good moments of prayer, it’s the moment-to-moment awareness of
God’s presence, made alive by referring everything to him—conferring
with him, consulting, asking questions or help, etc.—that comprises
our prayer. The stream of our consciousness itself should be prayer!
We have to be wary of what Christ himself warned us: “In
praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be
heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father
knows what you need before you ask him.” (Mt 6,7)
Our prayer should come from our heart. It should reflect
the unvarnished reality of our heart. Never mind if it does not look
very beautiful yet. We just have to pray with faith, like a person who
feels a great need for God precisely because of his frailties, if not,
his sins, defects and failures.
With that attitude toward prayer, we can easily enter into
an intimate conversation with God, like a little child confiding to
his father who will always understand and help him regardless of the
child’s conditions.
To be sure, our filial prayer would not undermine our
common sense, our contact with the daily realities, our interest in
the arts, sciences and technologies, our involvement in all the
mundane and temporal human affairs—our business, politics, sports,
entertainment, etc.
Rather, our prayer sharpens and fosters all of these human
operations. If done properly, it would purify and deepen our
understanding of things, and strengthen our involvement in our earthly
daily affairs.
Praying all the time is always possible and doable,
because it does not need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a
spiritual operation that can transcend the use of our bodily
faculties. It is more a matter of attitude, of belief, which we can
always have even if it is not expressly articulated or bodily
manifested.
As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are
working, playing, resting, having fun, etc. But it would be good that
we spend some moments of vocal or mental prayer, engaging God in a
loving conversation, for these would help us to be prayerful in all
our other activities and situations in life.
Thus, we have to be ready to do some vocal prayers and
mental prayer. These are exercises that can build and fuel our life of
prayer. With them, we engage God in a more direct way, and in a more
loving way, giving him due worship and adoration.
Besides, those moments of vocal prayer and mental prayer
would be good moments to thank God for everything we have received,
and also to ask for pardon for the mistakes and sins we have
committed, as well as to ask for favors that we need.
With prayer, we can get to be receptive to God’s will and
ways. We become familiar with his words and his teachings that are a
sure guide in our life. With it, we are not simply living our life on
our own. We would be living it with God, which is how our life should
be, since we are his creatures, and creatures made in his image and
likeness, meant to enter and take part in the very life of God
himself.
We have to continually work on the proper dispositions for
prayer. We have to learn to pray with faith and love, confidence and
trust in God, with humility and simplicity, with spirit of sacrifice.
No comments:
Post a Comment