THE story of the sisters, Martha and
Mary, (Lk 10,48-52)
offers us a precious lesson on always giving priority to prayer, the
one thing necessary in life, no matter how many and urgent our other
concerns are during the day.
The immediate basis for this truth is what Christ himself
said: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul?” (Mt 16,26) That’s because prayer is like the
breathing and the heartbeat of our spiritual organism, of our soul.
Just as we continue to breathe and just as our heart continues to beat
even while we are unconscious in our sleep, so should our prayer be.
To be sure, this is possible and doable, because praying
does not even need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a spiritual
operation that can transcend the use of our bodily faculties. It’s a
matter of attitude, of belief, which we can always have even if it is
not expressly articulated.
As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are
working, playing, resting, etc. But it would be good that we spend
some time doing nothing other than praying, directly engaging God in a
loving conversation, because that 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.
But in our present human condition, we need to fight to be
able to pray. We need to struggle. We have to exert great and abiding
effort to convert everything we do into prayer.
We have already been warned in the Bible that our life here on
earth is a warfare. We are ranged against powerful enemies not so much
in terms of physical strength as in terms of subtlety, trickery and
deception.
The forces of good and evil are always in conflict not so much
in some places outside or war arenas somewhere, as in our very own
heart. The combat is more internal than external, more spiritual and
moral than material and physical.
Besides, the battle of contention starts in some little matters,
not in big issues, that are not promptly attended and are made to
fester for a while until they become a crisis or a conflagration.
Just take a peep at your heart. Even in your most stable periods
of goodness and well-being, you know well how the demons and
temptations are just around the corner, ever ready to pounce at the
slightest opening.
We need to be always on guard, and the best way to do that is to
pray, to be in constant conversation with God, our Father, whose
wisdom and omnipotence he is willing to share with us. his children,
created in his image and likeness.
It is through prayer that we can see and receive the power of
God. It is where we can train ourselves in the skills of spiritual
combat—how to deal with our weaknesses, temptations and our sins and
defeats. It’s where we can nurse our wounds.
We have to learn to pray and to convert everything into prayer.
“Pray without ceasing,” St. Paul says (1 Th 5,17). “Watch and pray,”
Christ told the sleepy Peter, “that you may not enter into temptation.
The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26, 41).
We have to fight against our tendency to be swallowed up by our
work and the dynamics of our earthly concerns. In fact, we should turn
them into prayer. That’s how we would refer them to God and not treat
them merely as human or worldly affairs.
We need to be wary of our tendency to regard our temporal
affairs purely as secular, without any reference to God. This would
detach us from the very source of our spiritual life, of everything
that is true, good and beautiful.
So, we have to learn to discipline our human impulses that in
their raw state need to be educated, purified and formed according to
the Christian ideals where charity and love for God and others would
be the primary directing principles.
offers us a precious lesson on always giving priority to prayer, the
one thing necessary in life, no matter how many and urgent our other
concerns are during the day.
The immediate basis for this truth is what Christ himself
said: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul?” (Mt 16,26) That’s because prayer is like the
breathing and the heartbeat of our spiritual organism, of our soul.
Just as we continue to breathe and just as our heart continues to beat
even while we are unconscious in our sleep, so should our prayer be.
To be sure, this is possible and doable, because praying
does not even need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a spiritual
operation that can transcend the use of our bodily faculties. It’s a
matter of attitude, of belief, which we can always have even if it is
not expressly articulated.
As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are
working, playing, resting, etc. But it would be good that we spend
some time doing nothing other than praying, directly engaging God in a
loving conversation, because that 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.
But in our present human condition, we need to fight to be
able to pray. We need to struggle. We have to exert great and abiding
effort to convert everything we do into prayer.
We have already been warned in the Bible that our life here on
earth is a warfare. We are ranged against powerful enemies not so much
in terms of physical strength as in terms of subtlety, trickery and
deception.
The forces of good and evil are always in conflict not so much
in some places outside or war arenas somewhere, as in our very own
heart. The combat is more internal than external, more spiritual and
moral than material and physical.
Besides, the battle of contention starts in some little matters,
not in big issues, that are not promptly attended and are made to
fester for a while until they become a crisis or a conflagration.
Just take a peep at your heart. Even in your most stable periods
of goodness and well-being, you know well how the demons and
temptations are just around the corner, ever ready to pounce at the
slightest opening.
We need to be always on guard, and the best way to do that is to
pray, to be in constant conversation with God, our Father, whose
wisdom and omnipotence he is willing to share with us. his children,
created in his image and likeness.
It is through prayer that we can see and receive the power of
God. It is where we can train ourselves in the skills of spiritual
combat—how to deal with our weaknesses, temptations and our sins and
defeats. It’s where we can nurse our wounds.
We have to learn to pray and to convert everything into prayer.
“Pray without ceasing,” St. Paul says (1 Th 5,17). “Watch and pray,”
Christ told the sleepy Peter, “that you may not enter into temptation.
The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26, 41).
We have to fight against our tendency to be swallowed up by our
work and the dynamics of our earthly concerns. In fact, we should turn
them into prayer. That’s how we would refer them to God and not treat
them merely as human or worldly affairs.
We need to be wary of our tendency to regard our temporal
affairs purely as secular, without any reference to God. This would
detach us from the very source of our spiritual life, of everything
that is true, good and beautiful.
So, we have to learn to discipline our human impulses that in
their raw state need to be educated, purified and formed according to
the Christian ideals where charity and love for God and others would
be the primary directing principles.
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