November 1, 2006
Jesus often speaks in the Gospel about the importance and the necessity of prayer. In the Gospel of Luke 18:1-8, Jesus teaches us a parable that goes something like this: In a certain city, there was a judge who did not believe in God or care for his fellow man. In that same city there was a widow who kept coming to him and begging him that she be vindicated. Jesus then asks the question: if this unrighteous judge listened to the cries of this widow, will not God hear the cries of His people who call to Him day and night?
Often times in life it is easy to lose perspective on things. For example, the mother who is praying for her child who has been away from the church for ten years is often tempted to ask, “Is God listening. Does He really care?” The couple who is having difficulties conceiving a child will often ask, “Why, O God, have you abandoned us?” Yet, in the apparent “darkness” of both of these situations, a greater miracle is occurring. God is calling them to a deeper level of faith and trust that is often the fruit of a regular and stable prayer life.
To some people prayer consists of saying a couple of Our Fathers or Hail Marys—and that’s it. Never would they dare speak to God in their own words from their heart. Yet, prayer is much more than a list of formal prayers, although that is a good start and necessary in our daily life.
Each of us has somebody in our lives whom we love deeply. Maybe it is our parents, wife or husband, children, or an old friend from high school. Imagine if you were meeting them for coffee one day and when you sat down at your table, you got out a notebook and began to read your conversation to them. They would probably be very confused and after a while say, “Hey, relax, put the book down and speak to me!”
I’m sure many of us would never do that. In our relationships with other people, there are times of speaking from one’s own heart, times of listening to the other person, times of great emotional distress that may include tears and sorrow, times of great joy that can include praise and thanksgiving, and times of more formal conversation. The great freedom of these relationships is that one is able to express themselves in whatever mood they may be experiencing at that time.
The same applies to our life of prayer. Each one of us is called to deep intimacy with God, whether you work on Wall Street or are a cloistered monk. This deep intimacy is impossible without a life of prayer because it is in prayer that we make “contact” with God, where we reach out to Him and He to us, and where we discover the reality that Jesus reveals to us: that God is a Loving Father.
In our contemporary world, communication has become very easy. Cell phones and the internet enable us to communicate with almost anyone at anytime. Yet, in prayer we communicate with God, and we never have to worry about a busy signal or an incorrect password, because as Jesus promised us in the parable from Luke, our cries are always heard.
This might mean we need to wake up a half hour earlier or stay up a half hour later to find some time for prayer. Other suggestions might be to pray the rosary in the car on your way to work or to listen to a good spiritual tape. Also, one can just talk to God during the course of one’s day, offering up little prayers and sacrifices to Him. There are many creative ways one can make prayer more a part of one’s life.
The reality is that God is with us in every moment of our lives, and especially in those moments when He might appear “distant”. This is the great lesson one often learns from a life of prayer.
May Mary, who is the perfect example of prayer and trust, teach us to pray; and may she pray for us that we may have a greater desire to pray.
Br. Jeremiah Myriam Shryock, CFR
(Note: reprinted from archives)
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