On the Importance of Prayer

Ordinarily when we pray most of don't think--initially at least--of prayer as listening.  Even less might we typically think of prayer as being something that brings about a concrete change in us or in the world, at least not simply by the act of praying in itself.

Most of us have been taught since the time of our early childhood that prayer is saying something to God.  In this view prayer moves in one direction only.  If it has reciprocity at all we must wait--sometimes for a long time--to hear from God in the form of an answered prayer.  For most people prayer has this kind of single dimension.  It is something that we do for ourselves because we feel the need for it.  For most prayer is simply the means by which one establishes a relationship with God, which consists primarily in the fact of his or her communicating to God.

However, there's something different that I've recently noticed about prayer.  I saw it clearly today in Psalm 85 of the Morning Prayer:

I will listen to whatever the Lord God tells me,
for he will speak peace to his people and his chosen ones,
and to those who repent in their hearts.

Where else does the psalmist hear God if not in his prayer, which most certainly permeates the whole of his life?  Referring to another prayer,the Shema Israel, "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord...", Pope Benedict XVI writes:

The recitation of this prayer was understood as the act of taking on one's shoulders the yoke of God's sovereign lordship.  This prayer is not just a matter of words: the one who prays it accepts God's lordship, which consequently, through the act of praying, enters into the world.  The one who is praying helps to bear it on his shoulders, and through his prayer, God's lordship shapes his way of life, his day-to-day existence, making it a locus of God's presence in the world. (Jesus of Nazareth, 57)

Here the reciprocity of prayer goes far beyond simply listening--at least in the aural sense--to what God has to say.  It moves beyond speaking and hearing to the kind of active reciprocity that involves God's definite entering our world through it.  In prayer--and by praying--we invite the presence of God, and thus the kingdom, into the world of our existence.

All of this came as kind of an epiphany to me about the importance of our daily prayers.  I had never before seen so clearly the importance of my obligation as a deacon to pray the prayer of the Church.  Thus, it also speaks to the importance of formal prayer.  Many years ago I first learned of a former Catholic nun, Mary Ann Collins, now a well-know anti-Catholic, who criticized formal prayers such as the Liturgy of the Hours because they took time from her bible reading.  Also I have encountered opposition to the Divine Office from well-meaning, but somewhat misinformed, Catholics promoting the spirituality of spontaneous prayer as a superior form of prayer.

While I believe that spontaneous prayers and petitions are important in terms of our spirituality, they clearly cannot take the place of prayers that serve to connect us to the whole of salvation history and thus to bring Christ into our lives by revealing--even ushering in--the kingdom of God.  Certainly bible reading is important to spirituality also, but it has to go beyond merely reading.  For the written word to come alive for us we must pray it, and of course this is what the Divine Office shows us so clearly.

When we listen to what the Lord tells us it becomes clear what he desires: he wants to enter our world through each one of us.  In a way that sometimes escapes us--because we often misunderstand its purpose and power--we are given the means by which to bring God's presence into our world.

Prayer makes us holy; it prepares our hearts for God.  The psalmist--in the quote above--says that God will speak to those who repent in their hearts.  Prayer makes it possible.  You say you'd like to hear from God?  You say you'd like for your life to reveal the power of God?  The answer is simple: through the act of praying the kingdom--the very presence of our Lord Jesus Christ--enters the world.

Comments

[C.O.]

What a marvelous way you've put it. For Pete's sake, for how long have I not been praying with the Church, for even tho' I've thought my every prayer was that - it isn't! There IS a distinction. I have just spoken with someone of doubts about her level of Catholicism by saying just as my husband and I did not remain as bf/gf, but went on to be publicly committed to one another, even in clouds of unknowing.. that even tho' we've had our doubts -- which we'd not have had, if this was not a serious lifelong commitment -- that we've been tried by fire, and shall not be moved, because after all the increments of love, there is a core truth about how/why/when we came together, and even then, I can (be fool enough to) think of it any way I want, or I can simply trust, and remain committed. Same with this Faith, with this, Christ's one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Commitment to relationship. I said that tho' not perfect, I believe the church is for my good and the good of all the world, and that based on that and so much else of Truth that came in increments, that I, like a spouse, married the Church in my heart. This Faith is, after all, a Mutual commitment, a Mutual love, not just mine. Lifelong. Anyway, I see now that I have not been praying with the Church. Pray that I'll start praying.

And amen, actively listening to God opens wider the door. Mary was all-yes, but what if she had not been all-active listening? Could she have believed the angel before her was indeed angel, or believed he was speaking to her, or what he was saying? She kept her agenda nowhere at all - all of her was set aside for God. For God's honor, God's love, God's life, God's very breath. This is why we greatly fail to receive the annunciation, the good news, and His own prayer on that hard and wonderful night. We are distracted.

[Pia]

One of last Sunday's readings really spoke to me about this "listen" aspect of prayer. I find that at times, prayer is not "talking to God", but rather "talking at God", let alone listening! But this is really a good lesson, especially the last line:

Moses said to the people:
“If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,
and keep his commandments and statutes
that are written in this book of the law,
when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul.

“For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out.