statement
Prayer.
What is it?
How do we pray?
Are there right words to use when praying?
Today, is today
a day for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, or supplication?
Who do I pray
for?
Does it matter
how long I pray?
Prayer.
Actually, in
scripture and in the lives of the faithful, we see that prayer isn’t just one
style.
Prayer of the
heart may use few words or none.
All that is required
needed is an attentive heart.
A heart that is
attentive to the world, yes the world,
around you: locally, globally, nationally,
and/or personally.
Don’t think too
so much and pray.
Where do we
begin? How do I begin?
How about this
piece of advice:
One of my
favorite writers and theologians, Thomas Merton, taught that simply walking
with God is one of the surest ways of developing a life of prayer. Prayer such
as this unveils the presence of God everywhere; God in the everydayness of
life, in the body, in nature, and in the people we encounter.
Pray.
All occasions
are opportunities for prayer: preparing
a meal, working in the garden, reading a book, taking a walk in the woods,
playing with children or with your pets. Prayer is not about words or postures,
though these aspects are important. Prayer is about living with a sense of
God’s presence in all our lives.
Here comes a
bold statement.
The real
purpose of prayer…is the deepening of personal realization
in love, the awareness of God (even if sometimes this awareness may among to a
negative factor, a seeming ‘absence’).
Prayer then not
just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart—it is
the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence,
attention, and adoration.
So pray.
However you
need to or want to. But you need to.
We all do.
Need help?
Think about
this poem by Mary Oliver titled, “Praying.”
“Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or
a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and
don’t try
to make them elaborate,
this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence
in which
another voice may speak.”
Prayer.
By reading
this, you’ve already done it.
Be well.
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