Praying

23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday (11 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Luke 6:12-19

“Jesus went onto the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.”

Three Russian monks lived on a faraway island. Nobody ever went there, but one day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit. When he arrived he discovered that the monks didn’t even know the Lord’s Prayer. So he spent all his time and energy teaching them the ‘Our Father’ and then left, satisfied with his pastoral work. But when his ship had left the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed the three hermits walking on the water – in fact, they were running after the ship! When they reached it they cried, “Dear Father, we have forgotten the prayer you taught us.” The bishop, overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing, said, “But, dear brothers, how then do you pray?” They answered, “Well, we just say, ‘Dear God, there are three of us and there are three of you, have mercy on us!’” The bishop, awestruck by their sanctity and simplicity, said, “Go back to your island and be at peace.”

Prayer is not about choosing the best words to tell God; but about expressing our intimacy and love towards God. In today's gospel, Luke narrates a habit of Jesus: going into the hills, to a lonely place for praying. (Luke is interested in prayer; that's why his gospel is also termed the gospel of prayer.) We need to take time to pray; even create a habit to pray.

Prayer is a way of connecting with our source. It is about being centered, grounded, mindful of the holy, the presence of the sacred and the precious. Prayer can help us to connect with others as our own brothers and sisters. It can help us to connect with the poor and the needy; it helps us to open our eyes and hearts to the reality around us. It is prayer that can allow us to educate our children with patience, love and understanding. It is prayer that can enable us to move to a simpler lifestyle. And it is prayer that will give us deep conviction and joy, and a deeper meaning in our lives.

And whether or not we pray is as obvious as whether or not we have put our clothes on. For example, the restless movement from one job to another, the compulsive and frantic shifting from one event to another, or perhaps our angry, cynical and unintegrated rambling from one project to another—even from one good work to another—may speak of good intentions, but also of an uneasy and untended inner life. This might show our decentred (eccentric!) life, lack of prayerfulness. In short, it is possible to do much harm because we have not taken the time to pray.

As Etty Hillesum wrote, "Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, and to reflect it towards others." This can be done through prayerfulness, silence and communing with God regularly. Let us begin by being peace ourselves, by connecting with the source of peace within.