Praying Constantly

32nd Week in Ordinary Time - Saturday; Memorial of St Elizabeth of Hungary (17 November 2018)

3 John 1:5-8. Psalm 112:1-6. Luke 18:1-8.

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.”

The parable of the unjust judge and the widow is a beautiful lesson on prayer for individuals and communities. Never lose heart in prayer. We need to remain faithful in prayer to God, who never abandons His people. Prayer therefore is a response to God who acts first, who loves first, who provides first. The widow in the parable is an image of powerlessness. If she, who is in a helpless or hopeless condition, can achieve her purpose by continuously entreating an unjust and irreligious person, we don't have to doubt about God's generosity and providence even when there is an apparent delay from God's side. God never delays, He always acts on time. This is our faith, this is the nature of our ever-loving God.

We have questions, irritations, even doubts about prayer. They are very real. But still, a spiritual life without prayer is like the Gospel without Christ. We need at least a minimum clarity about prayer, even if we do not have a grand and systematic theory of prayer.

When we think about prayer, we usually regard it as one of the many things we do to live a full and mature Christian life. If we are fervent in our conviction that prayer is important, we might even be willing to give a whole hour to prayer every day, or a whole day every month, or a whole week every year. Thus prayer becomes an important part of our life.

From the above parable and the Bible we know that prayer is not merely a part of life. Not even an important part of life. Prayer is all of life. Prayer is not merely something that we should not forget. It is our ongoing concern.

So it is not about praying once in a while, regularly, or often, but it is about praying constantly, unceasingly, without interruption. Jesus does not ask us to spend some time of every day in prayer. No, Jesus is radical. He asks us to pray constantly. As St Paul too exhorts we need to pray day and night, in joy and in sorrow, at work and at play, without intermissions or breaks. Therefore, praying is like breathing. It cannot be interrupted without mortal danger.

But how is it possible to do it always? Prayer is not one of the ten thousand things that we do; it’s that by which we see the ten thousand things. In prayer we see all things in a new light. Praying is living in the here and now.

Praying is living. Prayer pervades every aspect of our lives. It is the unceasing recognition that God is wherever we are, always inviting us to come closer to celebrate the divine gift of being alive. It is a relationship primarily. Not an act. Not an activity. It is being aware of God's presence always and everywhere. It is being with the One who loves you endlessly.

To pray unceasingly would be completely impossible if it meant to think constantly about God. It means to think and live in the presence of God. But if we begin to divide our thoughts into thoughts about God and thought about people and events, we remove God from our daily life to pious little niche where we can think pious thought and experience pious feelings.

In our spiritual life we need to set apart time for God and God alone. But please don’t restrict prayer to that 20 or 30 minutes. Prayer can only become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts – beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful – can be thought in the presence of God.

To pray unceasingly is to lead all our thoughts out of their fearful isolation into a fearless conversation with God. Jesus' life is a life lived in the presence of God his Father. He kept nothing hidden from his Father’s face. His joys, his fears, his hopes, and his despairs were always shared with his Father.