What is Prayer?

What is prayer?

Prayer is a way God reveals how much he loves us.  It is a powerful means to seeking a union of love with Him.  It is a dialogue with God where we offer Him our hearts. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines prayer as, "the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the request of good things from God." [Catechism 2559]

To pray is to make the time and place for God to come into our lives. 

After almost twenty years of her religious life, Saint Teresa of Avila felt her prayer life was empty and in her heart she was afraid to pray. One day, on her way to prayer with her community, she glanced at a statue of Jesus which portrayed Him after the scourging. Her eyes met His and she experienced the Lord looking at her with great love. It was so intense that she knelt down in tears, begging Jesus for help. She was determined to not stop praying until He gave her the grace to begin anew. This was the beginning of a beautiful life of intense prayer for Saint Teresa.

She demonstrates to us that prayer begins when we discover the Face of Christ, looking at us with great love.

Saint Faustina Kowalska, the great Apostle of Divine Mercy, said, "A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds of combat. In whatever state the soul may be, it ought to pray. A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a soul which is striving after purity must pray, or else it will never attain it; a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall again; a sinful soul, plunged in sins, must pray so that it might rise again.  There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayer." [Diary, 146]

It is important to remember that we can learn many things about prayer, but it is meaningless if we do not put what we learn into practice. The more we pray, the better we become.  Remember, this is a grace and a gift from God. Place everything into His hands. Develop a thirst for Jesus because He thirsts for us.  To fall in love with Christ and develop a Heart to heart—a Face to face relationship with Him, this is the deepest purpose of prayer.


Cf Retreat on Prayer, © Disciples of Divine Mercy in the Holy Face of Jesus™, All rights reserved. Not to be used without permission. 

Photo by Ary Scheffer: Mary Magdalene; Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Apostolate and Prayer

Lord, help me understand that a greater union with You will make my apostolate fruitful.

God called St. Anthony of the Desert to a greater trust and union with Him.  At first, he did not leave everything and follow God.  He had property, wealth and a sister who was in his care.  But yet, God still called him to a greater apostolate.

On some levels, we too hold back from a greater union with God. We want our Lord to enter into our soul and speak to us, but not too deep into the inner mountain!  We fear what He might ask of us; we do not trust that whatever He is asking of us — is what is best for our soul.

Like St. Anthony of the Desert, many saints have spent years of prayer and purification as they "waited on the Lord".  This is how we trust Him.  This is how we become truly humble.  This is how our apostolate becomes fruitful. We pray — we wait — and then when we hear His voice in the silence of our hearts we say, "yes, Lord".  We should not dictate to Him how we want to live out our lives; we should wait for His direction on how we are to be a good tool in His hands.

Fear is the enemy of spiritual growth. As we grow in love through a stronger prayer life, love then, casts out all fear. Through prayer, we rid the soul of all that is lacking in us, allowing God's grace and love to cultivate our interior mountain.

Like St. Anthony of the Desert, may we withdraw into a life of prayer and allow our Lord to strengthen and guide us. God is waiting and ready to direct our lives according to His will, but first we must listen within the silence of our hearts.

Then, through only the grace of God, will our tree will bear good fruit. Without Him, we are nothing.

Conversion

"For thus says the Lord God: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them.  As a shepherd examines his flock while he himself is among his scattered sheep, so I will examine my sheep.  I will deliver them from every place where they were scattered on the day of dark clouds. I will lead them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and every inhabited place in the land.  In good pastures I will pasture them; on the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land.  There they will lie down on good grazing ground; in rich pastures they will be pastured on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest...oracle of the Lord God." (Ez 34, 11-15)

In the life of St. Augustine, we see a great sinner become a great saint. As he writes the Confessions, he was conscious of the fact that he sinned and that it was only by the mercy of God that he was saved from evil. Thus, he came to realize that evil resulted from the misuse of his own free will.

During this Lenten Season, as our Lord reaches out His hand to us, allow Him to carry you to those higher places where He can nourish your soul.  Take time to meet Him in prayer; place all your cares before Him and seek His Face.

God knows our soul and the level of sanctity that He desires for us. The only thing we need to do is to love Him and cooperate with the graces He is desires to give us.  God will do the rest.  The more we love Him, the more He will bestow His grace upon our soul.

This Lent, let us desire to come closer to God and love Him with all our heart.

"But what do I love when I love my God?  Not material beauty or beauty of a temporal order; not the brilliance of earthly light, so welcome to our eyes; not the sweet melody of harmony and song; not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices...it is not these that I love when I love my God. And yet, when I love him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food...but they are of a different kind that I love in my inner self, when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that never dies away; when it tastes food that is never consumed by eating; when it clings to an embrace from which it is not severed by fulfillment of desire.  This is what I love when I love my God." 
~ St. Augustine 

First Sunday of Lent

"The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we preach), for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved..." ~ Romans 10:8-9