What is Prayer?
What is Prayer? Am I doing it right? I get so distracted! Prayer is just love. Prayer is relationship. Prayer is spending intimate time with your beloved. Prayer is loving and letting yourself be loved. It is sharing, dreaming, crying, caring, forgiving, apologizing, asking, and accepting. Prayer is relational, covenantal, soul to soul, deep. Prayer IS your relationship with God the Father, his son Jesus Christ, and their Holy Spirit. It is a time to rest, recollect, enkindle, thank, resolve, refresh, strengthen, adore, rejoice, and listen. A great fire of love is enkindled in a humble, praying heart. [#244 Friends of God] St. Josemaria Escriva says, “…constant prayer should be for a Christian as natural as the beating of his heart.” [#247 Friends of God]
There is a reason the covenant relationship of marriage is used in Scripture to define our relationship with God or Jesus’ relationship with the Church. It is a deep, sacrificial exchange of souls’ relationship that begins with love. How does this love deepen? By spending time together, getting to know each other, one on one mostly but also interacting together in a group. If you don’t spend time with your beloved, the relationship doesn’t grow and will deteriorate, often quickly. Other priorities get in the way. Self gets involved; hurts and missed expectations surface. We see in society what happens to marriages when the communication lines get too busy to stay open or people fail to take the time to love.
Our relationship with Jesus is the same, except his love for us, his patience and his depth of mercy are infinite. We are the ones who seldom try, stop talking and stop spending quality time with Him. We are the ones who are inconsistent or hypocritical or prideful. We often think prayer is for little old church ladies and holiness is for Saints, not someone like us.
Please don’t be afraid of a deep relationship with Jesus. He doesn’t want to steal your joy, make you a bore or turn you into a street evangelist. He wants your heart. He wants to pour out his mercy on you, he wants to heal your wounds, comfort your hurts, strengthen you, guide you, listen to you and help you become the unique, strong, loving person he created you to be. As unique as each human being is, so will be their prayer relationship with Christ.
2022 is now upon us! Make a firm resolution to spend more quiet, meaningful time in prayer with Jesus. Let him love and forgive you. Let him strengthen you and give you rest. Leave your pride at the door. He was a helpless baby in an animal trough. He made himself approachable. Come to him with a docile, humble heart – open to change, open to love, open to mercy, open to serve. Be humble and open to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in your life and relationships. Your interior disposition is more important than any “correct formula” you recite or follow in prayer. God’s power and might can move mountains. He can move your heart, too. Let him.
Start now deepening your daily prayer. Praying with Scriptures is a super way to begin. You can hear the WORDS of God! He will speak directly to you and your life circumstances. Prayer takes time, practice, humility, perseverance, and heart. (See all the Ponderings tips and suggestions in the “How to use Ponderings Cards” section of our website header and in the "Daily Prayers & Ponderings Blog" section.) Loving Jesus is easier than you think – your deepest heart is wired for relationship with him. He created you to love and be loved. Spend time with him. You won’t regret it. Your beloved is waiting and searching for you. Learn to love Him. Learn to love yourself and together, love well all those dear souls he has placed directly in your life. Life, full of joyful loving, is a grand adventure! Begin anew with Prayer, building your relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and with their Holy Spirit. They are closer than you think!
Meditation with Scripture
Scripture Verses:
God is Love. 1 John 4:8
Fear not, I will help you. I, GOD, hold your right hand. Isiah 41:13
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:11
Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? 2 Corinthians 13:5
The Lord is in your midst…. he will renew you in his love. Zephaniah 3:17,15
…that you may know what the immeasurable greatness of his power in us. Ephesians 1:19
Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17
And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. Mark 1:35
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
But when you pray, go into your room, and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6
Seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, here I am. Isiah 58:9
God will speak to those who turn to him in their hearts. Psalms 85:8
Quotes from great Saints:
Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire! St. Catharine of Siena
Know dearest daughter, how by humble continual and faithful prayer, the soul acquires, with time and perseverance, every virtue. [St. Catharine of Siena, Dialogue pg. 68]
However softly we speak, God is near enough to hear us. St. Teresa of Avila
For Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. St. Teresa of Avila
Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. St. Teresa of Avila
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
If we really want to prayer, we must first learn to listen; for in the silence of the heart God speaks.
If you want to pray better, you must pray more. The more you pray the easier it becomes.
Prayer is simply talking to God, He speaks to us, we listen. We speak to him, he listens.
How do we learn to pray? By praying.
You can pray while you work. Work doesn’t stop prayer and prayer doesn’t stop work.
Love to pray. Feel the need to pray often during the day and take the trouble to pray.
This is the beginning of prayer – to know that He loves me, to know that I have been created for greater things.
St. Josemaria Escriva
Prayer is a time for holy intimacies and firm resolutions. (#457 Furrow)
I will continue to preach that it is virtually necessary that we be souls of prayer at all times, at every opportunity, and in the most varied circumstances, because God never abandons us. Our whole day becomes one intimate and trusting conversation with him. (#247 Friends of God)
Love is inventive, full of initiative. If we truly love, we will discover our own intimate paths to lead us to a continuous conversation with our Lord. (#255 Friends of God)