Aug 13 Thu
Does God talk to me in prayer? (I)
Prayer is an impulse, an invocation that goes beyond ourselves: something that arises from the depths of our being and reaches out because it longs for an encounter. That longing, which is more than a need: it is a path. Prayer is the voice of an “I” that gropes its way forward, feeling its way, in search of a “you.” The encounter between the “I” and the “you” cannot be calculated: it is a human encounter, and we often grope our way forward to find the “you” that my “I” is seeking.
Thus, prayer is a journey to walk alongside Jesus to come to contemplate God in our everyday lives. Its goal is to facilitate that encounter with the One who has loved us from eternity, so that He may transform our lives and enable us to bear fruit that, though beyond our reach, is tailored to our hearts.
Prayer is a gift that God wants to give to all of us. It is up to each of us to remove the obstacles that prevent us from welcoming Him with open arms. The means used, such as inspirational books or listening to a preacher, should help us to long for, ask for, and nurture that relationship that will transform our lives into what God wanted them to be.
Jesus’ first disciples were often fascinated and amazed by their Master: He taught with authority, demons submitted to Him, He claimed the power to forgive sins, He performed miracles so they would not doubt… A man so remarkable must have held some mystery. One of those days, at dawn, just as they were about to begin another exhausting day, the disciples could not find Jesus. They left the house worried and searched the small town of Capernaum. Jesus was nowhere to be found. Finally, on a hillside overlooking the lake, they found him… praying! (cf. Mk 1:35).
The evangelist leads us to believe that they did not understand it at first, but they soon realized that the episode in Capernaum was not an isolated incident. Prayer was as much a part of the Master’s life as preaching, attending to people’s needs, or resting.
But while all those activities were understandable and even admirable to them, the moments of silence fascinated them, even though they did not fully understand them. Only after spending some time with the Master did they dare to ask him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1).
We know Jesus’ response to that request: the Lord’s Prayer. And some might think that the disciples must have been disappointed: just those few words? Is that what the Master did for hours on end? Did he always repeat the same thing?
St. Luke places the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount: there, Christ had outlined the main conditions for prayer and for a genuine relationship with God. What are those conditions?
Come here tomorrow to continue our dialogue.