“We know well, in fact, that prayer should not be taken for granted. It is necessary to learn how to pray, as it were acquiring this art ever anew; even those who are very advanced in spiritual life always feel the need to learn from Jesus, to learn how to pray authentically. We receive the first lesson from the Lord by his example. The Gospels describe Jesus to us in intimate and constant conversation with the Father: it is a profound communion of the One who came into the world not to do his will but that of the Father who sent him for the salvation of man.” (Pope Benedict XVI from 4 May 2011 Audience)

A little while back a young couple came to visit me because of some problems in their relationship. I asked some questions to get to know them, to find out what they did and how their home life functioned and after about 30 minutes of this conversation I asked them a simple question, “How do you pray at home?” There was a few moments of silence and she then asked me, “Did I mean like the ‘Our Father’ or something else?” This began a very wonderful conversation about prayer: praying for each other, talking to God, asking for blessing and giving thanks through prayer.
Pope Benedict reminds us in the quote above about the reality of the work of prayer. While prayer is a natural outpouring at many times during our life, we also need to be attentive to the continual practice of prayer so we may not just run to prayer when we need it but allow prayer to draw us deeper into relationships of love, thanksgiving and care for God and others in our life.
Prayer takes attentiveness on our part so we are ready because as I stated above it is a natural gift to share but when we are not attentive to prayer it can’t atrophy much like our physical nature. A great example of this is our children’s summer break and the slide backwards many of them experience in their reading and math skills so when they return in the fall for the next grade they often need to relearn what they knew because throughout the summer they did not pick up a book to read or do a math problem to keep the mental growth increasing. The spiritual growth of prayers works the same way…if we don’t use it daily.
We are reminded there are five major types of prayer: Blessing and Adoration, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving and Praise. Each of these types of prayer have a place within the prayer life of each person and family/church. We need to practice each type to once extent or another because if we don’t, then we can begin to fall into the mumbling of the great prayers, like the “Our Father,” where they become just words rattled off without thought rather than the deep and profound conversation with a loving God, loving family and community.
As we talked about prayer, this couple began to ask the harder questions about their desire for a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. But they wanted to know, how do we do this? For each of us the answer will be a little different and yet looking at the five-forms of prayer we all have the same compass pointing towards Heaven, pointed towards God who is love.
In my prayer chest I always like to start with blessing and asking the question, “Where did I experience/see/feel/hear God’s blessing today?” Trying to be as specific as I can by just not noting the beauty of the day (which is important and a wonderful blessing) but seeking to be very specific, especially in the who and when, in naming the blessing(s) as I recall my day and more importantly begin to offer blessing and then thanksgiving when I have these little experiences of the miracle of God in my life. Pope Benedict XVI notes in the same audience, “Human life is a fabric woven of good and of evil, of undeserved suffering and of joy and beauty that spontaneously and irresistibly impel us to ask God for that light and that inner strength which support us on earth and reveal a hope beyond the boundaries of death.”(Benedict XVI)
This young couple has a long and holy journey in front of them full of growth with all the sufferings and blessings of life and relationships. Please pray for them as they seek to live as God’s son and daughter it is part of the great intercession we can offer as family, as the Body of Christ.
God bless,
Fr. Mark