One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Lk 1:11)

Learning to pray is a life long endeavor. A blessing which seems to continue to fill us with joy and confound us at the same time. Prayer can be fruitful, vibrant and restful one day followed by the next day of dryness, drudgery and a struggle to focus the other days with everything in between as our life moves forward.
As our life changes in different circumstances; as we age, our relationships change or we find new ways to seek God our prayer life will also naturally need to grow and change too as we develop our love of God and others. In this we are invited to study and grow in our prayer life as we often make similar statements to that of the disciples.
“Teach us to pray,” This past week I have been learning about prayer once again. I have been watching a set of videos on www.formed.org about prayer entitled, “LECTIO: Unveiling Scripture and Tradition: PRAYER.” It is not that I am learning something new but in listening to the presenter talk about prayer I am better able to confront the areas of dryness and struggle I am facing in my prayer life and look at them with fresh eyes.
In one of the talks we are reminded that prayer is first and foremost listening to God and not the other way around. This can be a trap we too often fall into. We want to be heard. We have lots and lots of things to tell God. We know what’s best for our lives…we are living them…and God just needs to listen and cooperate. At least this is my reasoning at times. But…we need to place ourselves into the presence of God with a heart made ready and with a desire to be with Him. So coming to listen, isn’t about being and empty vessel but rather it is to be a vessel ready to be filled with something more.
Pope Benedict XVI in his beautiful Encyclical “Spe Salve (Saved in Hope)” shares with us a deep understanding of prayer focusing back on the great St. Augustine of Hippo, “he defines prayer as an exercise of desire. Man was created for greatness–-for God himself; he was created to be filled by God.”(#33)
We can often see this in our lives. We often for the very mundane when Jesus invites us to pray for greatness. “For prayer to develop this power of purification, it must, on the one hand, be something very personal, and encounter between my intimate self and God, the living God. On the other hand, it must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and again how to pray properly.”(#34)
It is the miracle of Jesus’ invitation to come and be with him. That God wants to converse with us in knowing him personally. It is there and only they we find the dignity of seeking the very best from ourselves and the great hope for the world and for our brothers and sisters.
In our Lenten journey we are invited into the greater communal aspect of God’s love. Our prayer is always a response to a God who calls us to come and be healed. Prayer is not about being “happy” but rather it is to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, because if we can do that then joyful love will always be with us because we will be abiding in the heart of Divine love.
God Bless
Fr. Mark