On Prayer

     This past Tuesday evening, about 10 of my friends got together and had a bible study focused on prayer. Now I know what you are thinking; we met at a central location and opened our bibles like a normal bible study? Not this group! It ended a little before midnight, and everyone could jump into their beds if not already on them since we did it on a Video conference through skype, each one at the comfort of their home.  Seeing this, I know Sts. Peter and Paul are probably asking the Lord in Heaven why they couldn't have lived in a time with that kind of technology for they could have reached millions with the Gospel? Well atleast, I am sure St. Peter might ask that.  Beside the details sorrounding this bible study, my purpose is to explore this topic of prayer for since then, I have been in 3 more meetings and the focus was prayer which tells me maybe the Lord want me to share my humble reflections on it. Lets take the journey together.
     Like any journey, you must have a map and a destination. Having this in mind, I wish for us to accomplish 3 goals on prayer; The What, The Why, and The How of prayer.
Why?
   I have decided to start with this question since if we don't know why we should do something, we will do it half heartedly or not at all. Another reason is to make sure that I don't waste your time, for after this, if you can't answer that question, it serves you no purpose to read any further.
   My memory is still vivid when about 5 years ago, I sat with my newly found spiritual director, a Benedictine monk who had been recommended to me by a priest as a suitable spiritual guide.  I was in a place in my spiritual journey where my faith had been revived with great vigor and I was seeking direction on how to recognize, listen and do God's will, whom I was seeking to please above all. I was narrating my dissapointments, my aspirations and even my desparations, seeking great advice from someone I sensed to be very wise in spiritual matters. After my narration, I waited patiently to hear the words that would change my life. Well to say the least, I was dissapointed when after hesitating for about a minute, instead of giving me advice, he just asked me a question; how is your prayer life? After answering, he went ahead to explain to me how everything good I seeked could only be found in God, and prayer is the intangible access to Him.  Five years later, I am still contemplating and unpacking the truths confined in that simple statement.  This was confirmed  by the Master himself (Jesus) in the Gospel of St.Matthew 7:7 when he told his followers, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."  If you ask me why we should pray, I would say that if you seek anything that is good, you not only should pray, you must pray for God is the source and summit of all that is good, and He has promised that whatever we ask in the name of His Son, he would give it to us. 
       Well is it as simple as that? the answer is Yes, but let me let you in on something further I have learned.  In the book of Psalms, we see King David complaining to God that those who were neither seeeking nor loving Him seemed to be enjoying great proseperity.  I have asked this question myself on why those who seem not to pray still enjoy good things.  Simply put, God in His generosity has seen it fit to "let the rain fall on the good and evil as well," but like we hear in the book of James 4:3, "you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."  With this in mind, I have realised that the separation of generosity of God's gift comes when we know what to ask for. One thing for sure, God will never give us holiness without us asking for it. Sure He will grant us the grace to know to aspire for it and seek it for if He doesn't give us that, we won't be able to even take the first step, but to move forward and persevere, He will not grant to those who do not seek. With this in mind, we should therefore ask The Father to grant us the grace to become what our Lord commanded us to be; "Perfect as your Father in Heaven is Perfect." (Matthew 5:48).  For those ambitious type in the spiritual matters, this should be the greatest reason to pray: to become Holy, for as St. Paul tells us to strive for "holiness without which no one will see the Lord," (Hebrews 12:14) and which without prayer is simply impossible. You will never meet a saint who didn't pray. 
      I can write a thousand pages on why we should pray, but from this, any person of reason should be convinced of the neccesity of prayer. This is only a start, but let us move forward to our next question

   What?
   During our bible study, this question of what prayer is was brought up and the various answers that were given all seemed to have a common denominator of "it is communication with God." Indeed, prayer in the simplest of terms is a conversation with God.  A more official defination according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church is that"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God."  (CCC 2559)
   We see two ways that prayer is expressed throughout salvation history.  The two arms of prayer are public prayer and private prayers, since "there are two sides to our nature, the individual as well as the social". Public prayer simply put is the prayer we pray collectively as the body of Christ.  This could be during the Liturgy where the one sacrifice of the Son of God and the prayers of his bride the Church are raised to the Eternal Father. It could also include any prayers offered to God with another as Jesus said "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) .  Private prayers would then include those prayers which we pray alone in following the words of the Master that  "when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you" (Matthew 6:6) 
    I wish to explore private prayers since many of us can go to Church on Sundays, but it's in the daily prayers where we find ourselves struggling the most and without which, the Sunday Worship "would degenrate into empty ceremony" (Frank Duff).
In this context, we find the 3 expressions of prayer; Vocal prayer, Meditation and Contemplation
2722 Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ's example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples. 2723 Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life. 2724 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.
    These three expressions of prayer as explained in the catechism goes to explain and summarize what prayer is by exploring how we enter into that presence of God either using vocal prayer, meditation or finally when God draws us to himself through contemplation. 
   Without further ado, let us move on since we can spend an eternity talking about what prayer is and looking at all the different ways and types of prayer.

How?
  This is the simplest of the questions and one that I will go over quickly. If you ask me how you ought to pray, I would give you the advice of the apostle Paul "pray without ceasing." That is how we ought to pray. But I know that it is not that simple so let us explore further.  When the Lord was asked that question directly, he gave us that great prayer of "Our Father" (Matthew 6:9) Indeed, this is one of the most efficacious of all Christian prayers, and in it contains all the qualities of what prayer should be. From the Praise and acknowledgement of God's sovereignty, to the petition, there lies the great wisdom of God himself on how we ought to pray.  Whether it's formal prayers like "the Our Father" or the rosary which is a meditation on the life of Christ through the eyes of His mother, and any other prayers which are handed to us, or whether it is sponteneous prayers that comes from us, we should make sure "they have in common the recollection of the heart."
     This indeed is how we ought to pray. By following the "three principal parables on prayer as transmitted to us by St. Luke:
"The first, "the importunate friend," (Lk 11:5-13)  invites us to urgent prayer: "Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts.
- The second, "the importunate widow," (Lk 18:1-8) is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" - The third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector," (Lk 18:9-14)  concerns the humility of the heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison! " (CCC 2613)
      With such great wisdom, my formula is to simply approach God constantly with contrition for our sins, humility of heart and unwavering confidence in His goodness.
        Having come to this point where I knew why I should pray, what prayer was and how I ought to pray, I came seeking advice from my spiritual director frustrated that despite my knowledge on the necessity of prayer, I was finding myself not being consistent. Waiting for advice, he asked me, where do you put your shoes? Again dissapointed, I told him like everyone else, I put them on the shoe rack or wherever my hands lets them go. He went ahead to tell me, "why don't you put them under the bed." Seeing the puzzled expression on my face, he explained to me that by putting them under the bed, every morning when I bent down to get them, I would remember to kneel and say my prayers before my day started. Again in simple practical advice, I tried it and it worked. Soon, the grace of habit took over, and my shoes went back to the rack, but my prayer life continued.
       since I know a great reading on prayer does not eliminate the weakness of the flesh which must be forced to comply with the desire to pray, I will give you that same advice that I was given by my spiritual director.  Remember that whatever practical steps you must take to make your prayer life consistent, take them for the good you seek can only be found in God, and prayer is the intangible access to God.