Brief Prayer

Friday, April 07, 2017

“Come, my friends, and listen to my instruction. This comes to you from someone who cares about you very much and who wants you to make it to heaven. I want to tell you a few things about prayer; things I have learned, things I have experienced, things I have studied and thoughts that I have had during prayerful moments of my life. First of all, and foremost, if you read something that touches your heart or inspires you, then don’t read on. Pause to reflect on what you have read and allow it to take its place within your heart or you soul. Good prayer does not require a multiplicity of words, as Our Savior has taught us. Reflect on the message you have received and if it prompts you to speak a few words from your heart, then by all means do so, for the ancient writers tell us that a brief moment of prayer that comes from the heart is more pleasing to God than a prattling on of words which are disconnected from your heart and come only from your mind.

Take a breath. Don’t evaluate it or judge it and don’t force it to be something it is not. Allow it to be. Some sages advise us to massage the heart with your breath, noticing it as it enters your body and as it leaves. If distractions, thoughts or feelings arise, massage them as well and then let them depart from you as you exhale. It is helpful, we are told, to repeat a brief word or phrase in union with your breath in order to give your mind something to do while you focus on your breathing. “Jesus,” “God,” “love,” “mercy,” “help!!!” are all good words to use. Stop if you want and repeat one of those words as you breath, or us any other word or phrase that already resides in your heart.

A single word can provide you with the tiniest of prayers which you can pray throughout the day as you go about activities of your life. A breath, a word, a second or two and you re-establish a connection between you and the One you love the most and who loves you with more love than what you send Him. It will always be that way: what you give him comes back to you seventy-fold (as He has told us).

Remember that when you are alone with your Beloved in prayer, you can be anything you need to be; you can be a child, you can be needy, you can be angry and torn by passions, you can have a broken heart or you may be riding waves of ecstatic joy. Don’t censor yourself; allow yourself to be who you are, to be the one that no one else will see except for the Beloved to Whom you are praying.

Saint Benedict advises us to keep our private prayer brief, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I have found that extending the time of the prayer increases the amount of distractions that arise and that become discouraging to me.

God is in everything, so use anything for your prayer: music, art, a beloved text, the words of sacred Scripture, a return to a well-worn book. Likewise, use gestures, song, positions of the body, and let those things speak directly to God. But let no one tell you how you should or shouldn’t pray, even myself. And be tolerant of those whose pray is very different than yours, even if it seem silly or annoying to you: do not judge, for prayer quickly flees one who judges; there are many roads to God and He seeks out those whom He invites. In all things, seek after what touches your heart more than what merely interests your mind.

You may feel unworthy, or inadequate, or too obsessed with troublesome concerns. Let your breath massage those feelings and know that they are common to all of us at times.

I offer you these words today, although I continually feel that my prayer is insufficient, that I do not pray enough. I need to pray Kyrie eleison or Lord, mercy more than anything else and possibly more than anyone else.  As always take whatever may resonate with you and put the rest aside.

God bless you! Have a nice weekend.