Today is the birthday of George Handel. When he was young he loved to play the organ yet his father wanted him to be a lawyer. So at night when his dad was asleep he would sneak upstairs and play the instrument, quietly and discreetly.
At the age of seven, a duke heard him play and was so moved that he gave Handel a fist full of gold coins. Upon arriving home with all this gold, his father decided that perhaps being a musician wasn't so bad after all.
Handel is known for his great composition the Messiah. He composed the piece in 25 days, seldom eating or sleeping. When he had finished he simply responded that he believed he "had been visited by God."
Many people have felt they have been visited by God when something extraordinary happens or occurs either at their hands or witness in another.
But we should not limit the visitation of God to those rare moments or high triumphs.
Jesus in today's gospel teaches us that prayer itself, when done correctly, is a visitation from on high.
God does not want us to babble, that is, he does not want us to talk at him. We do have a tendency to be a bit wordy with God. We talk and chatter and clatter about. But are we praying or justing seeking psychological consolation by getting it off our chest, whatever it may be.
Prayer is different. We do not talk at God but we learn to talk to him, with him. We let him talk in us. This is the gift of the "Our Father." It is a formula that guides our mind into the mind of God. We pray using God's words. We are caught up into the eternal prayer, that union between Jesus and the Father.
We are invited into the inner circle, the deep intimate embrace of sharing in the heart of God. We are invited to talk with, to talk to, to enter in.
It is a visitation, each and every time we speak those beautiful words.
In Christian faith the creature is invited to share in the life of the creator and talk to him, like a son speaks to his father, like the Son speaks to the Father.
A word from St. Cyprian
"So my brothers, let us pray as God our master has taught us. To ask the Father in words his Son has given us, to let him hear the prayer of Christ ringing in his ears, is to make our prayer one of friendship, a family prayer. Let the Father recognize the words of his Son. Let the Son who lives in our hearts be also on our lips...What more effective prayer could we then make in the name of Christ than in the words of his own prayer?"
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