prayer

Luke 6:12-19

"Yes, for your way and your judgments, O Lord, we look to you; your name and your title are the desire of our souls. My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you..." Isaiah 26


In today's gospel we encounter Jesus praying. "Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God."

Jesus prays. Prayer was not a waste for him, but was how He lived and loved. He did not just pray a little bit now and then but he devoted time and energy to lift his heart to his Father.

Prayer was about entering and guarding the living relationship Jesus had with his Father.

The one thing that is constant about relationships that are alive is that they require time and attention. When we want relationships to die, we stop giving them time and attention.

Just like all relationships, we only discover the relationship by being in the relationship. We can only deepen our prayer by praying.

Prayer is a gift we obtain through prayer.

No technique can ever substitute for time spent devoted to lifting our hearts and minds to the one who loves us. This is prayer.

Here is a tid bit from one of my favorite literary writers, Georges Bernanos, "suddenly I experienced the silence like a presence. At the heart of this silence was the One who is himself silence, peace, and tranquility."

Another from Soren Kierkegaard, "Praying does not mean listening to myself speak; praying means calming down and being still and waiting until you hear God."

I would just like to add, that sometimes when we pray we have a tendency to chatter on and on and on and it is good to be attentive to what we speak and say, because often times God will be speaking to us in and through what we speak to him.

Nothing is wasted on God. So even if we find the silence terrible, the noise of our chattering can contain the silence of God who speaks.

Remember, it isn't about making prayer a part of our life as an essential goal, but rather it is about making our life a part of our prayerful dialogue of listening and speaking to God with our hearts and minds lifted upward and outward, ready to receive and ready to respond to His promptings.

JEsus departed to the mountain to pray. JEsus had special places of prayer as well. We too should develop a special place we go to pray on a regular basis. Places have a way of preparing our heart and mind to be lifted more readily. Our environment is important. We are creatures of habit.

For me, the chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament seems to be the place my heart most readily is lifted upward and outward. Think about your experiences and encounters in prayer. Where was your heart most easily lifted? What places give you access to that reality of prayer and dialogue most readily?


Jesus prayed before every big decision. Throughout the gospel, Jesus prays at important times. Like in today's gospel, He prays before selecting the twelve. How often we hurry through life's choices with our a though or glance upward.

How our choices would have been altered had we paused briefly to look up and dialogue in prayer and allow God to stimulate our conscience.? I know when we were planning our trip to Spain for WYD in MAdrid. There wasn't a day I did not lift that intention to God prior to our travels.

Jesus prays. Jesus has special places devoted to prayer. Jesus prays before making important decisions.

Perhaps this is a model for our future lives.