Prayer ought to be indispensable

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” (Ephesians 6:18).

Prayer is said to be the breath that makes God’s life and our life one. It is highly recommended during the Lenten season. But, prayer can be a very challenging task. Some people don’t pray at all. There are many kinds of prayers: adoration, thanksgiving, repentance and petition, but we shall be general.

All cultures have some form of prayer, which reflects a universal yearning to contact a higher power. However, when we imagine God sitting on a throne in heaven and we being very far down on earth, it makes it difficult to accept the fact that He also lives within us. In the time of Jesus, people often bartered and bargained with God, trying to impress Him with multiple titles of the Deity’

God calls us to seek Him

Genesis 1:27 reveals that God created human beings in His image and likeness. He desires our participation in His divine life, in prayer, and be made holy like Him. God calls us to seek Him, to know him, to love him with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our strength (Mark 12:30). 

A good prayer does not depend upon us- how much time, language, liveliness, emotion, or volume we can put in it. Christians are anointed priests, sharing in Christ’s own High Priesthood; to offer a sacrifice of praise. Because they pray through Jesus Christ, Christians are assured of their prayers being heard by God  (Hebrews 13:15).

Listen  to God

Jesus came to live among- Emmanuel (God-with-us) and to show us the love of God. When He ascended to haven, He sent us the Holy Spirit. St. Paul affirms, we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

All Christians have the same Spirit within them. They should look deep within themselves, listen for the voice and guidance of the Spirit. Although they believe in the communion of the saints, and can pray for each other, God loves that Christians personally relate with Him in faith (1 Peter 2:9).

God wants us to tell Him what He inspires us, not what we have on our minds. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Romans 8:26-27). It means that the Spirit empowers the prayer and carries it to the Father in the name of Jesus.

Such prayer has a living quality characterised by warmth and freedom as well as a sense of communion. This experience will be much more important than any petition we might like to make. “We pray, then, at our deepest level, because we are drawn by the bonds of love. We pray because we love, and not just for utilitarian purposes.”- Fr. William A. Barry, SJ.

God is a sovereign Lord. We have no right to claim and make requests; we just let them come from the heart. In the spirituality of St Mother Teresa: “Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself. Prayer begets faith, faith begets love, and love begets service on behalf of the poor.”

“Go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.” , commends Jesus in Matthew 6:5-13. He implies that we should pray from inside our hearts, because that is where God resides.

“Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”, says Mother Teresa

Watch and pray

During His life and ministry, Jesus expressed His communion with God and with others, through prayer (John 17). In the “Our Father” prayer, He taught us to petition God to not to let us be tempted beyond our capacity to resist.

During His passion, in Gethsemane, Jesus invited His disciples to “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matthew 26:41). His recommendation is indispensable during Lent and always.

Did you know?

“Go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.” , commends Jesus in Matthew 6:5-13. He implies that we should pray from inside our hearts, because that is where God resides. “Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts,” says Mother Teresa