Today’s gospel reading contains the counsels of Jesus Christ on the need and importance of prayer.
Some people mistakenly think that prayer is the mere recitation of a set formulas that we learned when we were young. The vocal prayers, many of them coming from the inspired Word of God or from the rich tradition of the Church, are certainly very valuable and necessary, but prayer is not just the mindless enunciation of these formulas.
Others think that prayer is a matter of rattling off our entreaties and petitions to God. Prayers of petition are certainly and very important element of prayer, but once again, prayer cannot be reduced to that.
Someone has defined prayer as “the lifting up of the mind and heart to God.”
That seems to be a fairly accurate and exhaustive description of the prayer that Jesus Christ is describing.
Prayer is an act of the spirit. It can entail our minds, as when we reflect and consider things that have to do with God.
It also entails motions of our heart, a kind of impulse and action of our whole being to God.
Prayer cannot be reduced to cold considerations, even if it deals with celestial realities.
Vocal prayers, the use of traditional formulas, really help one to pray, because those formulas contain sublime considerations that, if recited sincerely, help us to “lift our minds and hearts to God.”
But we should make these words our own. We should even allow our own spirit to proceed beyond the formula, and talk to God in our own words.
We can talk to God by telling Him about our needs. This is the prayer of petition.
But we can also talk to God, expressing other aspects. Thus, we can express our admiration (adoration), our gratitude (thanksgiving), and our sorrow (contrition). All of these are prayers, because all of them are movements “upward” to God.
All men need to pray, if they are to attain true happiness. We are all on Earth, but we are all on our way to the eternal and definitive life.
If we never lift up our minds and hearts to God, if all our thoughts and yearnings are earth-bound, we can never really direct our lives to their proper goal.
Put another way, if we never talk to Christ, if we never commune with God, how can we love Him and be more united to Him?
Besides the need to pray, I would also add that we need to pray systematically, and not only whenever we feel inspired to do so.
When there is an activity which is really necessary, we human beings see to it that it is scheduled out. Thus, most people eat three times a day and, at more or less, fixed hours.
If a person were not to fix a schedule for meals, and just goes about nibbling here and there, whenever he takes the fancy, that person will not likely be very healthy. He will probably eat the wrong amounts, and could not stick to a diet that would be both nutritious and satisfying.
If we make it a point to pray regularly, then we can be assured of receiving the nourishment of prayer according to the needs of our soul. Besides, we could actually prepare those moments of communing with God, because we know when and where it will be taking place.
Then prayer will be real source of spiritual strength, and it will lead us gradually and firmly, to grow in personal intimacy with God.