Coronavirus Talk 15
Let us begin with an Our Father
I want to begin our conversation tonight with a quotation from the great Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner: “There is only one way to God and that is through prayer. And if someone tells you there is another way to God, you are being deceived.”
Perhaps the one thing all religions have in common is their emphasis on the importance of prayer, and I think it is obvious why that is. Prayer is a primary way of communicating with God and it is a way of deepening and sustaining a relationship with God. We must believe deep down that having a real and vibrant relationship with God is possible and that God wants to be close to us even more than we want to be close to Him.
It is clear from the gospels that Jesus prayed often. He prayed alone, in public, before meals, before he made important decisions, before some of his healings, after some of his healings. He prayed that he would do the Father’s will. On the cross, he prayed for his enemies: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” And, in Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ dying breath was a prayer : ”Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
And Jesus gave some great advice about prayer:
Pray without a desire to be seen: “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at street corners; that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room, and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. – Matthew 6:5-6
Reconcile with others before praying: “When you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come offer your gift.” – Matthew 5:23-24
Pray before an important decision: In these days, he went into the hills to pray; and all night he continued his prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles. – Luke 6:12-13
Do not pray with empty phrases. “And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” – Matthew 6:7
I think the most challenging and the most relevant advice Jesus gave us is that we need to be persistent in prayer. We tend to give up too easily on anything, really, but particularly on the disciplines of the spiritual life. Unless we see immediate results, we tend to stop trying. At the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius compares spiritual exercises to physical exercises, saying that as the body gets fit with faithful discipline and repetition, so does the soul get stronger by commitment to a regime of prayer. And just as no one would be able to run a marathon after two days of training, no one can become Mother Teresa or St. John Paul II after saying an Our Father twice.
So here is a mirror parable on our need to be persistent in prayer:
Luke 11: 5-13
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are in bed.; I can’t get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of the man’s persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
So, I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give them a snake instead? Or if a child asks for an egg, will you give them a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” – Luke 11: 13-15
Jesus reveals the Father as a God who answers my prayer because I am persistent; but also, Jesus reveals the God who always stands ready to give me what is best for me, what I need rather than what I want, something which may be quite different from what I have asked for. We need to ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, knock and keep knocking. We must pray and never lose heart.
One of Jesus’ greatest gifts to his disciples was to teach them how to pray.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” – Luke 11;1-4
Jesus’ prayer, The Lord’s prayer, is composed of seven petitions:
First Petition: Hallowed be your name. We pray that God may be known, revered, loved, and served by the whole world and by ourselves.
Second Petition: Thy Kingdom Come We pray that we may welcome the many ways God is accomplishing His sovereignty in our world today.
Third Petition: Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We ask for the grace and the strength and the courage to both value and carry out generously whatever God wants.
Fourth Petition: Give us this day our daily bread. We pray that God will give us today whatever is necessary both for our bodies and for our souls.
Fifth Petition: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. We pray that we will extend mercy with the same fulness with which we have received it.
Sixth Petition: Lead us not into temptation. We ask God for the strength and the courage to resist temptation.
Seventh Petition: Deliver us from evil. We ask that God liberate us from whatever would diminish us and obscure our identity as a child of God.
I want to share with you how grateful I am that I learned the value of prayer both at home and at school. My mother, who was a Presbyterian before she and my father converted to Catholicism, taught me and my sisters a reverence for the Scriptures. She made us memorize psalms and verses and would have us recite them to her. To this day, at age 101, she spends time each day listening to the Scriptures.
I was extremely fortunate in elementary school to be taught by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart. They taught us a method of prayer that I have used throughout my life: an acronym: ACTS.
Acknowledgement of the Presence of God: Becoming aware that God is with me and that he looks at me with love.
Contrition for faults and sins: Expressing sorrow for anything I might have done or failed to do that I know is wrong.
Thanksgiving for gifts received: being specific about the things in my life or this day that I am grateful for: persons, events, inspirations, aspirations.
Supplication for one’s needs and those of others: Recalling my own needs and the needs of others, of those I know and of those I will never meet.
From the Jesuits, in school and throughout my life, I have learned other useful methods of prayer: how to pray with Scripture, the value of worship as prayer, devotions like the rosary and the Stations of the Cross, and, of course the methods of prayer St, Ignatius teaches in the Spiritual Exercises; but that simple method of A-C-T-S has always been my go-to method, and I thank the Immaculate Heart Sisters for that. I have recommended this method to just about everyone I have ever accompanied as spiritual director and, when they have made it a habit, it has helped them enormously to stay centered and focused. If someone made a habit of doing this every day for even 10 minutes, it would change their life. This time of social distancing could provide a marvelous opportunity to begin to make this a part of your life. No one in the entire history of humankind has died of prayer.
But, being impatient people, we need to know when it is working and how it is working. We want to know if we are making progress and getting to know God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit better. Here are some possible questions we could ask ourselves to determine where we are.
Is what I am feeling in my prayer consistent with Scripture? Is what I am feeling in prayer consistent with what I know about God? Is what I am feeling leading to positive change or growth in my life? Is what I am feeling leading to restoration or healing in my relationships? Am I feeling a sense of release from past sin or pain? Is what I am feeling an overall sense of peace, a lessening of anxiety about life, or a sense of surrender to God and God’s will for me? Does what I am feeling lead me to a deeper faith, hope and love?
If this is our experience, we can be confident that God is giving us the Holy Spirit because we asked him.
“There is only one way to God and that is through prayer, and if someone tells you there is another way to God, you are being deceived.”
On Sunday night, I want to devote the message to Jesus’ teaching about mercy. Our Holy Father has made mercy a central theme of his teaching and Jesus will tell us why it is so important.
Let us end with a Hail Mary and a blessing.