Prayer may seem like the most obvious thing in the world to a person of faith, and yet it may seem, too, like the most difficult thing imaginable. In my experience, most people feel ill-equipped to pray, for whatever reason. They might simply have a narrow view of what prayer is. There is much worry about praying in the right way. And during difficult times, it may seem like there are no words for prayer.
Prayer is one of the spiritual practices named in the “Invitation to a Holy Lent,” which we heard on Ash Wednesday. Lent may be a season in which you’re feeling especially called to deepen your prayer life. It’s certainly a fitting season to focus on one’s prayer life. If much or all of your prayer happens in the context of public worship, Lent could be a time in which to explore “private” prayer (although prayer is never really private!). The good news is that there are many ways to pray. Prayer is less about getting it right than about being in conversation with God. And to learn how to pray, you have to start doing it.
But let’s say that you are struggling with how to pray. Our Lord himself offers direct advice: “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, 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” (Luke 11:9-10). If you are struggling to pray, begin by asking God for something! There’s certainly merit in being careful about trying to manipulate God through prayer (God doesn’t need it, and it’s not how prayer works). But this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ask for things. Wise asking might not be as specific as “God, take away my cancer,” but rather, and still directly, “God, heal me.” Or “Lord, I’m deeply anxious; help me.” Name what is on your heart, but leave it open for God to work his inscrutable answer out in his own way. What seems like a scorpion to us, might, in fact, be an egg (again, see Luke 11:12). Of course, God already knows the secrets of our hearts, but when we ask God for something, we enter into a particular kind of relationship with God. In doing so, we are changed, and we begin to discover how we are inextricably bound to God and one another.
At Good Shepherd, our own witness to active prayer with words is the Daily Office. Monday through Friday, the Angelus bell rings and Morning Prayer is prayed at 9 a.m. and Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m. Morning Prayer is also said on Saturdays. These services are livestreamed, and they last no more than thirty minutes. The Daily Office is not always “interesting.” It may, indeed, seem boring at times. The point of the Office is not to stimulate our feelings or emotions; the point of the Office is to live out a persistent witness to prayer. The Church, in the Daily Office, intercedes faithfully and almost perfunctorily (but no less effectively) for the world. In over three years of praying the Office here at Good Shepherd, I have seen many, many answers to prayers, usually surprising, “delayed,” and uncontrollable. It’s yet proof that God doesn’t operate as one of us in our finite sphere but with us and for us as the Source of all life and being. (For more on this, see a wonderful book by Mark McIntosh and Frank Griswold, Seeds of Faith, which we are using in our Pilgrims in Christ formation class.)
If, however, your prayer is full of words, consider praying silently by simply being in the presence of God. One of the best books I know on this is Into the Silent Land, by Martin Laird, a former neighbor of Good Shepherd and an Augustinian priest who teaches at Villanova University. And in our very midst, we have parishioner Donald McCown, who teaches about contemplative prayer professionally and leads a weekly Wednesday evening contemplative prayer group at Good Shepherd (7 p.m.). Maybe silent, wordless prayer is what is most enriching for you this Lent.
There are ample opportunities this Lent to explore prayer. Try a Daily Office or Stations of the Cross. Make the Mass weekly (if not more frequently) part of your life, even and especially when you don’t feel like going. Remember, prayer is not really about feelings. In particular, I draw your attention to “A Lenten Quiet Day of Visio Divina,” to be led by Donald McCown on Saturday, March 2, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and featuring liturgical art curated by Davis d’Ambly, a renowned liturgical artist and Friend of this parish. This Quiet Day will be a beautiful way to “enter into the silent land.”
As always, I’m available to discuss your life of prayer with you, and if you need further reading suggestions, I would be happy to help you as well. May this Lent be a time of knowing the Spirit, who, as St. Paul reminds us, is already praying within us.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle