Real Life Disciples: Why pray (part II)

This is the second article in a special series on prayer. The first two fall during the season of Lent, a perfect time to lean into the amazing invitation God has given us to spend time with him in the gift that we call prayer. 

My wife and I are doing a small group study with some teens at our parish using a book written by Father Jacques Philippe, “Time for God.” I highly recommend it. If you have been following this series, I hope you took me up on my invitation in the last issue to spend more of your time in prayer during this Lenten season!

Father Philippe helps lay a solid foundation for prayer and the spiritual life by establishing helpful principles. First, prayer is not driven by a technique or method, it’s the result of God’s grace. Overemphasis on techniques and methods would cause us to cling to human efforts, which though required for growth, are not the most important factor. 

Philippe says, “the whole edifice of the life of prayer is built on God’s initiative and his grace … not our efforts. God, who loves us, will carry us infinitely further and higher than we could ever get on our own steam” (Time for God, 11, 12). 

This is great news! It gives me great hope to realize that the whole pursuit of the spiritual life in the end doesn’t depend on me, but rather on God. Don’t get me wrong, I need to do my part. But, my part is more about showing up than it is about doing something “right.” 

Second, if the life of prayer is more about what God is doing, then it makes sense that the best way I can cooperate with that activity is to have the right disposition. Father Philippe talks about the fundamental disposition of an attitude of faith and trust. We must believe with our whole heart that God is present, even when, maybe even particularly when, we don’t feel like he is. 

We must believe that we are called to meet God in prayer and that he gives all the grace we need for this meeting. The life of prayer is for everyone, not just a select few priests and religious. And finally, we must believe in the fruitfulness of prayer. “All who persevere in that trust will receive infinitely more than they dared to ask or hope for; not because they deserve it, but because God has promised.”  

Third, our first and primary concern should be faithfulness in praying, not whether our prayer is beautiful, or seemingly fruitful, or even filled with deep spiritual emotions or thoughts. The quality of prayer will come from fidelity to praying! 

Philippe goes on to say, “Time spent every day in mental prayer that is poor, arid, distracted and relatively short is worth more, and will be infinitely more fruitful for our progress, than long, ardent spells of mental prayer from time to time when circumstances make it easy” (Time for God, 17).  

And, fourth, another basic inner attitude for anyone who wants to persevere in this gift of prayer is purity of intention. The pure of heart ultimately are those who desire more than anything else to please God, even to the expense of themselves. They are striving to live for God, rather than for themselves, which is “an indispensable condition for mental prayer . . . We pray not to find self-fulfillment, or self-satisfaction, but to please God” (Time for God, 18).

The main battle in prayer is the determination to persevere. Saint Teresa of Avila has a great encouragement in this regard, “Let us now return to those who wish to travel this road . . . they should begin well by making an earnest and most determined resolve not to halt until they reach their goal, whatever may come, whatever may happen to them, however hard they may have to labor, whoever may complain against them, whether they reach their goal or die on the road or have no heart to confront the trials that they meet, whether the very world dissolves before them.” Keep showing up! Keep pursuing time with God!

Father Philippe concludes that, “without a life of prayer, there is no holiness . . . There is no spiritual progress without contemplative prayer.” He even emphasizes personal prayer over the effects of the sacraments! Are you catching a theme here? There’s a reason he titled the book “Time for God!” Making time for prayer in our busy lives is an act of faith in itself. But, the fruit of time spent with him will have far-reaching ramifications.

Yet, the opposite is also true. “If someone, even someone very devout and committed, has not made a habit of mental prayer, something will always be lacking for the growth of his or her spiritual life. People like this will not find true inner peace, but will always be something too merely human in what they do: attachment to their own will, traces of vanity, self-seeking, ambition, narrow-mindedness and so on. There can be no deep, radical purification of the heart without the practice of mental prayer” (Time for God, 25). 

If you haven’t already decided to, will you make a deeper commitment to making time for prayer throughout the rest of this Lenten season? And if you missed the first article in this series, go back to the Feb. 27 issue and check it out. I give several suggestions for books you might read, or a small group study you might take up. The invitation is this – take time, make time, to grow in your prayer life this Lent!