THE FIRST PILLAR OF LENT: PRAYER

 

THE FIRST PILLAR OF LENT:  PRAYER

St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote that “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”

The classical definition of prayer was given by St. John Damascene, seventh century doctor of the Church:  “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”       

The foundation of prayer is humility.  We recognize our need to pray, and that we were created for prayer.  This prayer must be sincere, as the psalmist writes: “You insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom” (Psalm 51:8).  God hears the prayer of both the sinner and the saint.  While “the prayer of the righteous man has great powers in its effect” (James 5:16), God also hears the prayer of the sinner who repents: “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

St. Augustine said that “Man is a beggar before God.”  Yet we should not be afraid to pray to God, for he desires it.  We hear in Eucharistic Prayer II at Mass, in words directed to the Father: “You have made us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you.”  We are in the unique presence of the Lord when we are close to the Eucharist, but we are also in his presence wherever we are, when we pray in sincerity of heart. 

John 4 tells us that in the city of Sychar Jesus addressed a woman and said, “Give me a drink.”  He was thirsty after a long journey, but his greater thirst was for the woman’s salvation, and that of her village.  Shocked at the request, she responded, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” For Jews would not touch anything handled by a Samaritan.  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 

Guided by St. Augustine’s interpretation of this passage, the Catechism teaches that “The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being.  It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink.  Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us.  Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours.  God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (#2560).   

God longs for us to pray.  Prayer is conversation with God, in the depth of our heart, which is our hidden center, the place of decision and truth, and which can be fathomed only by the Holy Spirit.  It is deeper than our reason or our psychic drives.  “It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death.  It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant” (#2563).

This description of prayer may be challenging, but it is rooted in the Catholic Tradition.  No one should feel intimidated.  There is a welcome place for the beginner and for the seasoned.  Everyone has a vocation to pray, for everyone is called to live in communion with God.  We are already joined to Christ by our Baptism.  Prayer will lead us into deeper union with him. 

“In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  When we pray to and with the Father, in the name of Jesus, by the movement of the Holy Spirit, we fulfill our reason for being.