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Why Do You Pray? ( 11th August 2007)
The
first session on this series is "Why do you Pray?". We should first ask
the most important questions, "What is prayer?". Many people just
thought that prayer is about "talking" with God. But prayer is more
than just that. When I attended a discernment workshop in St. Ignatius
Church, Fr. Philip Heng mentioned what Prayer is all about.
Prayer is about building relationship with God!
Fr. Gino also in one of his workshop even mentioned that Prayer is about relationship.
You
may think this is just a nice wonderful things that people say. But
this is not so. This is what the Catholic Church teaches. (emphasis
added)
CCC 2564 Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man ...
CCC 2565 In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of
the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with
his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. ...
CCC 2558 "Great is the mystery of the faith!" The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles' Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three).
This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they
celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal
relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer.
What a strong statement from the Church. This relationship is Prayer!
We
have to start changing our mindset of what prayer is all about. It's
not just about talking, or asking, it's about a relationship, a living
relationship with a person, and that person is the true living God.
You may ask why does God wants us to pray? Let us see what is God's desire in prayer. Let's read Ex 33:7-11. The verse that speaks a lot to me is this
[11] Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.
You may think, "Ah, what's the big deal". That's a big deal! Because God speaks to Moses face to face.
Have you ever imagined that? When we pray, God doesn't want us to speak
to him from behind his back, or from looking at his feet, or looking to
the ground, no no! What God wants is for you to speak to him face to
face. The image that came to my mind is the image of a married couple
when they are deeply in love and they just be there face to face. What
God wants from prayer is intimacy. Wait! I am not talking of mere feelings. I am talking about true intimacy that goes beyond what you feel. God wants intimacy in prayer, simply because prayer is a relationship.
But
what is happening when we pray? Most of the time we do not feel
anything right? Yup, Moses also didn't feel anything, but something
happened everytime he met God. Let's read Ex 34:29-35.
[29] ... Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
Moses
even didn't realize it. But something happened when he talked with God:
he face shone. What does that mean? We need to know why his face shone.
His face shone not because of him, but because of whom he has seen face to face.
The light that shines from Moses's face is not his light, but it is
God's light. What people see is God's glory, what they glimpse in that
Moses face is God's own face that shines brightly.
This is what happens when we pray: we are changed! We are changed to be more like Him whom we see face to face.
We are changed to be more like God everyday. We are changed to be more
loving, we are changed to be more forgiving. And when people see us,
they see ... God. It is simply because we reflect God even more when we
pray. The light that people see in our lives is the light of God. You
may think of Mother Teresa, you may recall St. Francis of Asisi, you
may cite Padre Pio. All of them reflects the face of God that they see
in their prayer. This is what St. John said in his letter.
[2] Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
It's
a journey, but we know that when Jesus comes again, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. And God is inviting us to this
intimacy, to this relationship Now. And this relationship is prayer.
-end-
How Do You Pray? ( 18th August 2007)One
day a journalist ask the late Pope John Paul II, "How does the pope
prays?". And this is what the pope said, "The Pope prays as the spirit
leads him to." There is a wisdom in this answer that we often overlook.
We ought to pray as the Spirit leads us to pray. What does it mean? It
means that we ought to pray as how God wants us to pray and not as how I want it. There is a huge difference in that, as huge as the difference between God and man.
How can we learn to pray then? We can learn from Jesus.
He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one
of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught
his disciples." (Luke 11:1)
One
thing to note from this passage is that Jesus was praying, and when he
ceased, one of his disciple asked him. It is as if that when Jesus
prayed, the disciples were there. They were there and observing Jesus.
And when Jesus finished praying, they have this urge to ask him. And so
they asked him, "Lord teach us to pray". What makes them ask Jesus?
They must have seen something when Jesus pray. I believe this is what
they see: Jesus's intimacy with the Father. They see something
different in Jesus, they feel something different. This Jesus, when he
prays, shines forth his intimacy, his relationship with the Father. And
this drives them to ask Jesus, "Lord teach us to pray". They want that
relationship, they want to be like Jesus. They want to know God.
So
how can we know the Father? We need to come to Jesus since Jesus
himself said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes
to the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). And so the disciples in Luke
Gospel come to Jesus in order to come to the Father.
So what does Jesus teach on how we should pray? These five points are taken from the CCC 2607 onwards (Jesus teaches us how to pray)
1. Conversion of Heart
The first thing that we should realize when we pray is that Jesus wants a conversion
of heart when we pray. What does this conversion mean? Conversion means
to turn, to change direction. From what? To what? Jesus teaches us to
turn from ourselves to Jesus, to God.
This is why we have a this part in the Mass when we confess our sins in
the beginning. This is why the Catholic Spirituality tradition teaches
us to do examination of conscience at the end of the day before we
pray. We need to turn back to God. This also implies, of course, on our
parts to forgive and to be reconciled with the people that have hurt us
or the people we have hurt. This also includes putting God first in our
lives. We need to recall the time when we put ourselves first, our
desires first, our dreams, and plans first. We need to turn back to God.
2. Faith
Jesus
taught us to pray with faith. This is not just simply believing, it's
surrendering and trust. It's faith like a little child to his heavenly
father. That's the reason why Jesus told us not to be afraid to ask.
Ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door
will be opened. Do not be afraid to ask God because God is our father,
and he loves us. He might not grant all that we ask, but surely he will
give what is best for us.
The point of trusting God is a bit
difficult. I still remember when I was a kid my dad ask me to go into
the swimming pool with 2m deep. I was small and couldn't swim, so I was
just clinging at the sides. But then my dad asked me to come and swim,
he said he will catch me. Believe it or not it's not easy, I was afraid
to lose my grips and have to swim. But I did. If you ask me why, this
is the reason: I trust my dad that he will catch me. This is what God
is asking us in prayer, to trust him, that he will keep us safe. He
will challenge us, ask us to do difficult things, ask us to trust him.
But he will never lose sight of us. Faith is what we need.
3. Do God's will
It's
not enough simply just to believe that God exists but do not do what He
says. We are called to do what he is calling us to. This is the food
that nourishes Jesus.
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." (John 4:34)
and he himself said,
Mat 7
[21] "Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter
the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in
heaven.
[22] On that day many will say to me, `Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and
do many mighty works in your name?'
[23] And then will I declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'
[24] "Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock;
[25]
and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on
the rock.
[26] And every one who hears these words of mine
and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house
upon the sand;
[27] and the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great
was the fall of it."
Is our lives built upon the rock? or upon the sand?
4. Vigilant
One
of the teaching of Jesus is for us to keep on praying. Jesus taught
Simon Peter to stay vigil and pray when they were at the garden before
Jesus was arrested. Vigilant is about this awareness of God in our
lives. If prayer is about this relationship with God (refer to previous
session), how can we stop praying? That's the reason why St. Paul
reminds to pray without ceasing.
Prayer
helps us to be aware of God in our lives. We need to pray when we work,
we need to pray when we face temptation, we need to pray when we are
happy, we need to pray when we face difficulties. We need to bring God
into our lives. This is vigilant. We can't lock God in our churches or
prayer room. He wants to be with us always. That's his name, God with
us, Emmanuel.
5. Humility
The point of humility is often
misunderstood as low self-esteem. But this is not what God meant. Jesus
taught us the story about the Tax collector and the Pharisees who
prayed in the temple. The tax collector looked down and say, "Lord have
mercy, for I am sinners", the other one kept on praising himself. And
Jesus said that the tax collector is justified. Why? Because the tax
collector humbles himself and knew that he needs God, the pharisees
doesn't. This is humility. We know that we need God, we know that we
can't live without him. This is why we pray. Many of us doesn't like
praying simply because they don't feel the need of God in their lives.
God is a burden. But for those who needs God, for those who can't live
without God, they pray, and they pray without ceasing.
Conclusion
If
you see how difficult it is to pray, you get the message. It's not easy
to turn back to God, it's not easy to have faith, it's not easy to do
God's will, it's not easy to be vigilant and bring God in every aspect
of our lives, and it's not easy to be humble. Yet we do not have to do
this alone. We have God on our sides. He has given his spirit with us.
His spirit helps us to pray.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)
-end-
Difficulties in Prayer (25th August 2007)
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