Fanning the Flame at 2620 Lebanon Avenue, Belleville, IL 6221 US - God Calls Us to Pray (35)

Quick Reflection:

As a chaplain intern with the Veteran’s Administration I have prayed with and ministered to Veterans of all faiths. Interns are instructed to meet each patient on God’s spiritual plane, and build a relationship with each person we encounter.  While preparing to minister on the spinal cord injury unit, I attended a professional seminar on spinal cord injuries which would assist me in giving proper care.  On the day I was to meet the patients on the unit, my expectations were that I would encounter patients who had lost hope.  How could I work with these vets? I decided that a talk with my C.P.E. supervisor might be in order.  After reminding me that I/we do not minister alone, she encouraged me to build a faith relationship with each person in the unit.  What a blessing it was to discover that the majority of the patients felt that God walked with them daily, and that they had nothing to complain about or be upset about because they ­knew that they were never alone.  The faith relationships that God allowed me to build with the Vets made me appreciate the richness of my own life because of my relationship with God.

               I do not mean to imply that everything was “roses.”  There were good days and bad days. On the bad days, they knew that God was their constant companion.  As I reflected on my own prayer life, God showed me what extraordinary people among whom I had been walking.  Even if an individual said that he/she did not have a relationship with God, I was shown by God how to begin building one with them. Prayer was that means. 
 

Commentary 

     Chapter 35 tells us how we can build a relationship with God through prayer. This chapter on prayer has four sections:  (1) Scripture, (2) Sources and manners of praying, (3) Guides for prayer, and (4) Expressions of prayer.
      A relationship with God is very real.  Anyone can read chapter 35 and follow the steps given for how to pray.  When we pray, we are required to give our hearts and minds to God in love. God created us, loves us, and wants us to know him and Love him.  Do you remember how holy you felt when you made your First Communion?  Under the guidance of our parents’ faith, we began to form a relationship with Jesus at a young age.  How blessed we are to have a loving and merciful God! We have a God who loves us in our good deeds and in our disappointing ones.  There is no need to make a pact with God about events in our lives.  God always loves us.
      We come closer to God through moments of conversion – those times that are sad or very joyous times.  We can also experience times of feeling very much alone.  Any event – joyful, sorrowful,  can cause us to turn toward God  the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in prayer. In joy, we get down on our knees to say, “Thank you, God for a safe delivery of a beautiful baby, or in sorrow, to ask why my son/daughter? At times likes these it is important to remember that God is with us through it all.
      Have you ever had a God-moment? I have had one that I will never forget.  While working for TWA, the Flight 800 disaster happened. The plane exploded and there were many questions and fears.  My office became “special services” for people who were calling from all over the world to get information about family members and business associates.  That night was a horrible experience, but now I can see it as a moment of grace – one that changed my life.  When I arrived home, I wanted to shower quickly and go to bed.  Instead, I stood under the shower crying. I heard the cries of parents whose children might have been on that flight and of children whose parents might be on that flight.
      The next morning I wanted to be alone with God.  I went to Mass where I experienced God intimately present to me through that liturgy.  Shortly after that I went to a Prayer Retreat at Saint Meinrad.   At that retreat I experienced many forms of prayer, like the ones found in Chapter 35. Other things that I learned were how to pray with my heart and how to make prayer a backdrop for my day so that I could be in prayer throughout the day. God wants to be in relationship with you and me; God initiated this relationship at our birth. We continue the relationship through prayer. 
       “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.” –CCC, no. 2558; citing St. Therese of Lisieux , Manuscrits Autobiographiques,C 25r .

               Have you said, “Hello” to God today? If you open your heart to God each day, your life will be forever changed.

Discussion Questions

               Do we take the Lord’s Prayer for granted?  We pray it at all liturgies. Few things are more intimate than taking a stranger’s hand and praying the Our Father with that stranger. Giving the “Our Father” to our Catechumens in RCIA is a minor rite for the Catechumens.

               Try this exercise: Pray the Lord’s Prayer together joining hands, and now pray it line by line discussing it as you go. Do you have any new insights? It would be wonderful if you did this over coffee and something good to eat.

               What is your relationship to God through prayer? Can you name moments of conversion in your life that brought you closer to God resulting in a deeper prayer life?

Suggested Prayer Intentions

-- For the healing of those suffering from terminal illnesses that they may find peacefulness in the hands of God.

-- For all parents who grieve the loss of a child, may God’s love surround them.

-- For all peoples suffering from the severity of corporate downsizing, that they find the gentleness of God’s love to get them through difficult financial times.