Prayer: a call to intimacy

There is a place within you where God is waiting for you.

Dear reader, allow me to ask you a sincere question: when was the last time you had a profound experience with God? When was the last time you truly felt loved? What if you discovered that, through a life of prayer, everything could be different?

These questions place us at the heart of the Christian experience: the life of prayer.

As we contemplate the Lord Jesus, we realise that, on several occasions, He would withdraw from the crowds, seek silence and enter into intimacy with the Father. He would withdraw to the desert, seek prayer during the night, climb the mountain and there, alone with God, replenish His heart and nourish His zeal for the mission. The substance of his prayer was the very relationship of love between Father and Son.

With Jesus, we discover that prayer holds a central place in our journey of faith; it is not a mere detail, but a foundation. Without it, we run the risk of becoming mere administrators of the sacred or mere activists, whose struggle does not spring from an experience of God.

To pray is to enter into intimacy. True prayer does not arise from speculation nor from mere formalism that does not touch the soul. To pray is to experience, in the depths of one’s being, this intimacy, offering God one’s silence and one’s heart.

Ignacio de Larrañaga, founder of the Workshops on Prayer and Life, affirms that true prayer is a dialogue between two inner worlds. It takes place when human frailty stands before God’s mercy. Saint Teresa of Ávila teaches us that prayer is ‘a relationship of friendship, a frequent private conversation with the One whom we know loves us’. It is the experience of feeling seen and known by God.

But if all this is so valuable, why is it still so difficult to maintain an inner life?

We know that, these days, we are overwhelmed by an avalanche of information and a succession of stimuli that prevent us from concentrating. The difficulty of being alone, of keeping silent, of reading a book or listening to music attentively reveals this inner distraction to us.

It is no longer so easy to follow in the footsteps of the mystics when we lack true desire and even a modicum of discipline. We must, therefore, rediscover within ourselves that ‘resolute determination’: the decision of the soul that sets us on the path without looking back.

We need to organise our schedule and set aside time for God, to be still and meditate on the Word. Without proper organisation, the life of prayer ends up taking a back seat, and what is essential is lost. We run the risk of living a religion without God and a spirituality without faith — of becoming accustomed to a life without God.

We need to start afresh. And every fresh start requires that awareness of the prodigal son: ‘I will return to my father’s house…’. Without ‘firm resolve’, there can be no spiritual journey.

Seek out a quiet place, make this intimate encounter with God part of your daily routine, and do not worry about immediate results. Just as in physical activity, the life of prayer demands great effort to achieve small results — but results capable of transforming a life forever.

Luiz Deivys, MSC. Rio de Janeiro Province

Foto: magnific.com