The Prayer Habit

'Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.' Mark 1:35

I used to find difficulty praying. My mind can never be still on a single topic for any sufficient length of time. I think too many thoughts at one time. Soon after I have settled on a prayer item, my mind would begin to wander. I have struggled with this disability for many years.

I used to watch my late father-in-law, the Rev Kao Jih Eng pray. He was a very active Chinese pastor for more than 40 years. He made for himself a ‘kneeling’ platform on which was attached a reading stand with a cross. Under this stand was a shelf holding 2 compartments. He would place cards with prayer petitions from his parishioners in one compartment. As he prayed through each item he transferred these cards into the other compartment and back again. He woke up early every morning to pray.

I read about St Theresa of Avila for whom prayer is the journey of the mind into the depths of the soul. She described prayer as moving from one room into another in one's spirit. Then, in the innermost sanctum of one’s being, one finds God and ecstasy.

In the heydays of the Charismatic movement, I would practise praying in tongues. Since my mind always strayed, why not just pray in tongues? I need not focus. Perhaps like St Teresa, I could still achieve the soul-satisfaction she described. But, there was a lingering worry that all I was seeking was some form of self-gratification and was not really communicating with God. 

Finally, I reckoned to live every moment and dedicate every day as a prayer to God. Just live through the day and when a petition, a thought, a praise comes to mind just whisper to the Lord, a word of thanks or a quick petition.

Here is an example of a prayerful moment. Whilst walking down a busy street one day, out of the blue, a song which I had not sung for more than 30 over years came to mind. It’s a composition from Sister Soeur Sourire, the Singing Nun and it is called 'It’s A Miracle.'

How I love to go for a walk along the street,

And to say, "Hello" to the people that I meet, 

And to watch the show of their happy, happy feet, 

And I say to myself, It's a miracle. 

Hal-le-lu, Hal-le-lu-ia! I sing as I walk along, 

Hal-le-lu, Hal-le-lu-ia, God gave me such a happy song.

Can’t you feel his love and joy in everything

In the wonder of the sparrow on the wind

In the sky above and the song that I now sing

And I say to myself it’s a miracle

Hal-le-lu, Hal-le-lu-ia! I sing as I walk along, 

Hal-le-lu, Hal-le-lu-ia, God gave me such a happy song.

In the joy of his love and the sky up above and the song that I sing

It’s a miracle.

I could not stop humming and singing the tune. So I sang it as a prayer to God and a prayer for all the people I was passing by. This is making prayer ubiquitous, praying all through the day, this is Continuous Prayer.

Henri Nouwen taught me another way to pray, "Listen to your heart. Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus who dwells in the very depths of your heart. He doesn't shout. he doesn't thrust himself upon you, His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love... This listening must be an active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world God's loving voice is easily drowned out. You need to set aside some time everyday for this active listening to God if only for ten minutes. 

You'll find it not easy to be still for ten minutes at a time. You'll discover straightaway that many voices, voices that are very noisy and distracting, voices that do not come from God, demand your attention. But if you stick to your daily prayer time, then slowly but surely you will come to hear the gentle voice of love and will long more and more to listen to it." Ref 1

This is Contemplative Prayer. So instead of trying to spend an hour in prayer, it might be better for me to spend short times of 10 minutes to find the place where God is, empty my thoughts and let God fill my mind. I used to think that contemplative prayer is some highly spiritual activity reserved for hermits and the Desert Fathers but difficult for the average person. It is something unachievable by people who are easily distracted. I no longer think this way. The discipline of contemplative prayer is particularly good for people who are busy, people who have many things on their plate so much so that it is good for them to get away for brief moments with the Lord. The Don Moen song 'I Just Want To Be Where You Are ' aptly describe this desire. 

Then there is Community Prayer, Henri Nouwen said, "Prayer is the language of the Christian community. In prayer the nature of the community becomes visible because the prayer we direct ourselves to the One who forms the community. We do not pray to each other but together we pray to God, who calls us and makes us a new people. By prayer, community is created as well as expressed."

When we pray in groups, we bind ourselves together. We learn that prayer is a most precious expression of our individual faiths so it needs the constant nurturing and support of the community. Jesus said

 

"Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree on anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there I am in the midst of them." 

Matthew:18: 19-20 

Lionel

Ref 1: Henri Nouwen. You Are The Beloved. Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living. Hodder & Stoughton, 2017

First Published in May 2007