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| The Dolomites - Falzarego Pass |
'But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to the Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.' Matthew 6:6
Cathedrals have very beautiful ornate altars but God is found in the inner room.
Father Laurence Freeman interpreted Jesus' advice to us as close the door and pray there where your Heavenly Father is, and you will be enriched and rewarded. In that room is not just the idea of God but His real presence.
In this privacy we are not distracted by the din and loud praises of the modern contemporary worships. We are not distracted by the art pieces, statues, stained glass windows, golden altar pieces inside beautiful in the voluminous spaces of cathedrals.
In the inner room, we can pay attention to ourselves but more importantly we can give our attention to Jesus who will be present. Father Laurence Freeman in his sharing Daily Wisdom, Inspiration for everyday, wrote on the 10 Dec 2021, "Attention Matters. Our distracted culture, the fact that we spend an average of three or fours hours on our mobile devices, young people at a very vulnerable ages, spending hours, hours and hours on their social media, indicates a fragmentation of our fundamental capacity which is attention."
When Jesus taught us how to pray, He told us,
- Not to grandstand.
- Not to make a spectacle of our prayer
- Not to let our prayers become long speeches
"And when you pray do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the streets corners to be seen by others." Matthew 6:5
But to
- Pray quietly
- Pray in secret
- Pray as a conversation with God
"But when you pray go into your room and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6:6
So, when we are in the inner room, we leave self behind. We are alone with Jesus, and we will be able to engage, to listen, to feel empathy, says Father Laurence, adding that attention is the fundamental essence of prayer. We engage in prayer of the heart, we lay aside your thoughts, insights, ideas, petition keeping them in the background and we give our attention, just being there with the Divine.
Behold us, Lord, a little space
From daily tasks set free,
And met within Thy holy place
To rest awhile with Thee.
Around us rolls the ceaseless tide
Of business, toil, and care;
And scarcely can we turn aside
For one brief hour of prayer.
The Inner Room does not have to be a space, it can just as well be the inner self. It is more the our attitude during prayer that Jesus emphasised as illustrated by this parable in Luke 18:10-14
Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get."
But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Jesus said
"I tell you that this man rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Inner room prayers can be silent prayers or contemplative prayers. Jesus instructed that instead of making a show of it, this quiet time is where we begin to experience the transformation power of God.
Yes, silent prayer transforms us. Henrí Nouwen calls this Silent Spirituality in his book The Way of the Heart; it 'molds self-righteous people into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own great sinfulness and so fully aware of God’s even greater mercy that their life itself becomes ministry.'
Merciful God and Father
Loving us like no other
Hear our prayer
The cry of our heart
As we come to You
We acknowledge our transgressions
We confess to You our sins
Show us mercy and compassion
Touch our lives with Your healing grace again
Release us from our past
As we seek Your face
Wash us free at last
We receive Your love
We receive Your healing grace
Lionel
