“Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” Luke 5:16
Recognizing that some personal prayer training might help, I pondered and prayed for a simple, straightforward way to explain how to begin a time of personal prayer. Oddly, what came to mind was an airplane taking off. Here are my thoughts on some similarities between a pilot trying to get a plane to take off and a person trying to be aware of God’s presence in prayer.
The airplane pilot wants to get the airplane airborne; the pray-er wants to clear his mind and heart, and place himself attentively in the presence of God. The runway is an aid the pilot uses to get the plane airborne. Similarly, the pray-er uses something as a way (a runway) to connect with God. It may be an Our Father, or Divine Office Psalm, prayer or reading that is the runway for getting the pray-er’s current preoccupation with thoughts to fade from the mind so that the pray-er can connect with God in the here and now. The pilot, in taxiing down the runway, is doing things – controlling things - starting the plane rolling down the runway, increasing its speed, attentively watching for signs of lift off, and then the pilot starts adjusting the controls which allow the plane to fully cooperate with the outside weather conditions. I don’t know much about flying an airplane but the level attentiveness and concentration of the pilot changes, his control of the airplane, probably lessens, once the airplane reaches its cruising altitude. A similar thing is supposed to happen once the pray-er connects with God. And once the connection is made, whether one finishes the Our Father, or the Divine Office, is less important than remaining in silence and stillness. What matters is that the pray-er is aware of being in God’s presence, in communion with God and listening.
I know even less about how anyone should approach praying because, in prayer, the relationship is between that person and God, Father, Son (who became man in Jesus) and Holy Spirit. But I do believe that clues about how one grows a relationship with God are quite a bit like how one grows a relationship with another person. If all your meetings with a new friend are occasions where you read words from a book, especially one that someone else wrote, I doubt that your relationship will grow anywhere. What grows relationships is being together, talking with each other and listen to each other, learning about each other and growing comfortable and intimate with each other.
STOP READING; JUST BE THERE IN THE MOMENT SURROUNDED BY THE INVISIBLE PRESENCE OF GOD
“And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, ‘Who do the people say that I am?’” Luke 9:18
So, in your personal prayer, be it the Our Father, the Divine Office or any other prayer prayed personally, those words are to be like the runway to the airplane.1 You are praying it until you get to lift-off. You are readying yourself for being drawn into an awareness of the presence of God. And, when this happens, - (It doesn’t always happen.) - if it is the “real thing”, coming from God and not made to happen by you, this is similar to what happens when you are looking at someone you love dearly and suddenly something changes inside of you. (Yes, I know what that sounds like and, if its source is genuinely Love, it is good.) Once there is “lift-off” there is no need to go back to the words in the book or to finish the prayer.
An Example
I mentioned in past Explorations sessions that I still have a clear recollection of the very first thing I experienced on the morning after I entered the Sisters of Mercy. I found myself sitting in a classroom with twenty-seven other eighteen to twenty-five-year-olds, listening as a sister, seasoned in prayer, demonstrated for us how she prayed. It was not unlike the following “praying out loud” of Psalm 69:17. I am using this Psalm verse as the “runway” I am rolling down hoping that my thinking about this verse will lead me to a point where I am able to stop my mind’s preoccupation with whatever, so that I can be still, i.e., “lift off” and just “be” in the presence of God. I offer this as an example of one of many ways to pray, to become attentively in God’s presence.
“Lord, answer me, for your love is kind.” Psalm 69:17
“Lord, answer me.” My thought process on these three words: First, I repeat the words, let them resonate within me, “Lord, answer me.” Next comes moments of silence and stillness while I let my inner-self2 hear those words. Is that what I really want to say to God right now? (I think about that for a few moments.) No, because I am not ready to listen to that right now. What I want to ask is about something that happened yesterday: Were you trying to reveal something to me yesterday when I was with ______? [I turn to God; I focus on Him, trying to allow Him to lift me into an awareness of His presence. I try to be still and receptive, relying on God’s help. When the moment seems right, I acknowledge God’s presence. (I was the one who was absent.) I speak to God as He is - someone who knows me better than I know myself. I may ask about yesterday. Perhaps I will go over the details of that meeting: what I observed, what I now see that I missed. I do this slowly, ever mindful and attentive to the presence of this guiding, caring God who knows the real me. I do the same with other thoughts or questions if there are any.] What did You want me to see or hear? What did she want or need from me? How well did I do in being attentive to the real happening of that moment? How did I help or hinder what could or should have happened? Perhaps more silence and stillness - whatever wells up inside of me. Perhaps requests for forgiveness and grace to do better today.
- This refers to personal prayer. When the prayer is communal, prayed by a group of people, each person should say in unison, the exact words of the prayer.
- “Moments of silence and stillness”: I do not know how you operate most of the time, but with me, I am usually so busy managing my daily activities that, if my inner self is taking in and “registering” what is happening, I am mostly unaware of it, nor am I aware of any feelings or emotions about this. Therefore, it is wise to have a horarium that contains a scheduled, daily time to review my day.
Next: Be Still and Rest in God