Prayer is a way of life

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24

Christianity is a way of life and prayer is its fuel. To be a Christian is to pray or be a prayerful person. Christ prayed at all times and he taught His disciples to pray. We pray for each other especially in times of illness or suffering. Most often, we limit prayer only to petition, which is only one way of praying. So what is prayer? Why do we pray?

St. Therese gave herself to a life of prayer and self-emptying love in the Carmel of Lisieux in Normandy. The interesting question centres on how she prayed. She had learned the importance of prayer as a child from the example of her own parents and used to spend some time in the quiet of her room reflecting on the life of Jesus.

In her Story of a Soul, St. Therese reports that she was faithful to community prayer as a nun but often experienced certain dryness in prayer. She was faithful to community prayer such as recitation of the breviary, a daily Eucharist and vocal prayer. She was spent time in personal or private prayer as well. Prayer is the identity of the Carmel sisters.

Prayer, for St. Therese, was a way of walking with God. Whether it was a period of meditative prayer, communal prayer in the chapel with other nuns in the community or the aspirative prayer of lifting her heart to God in short prayers of intercession or praise, she realized that God was with her.

In order to pray, we have to acknowledge an omnipotent God in the reality of human beings, in other words, someone higher being than human being. Human beings become humble before God who is Alpha and Omega. A total dependency is the key to prayer. But sometimes, our prayer might be routine exercise of consoling whilst the need for prayer arises, such as the following,

Ø  An Aspirin Prayer: An aspirin pill is helpful when we are suffering from aches and pains in the hope to alleviating the pain. Likewise, some of us would pray when the need arises, such as, suffering, difficulties, loneliness, sickness etc. There is an element high dependency on prayer only to a particular need.

Ø  A Police Prayer: Prayer becomes a police who is watching and waiting to punish us when we err. If we don’t pray, we will be punished. Hence, we pray in order not to be punished, to remain in good books of God. This indeed limits my freedom to experience prayer as non-punisher.

Ø  A shopkeeper Prayer: Some of us relate to prayer as we relate to a shopkeeper, as you give me this and I pay you this much. Likewise, God you do this favour for me and I will offer prayers, money, service, worship etc. We limit prayer in order fulfil some desires through barter.

Ø  A puppeteer Prayer: We are puppets in the hands of God so we pray. God is there a master who pulls the strings so that we have the movements. An unmoved mover. He moves us in this world. Hence, an element of final judgement, final goal, final end, predestination sets into our lives. Here we limit God to a merely super power who controls us according to His whims. Therefore, we have to please this God in order that he will control our movements properly. This kind of prayer does not allow us to grow in freedom; rather it shrinks our growth because of the fear of God.

Ø  A Laundry Prayer: We see prayer as cleanser, which cleanses us from our sins and wrongdoings as we take our filthy clothes to laundry. We limit prayer to merely satisfy our immediate need. This form of prayer will not help us in the long run because of the negativity of life.  

Ø  Trying my luck prayer: We are not sure, we will get it, and anyway we try our luck. This way of life makes us live a lethargic life because there is not strong believe in one’s own abilities. Sometimes, our prayer could be, I will pray, not sure it will happen. This prayer has kept important component of belief away, hence, our prayer becomes insignificant.

Hence, the important question we need to ask is, ‘who is God for me?’ Only you can ask this question and only you can answer this question based on your experience of God. If we have arrived at an answer to this question, we will also be able to answer the question ‘why do I need to pray?’

God is the unconditional Father of the universe who the integral part of human beings because He has created us in His own image and likeness. We cannot separate God from us. “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” John 10:28-30. If we try to separate God from human being, human being lose their identity; lose the divine image in us, but God does not lose His image because God is omnipotent and omnipresent in the universe. Therefore, we are the losers if we separate ourselves from God. Anytime we are clear about this reality, we become the humble creature whose dependency leads to prayer because prayer builds relationship with God. Hence, in prayer creature and Creator are in dialogue with each other in an intense and intimate way. Prayer helps us to keep this relationship cemented to the end of time. This way prayer becomes ‘A Way of Life’ for us.