It Is That Easy

18 Mar

“You don’t know how to pray?  Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, ‘Lord, I don’t know how to pray!’ you can be sure you’ve already begun.”
~ St. Josemaria Escriva

There are times in our lives that we get ourselves bogged down with complexity.  We make things much harder than they are or should be.  When we imagine the worst that can happen and all the many steps it takes to do something, we can find ourselves avoiding doing it.  That often happens when we speak about church ministries.  Potential volunteers might look at the time involved or at the training that might be needed and think to themselves, “I don’t want to go through all of that.”

Yet, when they actually get involved in the ministry, they find that their preconceptions about the work were not accurate.  There was not a lot of time involved, no complex training beforehand, and the training that they might have needed they received while doing the ministry.  Additionally, they found that they received much more than they put in to the work itself.

The reasons that some people stay away from church ministries are pretty much the same reasons that they use for not setting aside the time to pray.  They might say that they do not know how to pray properly; i.e., they do not know the steps needed for contemplation, lectio divina, et cetera.  They might say that prayer will take more time than they have to give.  Because of these reasons, they do not spend time in prayer.

Prayer doesn’t take a lot of instruction.  Prayer is more natural and instinctual than one might think.  Prayer, after all, is merely communication: communication with God.

We do not plan our discussion with our best friends.  When we meet up with them, we talk.  We catch each other up on all that has transpired since the last time we met.  We tell of our disappointments and our triumphs.  We share our hopes.  We do so because we are comfortable with one another.

That is all God is looking for from us.  God wants us to be comfortable in His presence.  He wants us to catch Him up on our dreams and desires, our disappointments and pains, and our triumphs and hopes.  He wants us to tell Him what we need from Him.  He wants us to pour our hearts out to Him just as He has done through His Son.

God is no one to be feared.  He is a stalwart and shield to be embraced.  Speak to God, your friend, today.  That speaking is, indeed, prayer.

FAITH ACTION:  Set aside a good amount of time today to sit in silence so that you may converse with the Lord.