Oleh Fr Yon Wiryono, SVD
This year of 2024 has been dedicated as a Year of Prayer by Pope Francis. It is a special year of a great ‘symphony’ of prayer. There are two focuses of the year; first of all, to recover the desire of each one of us to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and adore him. Secondly, it is to help us Christians to rediscover the value of prayer. For me, it is the reminder to be awakened to prayer as the breath of our soul.
I am aware of thousands of approaches to prayer: what is prayer and how to pray. I am also aware that people pray in many different ways; prayer in formal liturgy of the Church, praise and worship, many kinds of devotions, Lectio Divina, Visio Divina, contemplation, meditation, or personal/private prayer, etc. With this in mind, what unites our prayer that has many forms?
To give light to the question, I think, it is the purpose of our prayer that matters. Prayer doesn’t end in itself. We pray, not for the sake of prayer itself. Prayer should lead us to two inseparable purposes: intimate relationship with God and helping us to be God’s witness of love. We may have many different symphonies of prayer; people say, pray as you can, nevertheless it should bring us closer to God (as God is already close to us) and encourage us to be the blessings of God for others. Prayer should bear fruits in our actions.
Going deeper, prayer is the breath and manifestation of the spirit of love that we find in God. Just stop there for a while! Prayer is like the two sides of the same coin; the breath of our soul and the manifestation of love, in other words love in action. So, prayer is actually lifegiving; breath for our soul and bearing love as its fruits. We cannot be a prayerful person but at the same time fail to love people around us.
Prayer is the breath and the warmth of love. Prayer and love are inseparable. If we want our prayer to be authentic, let us reflect on our love for God and neighbour. If we fail to be a good person, well, prayer reminds us to be transformed by the One we encounter in prayer. Therefore, prayer also is a process of self-giving or a way of offering ourselves to God. To pray is to enter into a relationship with God and give ourselves to be transformed in love of God. We usually do well in saying the prayer, but we are not actually aware of what we become through prayer; that is to be transformed continuously into the image of love, of God.
There are few implications. First of all, why do people often say we don’t have time to pray? St. Augustine tells us that prayer is the souls’ breathing. Therefore, prayer, like breathing, is extremely natural for the human person and extremely needed for life. As taking breath is so natural to us, therefore prayer should be also natural. If a healthy person says that breathing is difficult, or impossible or boring, how can one justify that I cannot pray, or that praying is difficult. Just as breathing is a perfectly natural function of the body, so prayer is natural to a spiritually healthy soul. St. Theresa of Avilla says that “souls who do not practice prayer are like people with paralysed or crippled bodies, even though they have hands and feet.
Secondly, the answer to that question is maybe we don’t quite understand the notion of prayer.
What does prayer actually mean? St. John damascene says that to pray is to offer one’s heart to God. In that way, prayer unites the soul to God. Prayer proclaims that our soul should will what God wills. In this way, prayer is a union with God. Whatever connects us to God is a form of prayer. If a walk in nature helps us to connect our souls with God, it is called contemplative prayer. Through the encounter, whatever it is, the divine in us connects with the Divine God.
Unfortunately, many of us still see prayer as merely asking for something from God. In this case we need to go beyond that. Prayer is an inner openness to the presence of God. The good news is that we can find God in all things. However, it depends on how we are able to recognise God’s presence in life. When St. Pauls says “…pray without ceasing” (Thessalonians 5:16-18), that means that we are encouraged to recognise the presence of God all the time in our lives, because God is always there, presence, only us actually absent in the presence of God.
One more thing, prayer is a way of progress to and in God; progress in holiness, wholeness, and oneness with God. This so-called oneness with God helps us to be the manifestation of God on earth, to be the heart of God on earth, God incarnates in us. If prayer is longing for God, therefore our action too is the longing for love; for God and our neighbour. Once again, let us remember that prayer is the breathing of the soul, the breathing of love, and the aspiration of the holy spirit living and loving in us. The Holy spirit will help us to produce the real fruits of prayer: union with God and becoming more loving and more compassionate just like our God is loving and compassionate.
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