Prayer must be God-centred not self-centred
A family prays together in order to keep peaceful. PHOTO/FIREFLY-GENERATED
What you need to know:
- Prayer is primarily about God, not about us. For our prayer to be heard and be answered by God, we must pray according to His will. This means, we primarily worship our Father God and secondarily entrust Him with ourselves and our needs.
St Augustine says through prayer, the Holy Spirit works in us to expand our minds, our hearts, our imagination and our horizons.
Human nature is dynamic not static. We tend to be more innovative than traditional. But dynamism or power must be controlled by some authority, otherwise we lose everything. We may simply tamper with traditional institutions, like churches, and opt for independent ones. We may not manipulate traditional prayers, on account of being perceived as boring, opting for entertaining ones. This trend smacks of pride and self-centredness rather than humility and God-centredness.
Perhaps we need to revise our general appreciation of the notion of prayer.
Prayer is said to be an integral element of faith in God, and a moment of encounter with Him. “Prayer is the key to heaven”. We discover who God is through prayer than any other spiritual exercise. It is through prayer that the Holy Spirit works in us to expand our minds, our hearts, our imagination and our horizons (St Augustine).
Jesus Himself was devoted to prayer. He would pray very early in the day. Jesus would spend long hours in the night, preparing for a great event/exercise, such as choosing the 12 apostles from among his many followers. His prayerfulness led His disciples to want to do as He did. ‘Lord, teach us to pray,’ they asked.
Basic principles of prayer
The way Jesus taught them has been called the ‘Lord’s prayer’. It teaches some basic principles of prayer. Prayer is not just a human activity; it is God’s activity in us, through His Spirit.
“We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27).
Prayer is primarily about God, not about us. For our prayer to be heard and be answered by God, we must pray according to His will. This means, we primarily worship our Father God and secondarily entrust Him with ourselves and our needs.
God’s gift to us
Prayer is inspired by God and is God’s gift to us. A gift is normally valued according to the giver. The Church recommends that we pray reverently and meditatively.
We pause at short intervals to reflect either on the meaning of particular words or phrases, or on some supernatural truth. This mode of prayer is deemed to be far more acceptable to God than a great many long prayers recited without attention or dedication.
“And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.”, cautions Jesus (Matthew 6:7).
The “Our Father” prayer encourages us to acknowledge our mortal state, on the one hand, and our privilege to draw near and speak boldly to God, as a Father or even a Friend. This was the kind of attitude that Abraham exhibited as he pleaded to God for Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20-32).
God is our Father
“Father” is a very intimate term to characterise our personal relationships to God. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. Only He, by nature, can call God Father/Abba. We dare to do likewise only because He has shared His sonship with us by His grace, expressed in the New Covenant. Through the Spirit given to us in Baptism, we can cry to Him as our Father, knowing that when we call He will answer (Galatians 4:6). “When you say the Our Father, God’s ear is next to your lips.” (St. Andre Bessette ).
Jesus promised that His Father would grant us whatsoever we should ask in His name, because He purchased for us all the graces of salvation with His most precious Blood. Our prayers should, therefore, have a reference, either directly or indirectly, to our salvation or the salvation of others.
The Rosary is another very popular and widespread scripture-based prayer. It is attributed to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, inviting us to internalise the most significant events of our salvation by her Son (Luke 1:42-45).
Prayer beads have been used by numerous religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Bahá’í Faith, and Christianity. They are a powerful tool of concentration, devotion and meditation on God.
