Joe writes:
Question: What is prayer and why do I have to pray?
Question: What is prayer and why do I have to pray?
Arguments:
It is said that Almighty God knows even the
secret thoughts of man (Psalm 94:11; 44:22) Therefore doesn't He already know
my needs and, if He does, why then do I have to pray?
When Jesus Christ gave the Lord's Prayer to
the Apostles, He said in Matt 6:32 (New Advent Bible) “... For your Father knows that you have need of all these things.”
other Bibles adds "before you even
ask Him”. So, He knows my thoughts and He knows what I want. Then what is
the point of prayer?
... etc.
Scenario:
Imagine a water glass without water placed
on the table about 2 meters from a water source. To the eye, it looks empty but
in reality, it is filled with air. If one is to take it to the water source and
fill it, then the water displaces the air, now the air-filled glass becomes a water-filled
glass. But suppose I am to drink some of the water. This means my glass is now
half water and half air. Suppose I place the glass under a continuously running
stream of water and drink while it remains there, then my glass will always
remain full with nothing else but life giving water.
Answer:
The hearts of man were created by Almighty
God and for Himself. Recall the words of St Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they
rest in You.”[i]
Each of us comes from the boundless and
eternal God Almighty, created in love for love. We come with a loneliness and
emptiness that only God can fill. This is why whenever we try to ignore Him and
seek other pleasures we breakdown; when we try and use money and riches, they
do not satisfy so we seek more; when we bury our loneliness in our careers, we
become workaholics. This is because only God suffices and nothing less; we have
needs and He has no needs.
Prayer is thus weaknesses leaning on
strength, poverty leaning on boundless riches, sorrow crying out to the only
consoler. It is a lifting up of the heart and mind to the eternal, an
acceptance of who we are before the one who knows us, the beginning of virtue
and integrity and the handing over of our frailty to the only one who knows,
loves and strengthens us. The opposite is true [lack of prayer] and it is rooted in pride - the sin of
Lucifer - the complete destruction of virtue and integrity, and a continual lie
to ourselves that we are adequate.
Conclusion:
When we lift our hearts thus to the only one
who knows how to fill them, then the taint of darkness is displaced, the more
we do it the more the taint of sin and attachment to lies and sin is displaced.
Thus, would St Paul say, “pray without
ceasing” and when we have grown in prayer we then realise that the best
prayer is the prayer of quiet where we are in union with Almighty God and
continuously talking to Him in our hearts. Our hearts are filled with His Holy
Spirit and our joy is made complete and nothing is denied us in prayer, except
what harms our souls. The stream of water is the grace of God from the ever-running
tap that is the Holy Spirit; thus, our cup becomes full of sanctifying grace.
Alternative
conclusion:
We can also pray to ask for what we want and
God who is Love always gives, but this does not unite us with Him. We are not
lovers of Him but rather we use Him and being love He answers. And if we
continually pray to ask and not love, we fail to unite ourselves to Him; thus
at the end Christ would say “Not every
one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he
that does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven.”
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