Thursday 20 September 2012

Cell Phones Prompt Prayer



First of all, every time you begin a good work, you must pray to Him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.[1]  There is no doubt that whatever we do, no matter how noble what it is that we are doing, it is imperfect if it is not done for the glory of God.

Even if you are feeding the poor, that action is imperfect unless it is offered to God.  You could be giving homes to the homeless, but that action too would be imperfect unless it is offered to God.

Even God, when He created us, created us in order to give glory to Himself.  It may sound egotistical, when considered from a purely human point of view, but the truth is that, if God had created us for any other purpose, but to give glory to Himself, it would have been a less than perfect act. 

God simply cannot act contrary to His own nature.  God is Perfection.  God has created us capable of sharing in his infinite love and happiness.  By creating us capable of sharing in His infinite love and happiness, God shows us His infinite goodness.  It is this infinite goodness of God that gives glory to God.

While we are certainly all aware that we must be sure to offer all that we do to God, we all face the challenge of busy lives.  From the morning, when we get out of bed, until the night, when we climb back into bed, there is always so much going on.  We move quickly from one item to the other throughout the day, often without ever consciously considering that we are stopping one and beginning another.

There are of course habits we can develop and practice to ensure that we are constantly offering what we do to God.  Saying grace at meals, even when we are taking a quick snack, or popping out for a coffee in the coffee shop, is a place to nurture the habit of offering all we do to God.  Developing the habit of saying a brief prayer, every time that we get into our car to drive, is another.

I recently realised that we actually have another very effective means of helping us to remember God throughout the day.  Almost everyone of us, particular those reading this Blog, will have access to electronic gadgets, such as cell phones.  These phones rarely leave our sides, not even when we go to the loo it seems.  They also seldom get turned off, at best being changed to vibrate mode during a meeting.

These cell phones all come with built in electronic diaries.  These diaries offer the ability to set an alarm for an event.  The alarm could be just a quick beep, or whatever we would like the sound to be.  We could use these beeps, and many already do, to remind us to leave for the next meeting, or to phone someone at a specific time, and so on.

However, why should we not also use these cell phones to give us regular heads up during the day about God.  Why shouldn't they be used to remind us to stop and offer whatever we are doing at that moment to God? 

We could set alarms for multiple times during the day based on our own day.  The beep or vibration could be quiet, hardly noticeable to anyone else, but sufficient enough to remind us, at that moment, to say a Hail Mary or another prayer.  It could remind us to make our own simple utterance to God, like for example: ‘Lord, I am aware of your presence.  Keep me aware and bless what I am doing right now.  Help me to do it well.  I offer it to you for your glory.’




[1] The Rule of St Benedict, Prologue #4 

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