Men's Rosary

Prayer can, at times, seem to be an elusive thing. Life gets in the way. There is no time to pray. How do you pray? There are too many prayers to choose from. Everyone has the perfect prayer, novena, etc. It can be overwhelming to a point you just don’t pray much if at all.

But we know it is important. All the saints told us, the prophets told us, the apostles told us, even Jesus has told us. “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12) Now that we know we should be constant in prayer, what does it mean to pray and be constant in it?

I am sure that the answer to this question is many and varied but I share here the thoughts I have about it. To be sure, the most perfect prayer is the Mass. But outside of that, what is the best way to pray? The list is long, but I have come to the conclusion that it is dependent on the person and what leads them to God in prayer and the place of quiet contemplative prayer.

We need to simply find God and remain in Him. Teresa of Avila says that “prayer is a matter of coming into living contact with Jesus; it is not just recitation and repetition. It is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” In consideration of this, we can look at the example of Jesus going off away from everyone to pray. God himself took that time! How could we think we can’t? And it is quite obvious we will not encounter him in the craziness and noise of the world. “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.” (Psalm 32:12)

Our goal is to pray without ceasing. This seems a reach for lay people but it is not too much of a task if you consider what it means. Saint Paul told regular people to pray without ceasing. In an article Cyril Chilson shared the comments of St. Basil about Paul’s comments. He says that Paul was saying that whatever we do, including the very basics of life, such as eating and drinking, should be done for the glory of God. So prayer is not just thanksgiving for prayers answered. Rather, thanking God for everything in daily life and remembering his presence in whatever we consume or feast our eyes upon, is continuous prayer. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible nature, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

We are God’s created. We are not products of the “world”. We are to remain in him or be consumed by the “world” and cut off from him. God never turns his back on us. It is ALWAYS we who turn our back on him. It is necessary to humble ourselves by taking stock of all that we are given on a daily basis and realizing how dependent we are on our creator. We are the created and many times we confuse that…almost making God seem to be the created. It is as if we control God and faith and fit it where we see it is best suited.

To take time every day to see how we have done throughout the day in good things and bad and offer God thanks for the good and asking help for the bad will bring us closer to him. The closer we get to him the more we will feel him in every aspect of our lives, and we will not go long without him in our thoughts. This closeness to him is prayer. His living in our thoughts all day in everything is prayer without ceasing.

Let’s be sure to find whatever it is that will get us to a place to just “be” with God every day. Just as we need to plug our phones into a charger at night, or our power tool batteries into a charger at night to be ready for the next day, so we need to plug ourselves into God to be charged and ready to meet the day and those we encounter. God gives us everything we need. His blessings and mercy are overflowing. “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.” (Mark 11:24)

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” – St. Augustine