Sunday after Ascension 2.6.19 MasterClass in prayer
If you were to ask a group of people what they most want
there are not likely to be many who would say they want to know God better, to
possess Him, to serve Him etc. Most would be asking for more modest things like
more money, better health, and fulfilling relationships.
Yet to want God is really our greatest need even if we do
not know it. Our
hearts were made for Thee, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in Thee
– St Augustine.
Many would ask for things like world peace, an end to hunger
and poverty - noble enough objectives.
We all want the world to improve on how it is. For that to
happen, however, sooner or later we have to go to God for the necessary firepower.
We will never get people to live in peace or mutual concern unless
God is invoked. There is too much sin in the system; and people are too much
damaged to be able to improve just by their own goodwill.
In this current week the Church re-lives the intense prayer
of Our Lady and the apostles in the Upper Room.
Those gathered in that room all desired the same thing; were
all focused on one outcome: that God would come into their midst.
We can learn a lot about prayer from that group. We learn to
imitate them in serious and continuous prayer. We cannot do this on our own
strength. We cannot meet even our personal needs, let alone the needs of the
whole world unless we call God in to act.
We need God's help to ask God to help us! He will give us
enough grace to enter the prayer, and if we use that grace, then He will grant
many other blessings.
To receive God fully we have to empty out the non-essential,
especially anything sinful; and fill our minds with all that is good (Ph 4,8).
If it took nine days of prayer from such exalted company as
Mary and the apostles, how can we expect to cope with anything less than full
commitment?
It may be difficult to begin prayer if we are not in the
mood, but once we start the momentum will build. Our faith will increase, as
will our charity. We will come to see prayer as communion with God, the
ultimate good.
As the prayer increases more mountains will move; miracles
will happen (Mk 11,23).
The whole Church should be at prayer day and night, as in
those first days.
God will come if we ask Him. But if we are asking for a
major manifestation of God's power then we have to be prepared to put in some
work on that point.
If
we are to receive the Holy Spirit we have to be prepared to work hard to
establish the conditions whereby He can come – humility, trust,
non-complaining, complete submission to God's will.
There
has to be a certain abandoning of ourselves. We might like to tell God what we
need, but when we say, Come... we are really saying Come in Your time, in Your
way, on Your terms.
I
am the clay, You are the Potter. Or I am the empty vessel, Fill me. Or I am the
page, write on me.
How much do we want this?
More than we know! To pray like this is to pray for everything else that
needs to happen. This prayer will set us up, strong in faith, and other prayers
will flow naturally.
Let us take the MasterClass in prayer, from the Upper Room.
No comments:
Post a Comment