Praying Hands- Albrecht Durer

The readings this Sunday (17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C) spoke of prayer and persistence. We heard Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom & Gomorrah. We heard Jesus tell his disciples to be persistent in prayer and to ask with the confidence of a child approaching a loving parent for something needed.

Our pastor, Fr. Ron Shirley, spoke of prayer in his homily. With his permission, I’d like to share it with you.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray 7-25-2010

July 24th, 2010

I’ve had a very rough week this week and I have found myself spending extra time in prayer. The Gospel this Sunday triggered some things about prayer that I had not thought about for a while, and I would briefly like to share them with you.

The first thing is that it is important that when we pray we must be honest and completely open with God; we must use real words that express how we feel and what is going on in our lives. Our relationship with God should be one place where we can let it all hang out – no safe and appropriate roles to play – no masks to hide behind. In a hospital waiting room, the following scene was observed. A man had been waiting  as the doctors and nurses treated his brother. When told that his brother has just died, he yelled and screamed at the Cross on the wall. Family members tried to make him stop, but a wise chaplain in the room simply assured them, “God is big enough to handle it.”

The second thing I was reminded about through the Gospel was that when I say I am too busy to pray (which I do at times), I may really be saying I am afraid to pray. Also, if I am so busy with what I want from God, I may miss what God really has to give me.

The third thing is, if we are to take prayer seriously we must dispel from our minds the notion that it is some kind of magic. Prayer is not an “Aladdin’s Lamp” which, if properly rubbed, will grant our every wish.

A student, rather lazily inclined, noticed that a classmate always recited her Spanish lessons well. One day he asked her, “How is it that you always recite your lessons so perfectly?”

“Before I study,” she told him, “I always pray that I may remember my lessons and repeat them well.”

“Do you?” asked the boy, somewhat surprised. “So that’s her secret method,” he thought. “Well, then, I’ll pray too.”

That night he prayed up a storm, recalling as many prayers as he could remember. However, the next day he could not even repeat one phrase of the lesson. Quite perplexed he looked for his friend, and, finding her, confronted her for being deceitful.

“I prayed,” he told her, “but I could not repeat a single phrase from yesterday’s homework.”

“Perhaps,” she told him, “you took no pains to learn the lesson!”

“Of course not,” said the boy. “I didn’t study at all. I had no reason to study. You told me to pray that I might remember the lesson.”

“There’s your problem,” she said, “I told you I prayed before, not instead of, studying.”

I close with a final thought on prayer: A friend of mine used to drop by his Church every evening around 5 PM, for an hour of meditation before supper. Every evening he noticed the same old man sitting in one of the back pews. The man was always there when he arrived and still there when he left. It began to haunt him.

One evening curiosity got the better of him and he approached the man, greeted him, and hoped he wasn’t praying: “I have seen you here for several months now, and I really admire your constant devotion. But I was wondering . . . I notice that you are always just sitting here quietly, never using a prayer book, Bible, or rosary . . . still obviously praying…I just wondered, when you pray to God, what do you say; what do you talk about?

The old man looked up at my friend calmly and gently: “I don’t talk to God; God talks to me.”

A lot of people think prayer (or meditation or religion or spirituality) is supposed to be like Alka Seltzers in a glass of water: non-stop, bubbly, effervescent, supernatural excitement. Wrong! Sometimes, maybe. But most of the time prayer is like any love relationship: it involves a lot of giving and listening. It’s like learning to talk: first, you have to listen, in the sure peace of God’s presence.

Joyce Rupp

As I was working today I came across a poem/prayer by Joyce Rupp. It’s from her book, Out of the Ordinary: Prayers, Poems and Reflections for Every Season.

As I read the  prayer, it struck me that in our world today, with all the uncertainty caused by such ‘minor’ concerns as the global financial crisis, the health care reform debate in the U.S., issues of global climate change, the changes in personal fortunes, high unemployment rates, wars, and all the other reasons for worry and stress that assualt each of us, it’s all too easy to get caught up in a tizzy about things over which we may or may not have any control. In my experience, often the things that lead me into a tizzy are ones that are not at all related to the real issue I’m facing. They simply allow me to get all ”hot and bothered” about the issue of the day, but they don’t lead to any resolution of the deeper issues, whether they be personal or societal.

So today and in the days to come, as we all deal with the insecurities and uncertainties of our lives, let’s remember to ask God to help us with our tizzies, so we can stay on track with our true calling of loving service in the kingdom of God. 

A Prayer to Be Free From Tizzies*

Dear God,
you who did not invent tizzies,
be with me when I get caught
in the wild worrying of my mind,
and the needless scurrying around
in my fearful heart.

Trip me up when I fret and stew
so I can see the trap of tizzies,
with their schemes to keep me
bunched up in stress and strain.

Let me fall headfirst into the truth
of your never-ending presence,
wrap your kind arms around me
and calm my doubts and fears.

Shout loudly in my spiritual ear
when my nerves get knotted,
my mind feels cramped,
and my stomach screams.

It may be difficult,
but do try to get my full attention,
because tizzies are not healthy,
and they definitely chase peace
out the front door of my heart.

Dear God, you did not invent tizzies,
I did,
and only I can send them on their way,
and I will,
if you strengthen me
to let go of my anxious hold
on what is nonessential.

—Joyce Rupp

*A tizzy is a “state of frenzied excitement or distraction, especially over some trivial matter” (Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary).

Taken from Out of the Ordinary, Copyright 2000 by Joyce Rupp. Used by permission of Ave Maria Press. All rights reserved.

Terry Hershey is one of my favorite columnists/bloggers. I look forward each week to his Sabbath Moment column. Today he offers this prayer. I suggest we all make it our own.

Our Prayer (and, Christmas gift suggestions)

Lord, in this Advent season, may we give
To our enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, our heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To our self, respect.
Amen.