THE NATURE OF PRAYER TAUGHT BY OUR LORD

THURSDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

Eccl 48:1-15; Ps 97:1-7; Mt 6:7-15

God knows what we need before we ask Him

The subject of prayer is very central to Christian faith and spirituality. Prayer is a vital operation and one of the core activities of a Christian. Prayer originates in our renewed spirit. United with the Holy Spirit, the renewed spirit cries out for pure spiritual milk from the heavenly Father. Because our spirit is born of the Holy Spirit, he discerns our deepest needs and makes them known to the Father through Jesus Christ in sighs and groans too deep for us to articulate in words. This is usually the situation during our spiritual infancy. We can learn something about prayer from physical birth, where a newborn baby gradually learns the language and begins to articulate its various needs formerly expressed only through cries and babbling. The mother, the family, the community, etc are all involved in grooming the baby in the language of formal communication. We can say the same of the Christian community and our communication in the heavenly City. Prayer is a key to communication with the Father of all spirits. The Church prays according to its faith or belief system. To understand what the Church believes, we look at the structure of her prayers and communications. This underscores the importance of the prayer our Lord taught us.

Since Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and the revelation of the Father, the prayer he taught us contains the essentials of the Church’s faith and doctrine. This discourse on the concept of prayer is important, given that many Christians fail to give attention to his teaching on prayer. In our previous reflection, we have learned from the teaching of our Lord that prayer must never be a show for others to observe and laud us. It should rather be an interior disposition and desire to focus attention on God the Father, who sees all that takes place in secret. On the authority of Jesus Christ, prayer is a secret communication between a person and God the Father, God the Son through whom we pray, and God the Holy Spirit with whom we pray. A public prayer of the Church or a group of Christians is public not in the sense that it loses its secret nature but in the sense that we pray it loud enough for all who are part of the prayer to hear and follow the intention being expressed, but not failing to interiorize the intention and offering it secretly to God in one-to-one communication. Thus, even public prayers in the Church and groups remain secret in this sense, for they are said to God directly and personally. This is what our Lord taught in these words: “In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Prayer is not giving information to God but becoming fully aware of our needs and the One with us, for by our consciousness of God, we bring ourselves into His Presence.

Babbling in prayer gives two impressions. First is the intention to impress those listening to us as we demonstrate our ability to pray; second is a lack of knowledge of God and faith in him. Hence, our Lord warned us not to pray to God as pagans. The structure of the Lord’s prayer follows this explanation. What constitutes prayer are the following: our consciousness of God as our Father and the heavenly City; the awareness of God’s holiness and the holiness of the heaven and his will that governs that kingdom; the desire and hunger to know his holy will and accomplish it in our lives here on earth as we hunger to be at home with him in heaven; subsequently, awareness of our sins and imperfections and longing for his forgiveness and cleansing, which puts the same burden of forgiveness of others who offended us; A petition for his divine help to overcome our human weaknesses and the temptations of our adversary, the evil one, who deceives us and tempts us away from the will of our heavenly Father. These different aspects of the Lord’s prayer summarise the Gospel message.  

Let us pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver from evil.