|
Prayer: A Vital and Personal Relationship
with the Living God
Dear Sister in Christ, As your
spiritual director and as one who cares for you very much, entrusted by God to
guide you on the way to perfection, I write you this letter at this troubled
time in which you find yourself, so that it may be, with the help of His grace,
a source of consolation. I wish to
remind you of a few things we discussed long ago in our earlier talks about
prayer. You have already heard these
things, but your current condition compels me to share them with you once
again. Hopefully this letter will help
you to re-experience His sweetness and rekindle within your heart the fire of
His love. During our last conversation, you
appeared quite troubled. You expressed
how you have lost the ability to pray.
You even doubt if you have ever prayed.
You told me that perhaps the Lord has never heard any of your prayers
and that all this time you have only seemingly progressed in your prayer
life. You have suggested that you have
never really spoken with Him at all. My
dear child, I assure you that this is only a delusion and a ploy from the evil
one who desires to rob you of intimacy with your Creator. Remember, the devil has been a liar from
beginning. (John 7:44) He is only
increasing his attacks on you now that you are troubled and find yourself in an
arid desert. His goal is to deceive you. Do not give in to his trickery! The Scriptures tell of this reality, “Stay
sober and alert. Your opponent the devil
is prowling like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Remember my dear one what we have
discussed long ago. Prayer is a surge of
the spirit heavenward. Many times prayer
is an expression of thanksgiving, praise, and adoration. But, in difficult moments, prayer is a cry of
supplication to heaven – a plea for help from a vale of tears. It is from this abyss in which your prayer
now calls out to God. Although it may seem as if you are alone, fear not, He is
always with you. When you pray, remember
that it is a Person you are calling, not some ambiguous, abstract idea or
force, but the true, one, and personal God.
However troublesome things may become my dear one, it is important that
you keep what I tell you in mind. The Word of God was made flesh. The Word came and dwelt among us as Jesus
Christ, the Incarnate Son who has revealed God the Father to us. (John 1:14)
There is no other way to communicate with the Father except through the
Son (1 Timothy 2:5) and through the Holy Spirit, for they are One God. We must follow the Word and listen to
Him. He came to redeem us and to make us
adopted sons and daughters of the Father.
(Romans 8:15) Meditating on the
Gospels will help you to know the Son and likewise to know the Father. Through the Word we come to the Father. Has He not said, “I am the way, and the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me?” (John 14:6) So then, let us not waste any time with
superfluous and false ways. Jesus is the
Word and you must listen solely to Him.
In Him you will see the Father. (John 14:10) In order that you may listen to the
Word, you must be attentive, my little one.
You can only be in conversation with someone when there is a mutual
exchange, but first you must listen. It
is actually his call that prompts any desire in you to dialogue with Him - He
calls before you ever call upon Him.
Your listening is then really a response. So that your response may be attuned to what
He is saying, you must still the rumbling of your spirit and the traffic of
your mind. You must be still. My child, you must approach the Lord with the
same disposition as Abraham, our father in faith, “Here I am, Lord.” (Genesis 22:1) Understand that He desires this: “Be still,
and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:11) My dear sister, when you have settled
and are attentive to His voice, He will begin to reveal your trouble. He will lovingly show you your faults. He
will bring to light what is muddled within the depths of your soul. Do not be frightened of what is
discovered. This is a grace and an
expression of the Lord’s unfailing love for you. He shows you the source of your trouble in
order to help you. God wants you
to have harmony of mind and spirit.1 When the Divine Physician informs you of the
disease, He also provides the medicine.
However, you must be willing to accept it. You must not argue nor suggest some other
treatment, for not only is He the doctor of souls, but also the creator of
souls. God can fix you because He made
you. He knows you better than you know
yourself. You can trust him completely. Once you have been told what to do, you
must respond. The Lord’s love always
deserves a response. You must hear,
follow, and comply when He calls. If you
fail to do so, you can never be fully yourself, never fully human. You will soon discover that God is
calling you to Himself and desires that you be in Him and He in you. He desires that you maintain your heart
uncluttered and prepared for Him as a tabernacle for His love. Listen to what a wise spiritual writer once
wrote, “Man is a being who bears in his heart a mystery greater than himself.”[2] How wondrous is this God of ours who desires
to share His very being with His creatures! Heaven is what ultimately awaits you
my child. (1 Corinthians 2:9) There you
shall never thirst again. After you have
made it through the barren desert, you will eventually be replenished in the
inexhaustible waters of the Lord’s grace.
You can never exhaust the life-giving wellspring of the Lord. He will replenish you fully, and flowing
over. My child, trust me when I say that
this sand storm will soon pass as quickly as it came. I remind you of these essentials of prayer as
a loving father who only desires the best for you, so that you may not lose
hope and again attain the peace and tranquility of heart that our sweet Lord
grants to those who love Him. Let us implore the par excellence of prayer and bearer
of the Word made flesh to intercede for us:
Mary, Mother of God, you bore within your womb the Word, the Creator of
the universe, who humbled Himself and took on our human nature. You who kept your heart as a dwelling place
for the Lord and who in the presence of the archangel were totally attentive
and obedient to your God, even when you did not understand what was asked of
you and patiently bore the piercing of your own heart, teach us to faithfully
pray to your Son. Teach us to be docile
and open to His commands. May we, like
you, keep within the silence of our hearts the Divine Utterance and respond
faithfully with the holiness of our lives.
Mary our mother and help of all Christians, I especially ask you for
this little one who is currently experiencing much hardship. May this child of yours imitate you in your
readiness to listen and to respond to the Word.
May this dark night pass and may the radiant dawn of your Son’s
countenance once again radiate through her.
Amen. Spirituality Page Home Bibliography
Von Balthasar, Hans Urs,
Prayer, “Preparation and Form” (Chapter 1) Image Books, Garden City, N.Y.,
1963. ----------, Catechism of
the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday, 1995 |