This is just one of the many questions we might have about prayer. Here are a few others we talked about on Wednesday evening in our Prayer Group meeting:
What do we pray for? What if we can't find the words? How do we pray for things we don't want (like things for our enemies)? What is the difference between personal and community prayer? Is there a right and a wrong way to pray? Who speaks first in our conversation with God?
What are your questions about prayer?
Even the apostles asked Jesus about prayer (Luke 11)! And so we begin this Sunday to have a closer look at Praying…with the prayer book that Jesus used - the Psalms.
In 2024, I began to meet with a Spiritual Director. He repeatedly asked me “How did that feel?” I found that I was unable to answer that question, so he suggested that I “pray” the psalms. “The Psalms are meant to engage the emotions,” he said.
A few months later, Gordon Smith, an instructor at Regent college, said to our Spiritual Discernment class, “ The most important spiritual practice is to pray the psalms. Know the psalter so well that you know which psalm is needed.”
I still don’t know the psalter at all well, so I am enthusiastic about the upcoming series, beginning with Psalm 27:
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes—
they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.
Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me!
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.
Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they are breathing out violence.
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
Letting yourself be known in this relationship means more or less the same as it does in any relationship: you must speak about your life, share your feelings, and reveal yourself openly.
- Learning to Pray, James Martin, SJ
O Eternal One,
It would be easier for me to pray
if I were clear
and of a single mind and a pure heart;
if I could be done hiding from myself
and from you, even in my prayers.
Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace
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