Prayer of the Heart
Many people have all kinds of ideas about prayer and what it is. Some say it is an appointment with God that you make every day. Others a communion with God that is ongoing, while others say it is a conversation, like friends meeting for coffee. The church teaches us, in the Catechism, that prayer is “the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God”. “Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.” CCC 2559, 2560
We have all heard and read that we should pray, but do we reflect upon what keeps us from entering into prayer the way God desires for us? Fr. Albert J.M. Shamon writes on the visionaries of Medjugorje and what the blessed virgin has to say, who has been appearing since 1981 there for many years. Our blessed mother has said that there are two obstacles we must remove in our lives before we can really pray, “sin and worry”. Mary says that sin keeps us from turning our countenance upon God, because it is a turning away from God. She tells us that the need for confession in our times is a must because many do not understand their sin. She has gone so far as to tell people, “that at practically every Mass there are sacrilegious communion: people receiving Holy Communion when not in a state of grace.”
In 1985, in Medjugorje, Mary spoke to the children saying, “Today, begin to cultivate your hearts in the way you cultivate your fields. Cultivating a field not only takes time, but great effort. If what you plant is to bear fruit, you have to pull the weeds that can choke the plant. The weeds are sin. You must root out sin.” She told them to start going to confession monthly, but over time, she told them to go weekly to ensure they removed anything in their lives that kept them from God.
To illustrate this, Fr. Shamon said, “To sin is like swimming with the current – quite easy. To avoid sin is like swimming against the current – quite hard. Frequent and fervent confessions, however, will reverse this sinful bent, so that to do good will become easier than to do evil – the roots of sin will be dried up.”
Think of the dandelions every spring in your yard. Their roots go deep into the ground. You can dig out the root, but that is not enough. If left untreated, it will come back again. You must treat the area where the root was for it to be completely removed. Often we don’t want to work on the root of a sinful habit in our lives. If we understood how much this is hurting our soul and our relationship with God, we would run as fast as possible to confession to root it from our lives doing penance.
What is our attitude about sin in our lives? If one reads the New Testament over and over, they would find much on sin. If that was your only focus, you might despair, but John reminds us in 1 John 1:9, “If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.” We only need go to confession and we will experience the cleansing grace contained in the truth of this word. God’s desire is that we thirst for a real encounter with the living God and to be fully reconciled with him.
The other thing Mary told the children was, “Your hearts are still taken up by earthly things and they worry you.” When our focus is on the things of this world, we will worry. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 6:25-34,
“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wildflowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.“
Jesus had just finished teaching about prayer, fasting and almsgiving before saying this. His point is we must have complete dependence upon God and not this world or the things of this world. We are called to spend time in prayer cultivating a relationship with the one who created all things and loves us unconditionally. Sin and worry can keep us from growing in our relationship with God. We must remove them by spending time with God and letting him show us the path of life he desires us to follow. When we do that, God will draw us into a deeper life of prayer and intimacy with him.
Matthew Kelly, in his book, “I Heard God Laugh” writes about his own experience of prayer and how one person influenced him to pray each day. He would stop by the church and spend time praying. As time went on, he was drawn more and more to prayer. He said, “I didn’t know it at the time, but the day I was taught how to pray was one of the best days of my life. Later I realized that John had probably planned that experience. I remember wondering why we were leaving so early when he first mentioned what time he would pick me up that day. But what a beautiful thing to plan. What an amazing gift.” He goes on to say that he wrote the book because people began to ask him about his experience of prayer.
So, what is your idea of prayer? How much do you want to know God? Lent is one season in the Church when we can sacrifice our time and spend it with our Lord seeking him. I hope you will take time during Lent to draw closer to God, let him speak to you and show you how much he wants you to be in union with him. As you do, consider those areas of your life where sin is keeping this from happening and worry is distracting you. Go to confession. Seek him, talking to God during every moment of your day bringing everything to him and listening to how he wants you to move with him. Let God take your hand and lead you. You will find burdens melting away and new life in God.
Till next time, may God richly bless you keeping you close to him!