Prayer article #6

“Lord, teach me to pray …”

by Sister Kathleen McDonagh, IWBS

As I was reflecting in order to write this article, I opened a catalog and found there an ad for a book entitled, “Lord, Teach Me to Pray in 28 Days.” The blurb beside the book went on to say: “There’s an art to talking to God. And it’s yours to master in four weeks …” A mixture of fact and fiction, certainly. There is indeed an art to talking to God. That we will master it in four weeks is not ours to guarantee. In fact, our growth in prayer continues throughout our lifetime.

In our reflections on prayer, with Saint Teresa of Avila as guide, we have been discussing prayer as a journey, a journey within, to “the center and middle” of the diamond castle that is our soul. There, Teresa tells us, “the very secret exchanges of love between God and the soul take place” (Interior Castle, “The First Dwelling Place,” Ch. 1). The journey theme reminds us that prayer is not just something we learned once and for all when we mastered the familiar prayer formulas – the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory be to the Father, and so on. If we are serious about our relationship to God, we will continue to grow in prayer throughout our entire life. In addition, while there is a certain amount that we can do, ultimately, as the Catechism tells us, “the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our first step is always a response” (#2567).

The deepest level of prayer is indeed gift – God’s free gift to us, and this is the heart of Teresa’s development in The Interior Castle. We have looked at her description of the first three Dwelling Places and have noted a clear progression in the way people pray at each stage. Teresa neither minimizes nor maximizes the importance of this progress. When people enter the first Dwelling Place, she says, “they have done quite a bit just by having entered.” But even in the third Dwelling Place they still have a long way to go, she tells us, because, although they are living very good lives, they lack complete surrender to God. In the fifth, sixth and seventh Dwelling Place, Teresa develops the concept of complete surrender to God. The fourth Dwelling Place is, she tells us, a transition stage. In this stages, sometimes we do surrender and let God take over; at other times, we take back our gift of surrender and want to direct our own lives again.

We human beings like to be in charge of our own life. Surrender, placing our trust completely in someone else, even in God, does not come easily to us. Many of us, Teresa says, enter the Third Dwelling Place. Often we go no further because we are so taken up with what we are doing. But Teresa urges us to “pass on from your little works,” (Interior Castle, Third Dwelling Place, Ch. 1) and allow love to reach the point of overwhelming reason (Interior Castle, Third Dwelling Place, Ch. 2). Then we come to God with open hands, and we are empowered to receive from him his free gift of prayer.

For reflection and prayer

1. Let me look back on my growth in prayer since I first learned to pray. Where can I see growth and development? What brought this about? Pray with Luke 11:1; Matthew 11:25-30; Rm. 8:26-27;

2. Think of some of the saints and martyrs, who, even in our own day, suffered death because they “allowed love to overwhelm reason.” Reason too is a good quality in our lives, and one that we must often listen to. Under what circumstances might I be asked to “allow love to overwhelm reason”? Pray for the courage to do this when God asks it of me. Pray with 2 Maccabees 7; Jn. 18:1–14; Phil. 1:12-26.