Don't Pray Half-Hearted
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In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches us, “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and speak to your Father who is in that secret place.”
Jesus is teaching us to pray with all our heart. But I think we only pray half-hearted. God doesn’t want half-hearted prayer. He wants your whole heart.
What is prayer? Prayer is friendship with God.
But we don’t go about it that way.
Friends spend time together, talking, listening and just being together. That is prayer.
The first things friends do is they tell each other what they have been thinking about.
I have a friend I talk with often. He always starts out asking: “Whatta you been thinking about?” I tell him what’s on my mind and the conversation goes from there.
That is precisely how we should begin prayer, tell God what you have been thinking about, tell him what is most on your mind.
Jesus said to St. Faustina, “Talk to me simply, as a friend to a friend.” Diary 1487
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Friendship takes not only talking, but even more importantly listening. We listen to God when we read or hear His Word and we think about it in meditation.
I want God to speak to me and I’m sure you do as well.
God does speak. We are just not paying attention.
God speaks to us through His Word. The Word of God comes to us through in Scripture, Tradition and the teaching of the Church.
We listen to God by reading, hearing or recalling His Word.
This is the way God speaks to us.
Then we reflect or think about what God has said
· so that we understand it
· So that we love God even more.
· So that it will lead us to form firm convictions.
Those convictions should cause us to form a resolution to put into practice what God has said to us that day.
Prayer really is a conversation with a friend if we follow all the steps of meditation:
· Tell God what’s on your mind
· Listen to God by Reading or listening to His word
· Think about it and apply it to your life
· Form some resolutions – a practical game plan to live it.
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We don’t pray to change God; we pray so that we will be changed.
The only way prayer will change us is if we have a resolution.
Without a Resolution we will not change. I bet your not forming a resolution with the Rosary…
St Francis De Sales writes:
The most important thing of all is that you cling firmly to the resolutions you have taken in meditation so as to practice them carefully. That is the great fruit of meditation, without which it is often not only useless but harmful. Why so? Because the virtues upon which we have meditated but not practiced sometimes puff us up so much in mind and heart that we think we are already what we are resolved to be which no doubt is the case if our resolutions are solid and ardent. But when, on the contrary, they are not practiced, they are useless and dangerous. (Introduction to the Devout Life, II Chap 8)
Examples of a resolution:
· Today I will listen more than I speak
· I will not gossip today
· I complain too much,
· Today I will practice thanking God for everything
· I am anxious - today I will replace that feeling of Anxiety
o with an Act of Trust in God
What if I cannot find a resolution?
· Remember your meditation all day long.
· This remembrance will change the way you think
· And the way you act
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I share this with you last week, but I can’t get over this stunning vision of how the Rosary came about and how it is supposed to be a powerful form of Mediation; not a rote saying of words while our mind wanders.
When Mary appeared in Cuapa Nicaragua in the 1980s she gave a vision of how the Rosary began and how She wanted it prayed. Mary instructed the visionary to look up at the sky where he saw something like a movie being played before him: “After seeing the procession of martyrs, there followed a group of saints dressed in white and carrying luminous rosaries in their hands. The rosaries had extremely white beads and gave off light in a variety of different colors. It was made known to him that St. Dominic led the procession while he carried a very large open book. Dominic would read, and after listening - they silently meditated. After this period of prayer and silence, they then prayed the Our Father and ten Hail Marys and the Glory Be. When the rosary was finished, Our Lady said to me: “These are the first ones to whom I gave the rosary. That is the way that I want all of you to pray the rosary.”
Mary informed Bernando that she was not pleased when the rosary was prayed mechanically or in a rushed manner. She said: “Pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries. Listen to the Word of God spoken in them…Put into practice the Word of God.”
Our Lady wants us to pray the Rosary not just say it. She wants us to meditate on the Word of God. Mary wants us to Read or Listen to the Word of God. While we pray the Decade we Reflect or think about the Word of God to understand it and apply it to our life. The we must put into practice the Word of God – we must end our Rosary with a simple concrete Resolution to practice.
That is how Mary wants the Rosary prayed.
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Make Mass a meditation
Does your mind wander at Mass? Mine does. In fact, I think about everything but God and what he is saying at Mass.
This Lent let’s make Mass a real meditation.
With every word we speak at Mass – be very intentional.
This might be novel but Think about God when you are speaking to Him in Mass.
When the readings are read – that is really God speaking to you, today, in the uniqueness of your circumstances.
That is why the reader says: The Word of the Lord. And we say, Thanks be to God.
After God speaks to you, the rest of the Mass, think about what he has said, ideally the homily helped you understand it better.
And never walk away from Mass without remembering what God said and a resolution to put something into practice.