Why Pray
one
Why would we want to spend time in prayer? The ultimate reason why we do anything is for the sake of some good thing we need to be happy. God designed our human nature to need many good things: nutrition, a safe place to live, friendships, knowledge, meaningful work and achievement, beauty and so on. But even if we had every earthly thing our human nature needed, we would still not be satisfied because we were made for union with God. Only God is the infinite, perfect and everlasting fulfillment of all our good desires. Therefore, God alone satisfies. And even if we lack one of the earthly things we need like good health, or a good relationship, or work that really suits you or work at all, God, who is the source of all that is good can supply for what you lack. He can fill us with Himself so that we can be full of joy even when we lack certain good things.
God wants to give himself to us, especially in the Eucharist. But we must open the doors of our soul to receive him.
Pope BededictXVI said: “Prayer is the self-opening of the human spirit to God.” Jesus of Nazareth vol 2, p. 233
So why would we want to pray? Because we want to be happy and God alone satisfies.
two
The stomach, the mind and the soul are very similar. Each are meant to be nourished: the stomach with good food, the mind with truth and the soul with God. If we snack all day on junk food, then we are not hungry for the nutritious meals we need. Likewise, when we snack all day on mind candy, overindulging in information, entertainment, work or social media, then we are never hungry for the Word of God in meditation or we are so overloaded that we can’t take in any more stimulus – we’ve eaten too much already – and too much of what doesn’t satisfy. We are shoving Coke, cotton candy and Raman Noodles in all day so we are never hungry for the Word of God in Meditation. Are you overloaded with junk food for the mind and soul?
three
The only way to foster a greater hunger for God in meditation is to fast from some of the information and stimulus you take in all day long. A friend of mine teaches monkeys. Yes real monkeys. He keeps their cages very clean but does not allow many toys or things to take their attention so that when we opens their cage they are really hungry to come out and learn. If we would fast from the overload of information and stimulus we take in each day we would be way more hungry to learn from God in meditation see huge growth in our soul. Try it. Go on a fast from information and entertainment and replace it with meditation on the Word of God and see what happens.
four
God wants us to be happy. That is why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us “When you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”
Immediately after this Jesus teaches us the Our Father. Then Jesus lived what he taught. As you read through His life, you will find Jesus getting up long before dawn or staying up all night in prayer.
And he did not just repeat the Our Father over and over for hours on end. Jesus lived all the stages of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation and contemplation. Vocal prayer is speaking to God. Meditation is listening to God and just being with him. Contemplation is to begin to experience union with God in a much deeper what that is like an experience of heaven on earth. All people were made for contemplation. Few pursue it. The Rosary is a great method of meditation. Do you desire an even greater union with God?
five
Meditation is to read something from the Word of God, to reflect on it so that we can grow in our knowledge and love of God and then draw a practical resolution we put into practice. That is the second stage in prayer after vocal prayer or speaking to God. But God wants to take you deeper and give more of Himself to you. He wants you to go on from talking and thinking so much to just giving Him your loving attention – the next stage of prayer.
Once you have the habit of reading and reflecting on the Word of God and you have stored up much knowledge about Jesus and the spiritual life, there is less need to read, to learn, to think hard and figure new things out. This is when God is inviting you to a more simple form of prayer. This is where we have less of a desire to read and think and more desire to just call up one idea from the Gospel of the day or a past meditation and just sit silently with the Lord. John of the Cross writes: What the soul, therefore, was gradually acquiring through the labor of meditation on particular ideas has now…been converted into habitual and substantial, general loving knowledge. This knowledge is neither distinct nor particular, as was the previous knowledge.
Accordingly the moment prayer begins, the soul, as one with a store of water, drinks peaceably without the labor and the need to fetch the water through the channels of past considerations, forms, and figures. The moment it recollects itself in the presence of God it enters into an act of general, loving, peaceful, and tranquil knowledge, drinking wisdom and love and delight. St. John of the Cross. Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, chapter 14.2