PRAYER AND LIFE[1]

Preface

    Prayer means personal relationships to me. I was not a believer, then suddenly I discovered God, and immediately He appeared to me as the highest value and the whole meaning of life, but at the same time as a person. I think that prayer means nothing to someone for whom there is no object of prayer. You cannot teach prayer to a person who does not have a sense of the Living God; You can teach him to behave exactly as if he believed, but it will not be a living movement, as true prayer is. Therefore, as an introduction to these discourses on prayer, I would like to convey my conviction in the personal reality of a God with whom a relationship can be established. I will then ask the reader to treat God as a living person, as a neighbor, and to express this knowledge in the same terms in which he expresses his relationship with a brother or friend. I think this is the most important thing.

    One of the reasons why prayer, public or private, seems so dead or so formal, is that too often there is no act of worship in the heart that communes with God. Every expression, verbal or in action, can be a help, but all this is only an expression of the main thing, namely, the deep silence of communication.

    We all know from the experience of human relationships that love and friendship are deep when we can be silent with each other. If we need to talk in order to maintain contact, we must admit with confidence and sadness that the relationship is still superficial; therefore, if we want to worship God in prayer, we must first of all learn to experience the joy of being silently with Him. This is easier than it may seem at first; It takes a little time, a little trust, and the determination to get started.

    One day, the "Curé d'Curé", a French saint of the early nineteenth century, asked an old peasant what he was doing, sitting for hours in the church, apparently without even praying; The peasant answered, "I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are good together." This man has learned to speak to God without breaking the silence of intimacy with words. If we know how to do this, we can use any form of prayer. If we want the prayer itself to consist in the words that we use, then we will be hopelessly tired of them, because without the depth of silence these words will be superficial and boring.

    But how inspiring words can be when there is silence behind them, when they are filled with a right spirit:

    Lord, open my mouth, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise" (Psalm 50:17).

THE ESSENCE OF PRAYER

    Almost from the very beginning, the Gospel of Matthew brings us face to face with the very essence of prayer. The Magi saw the long-awaited star; they immediately set out to find the King; they came to the manger, fell on their knees, bowed down and brought gifts; they expressed prayer in its perfection, that is, in contemplation and reverent worship.