Prayer is communication with God and this communication has a single end as its ultimate goal – union. And we communicate through speech, posture, expression, focus, activity, awareness, listening and BEING all at the same time.

When asked to conceptualize prayer, many of us might be tempted to think of it not unlike making a phone call to God. The further we advance in prayer we come to think of the call as local and not long distance. We stop worrying about receiving a busy signal or leaving a mere voicemail. Eventually we begin listening and not just talking. Of course, when we get into the real depths of prayer we come to realize there’s no phone at all and that God has been sitting next to us the entire time. We have always been in His presence.

Things look quite different in our prayer life when we are continually aware of the active presence of God in all circumstances and at every moment. That’s when we come into a state of “praying always.” Set aside times of prayer are still good, but are no longer as necessary, since we are in continual conversation. As Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection puts it, “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”

If prayer is communication and the goal is a relationship, think about how a spousal relationship would look if you set aside 30 minutes a day to talk “at” the other, never spent time listening, and acting as though they didn’t even exist for the rest of the day? In a real, deep and intimate spousal relationship, you are always aware of the other, always anticipating the needs and desires of the other, always looking at them, speaking to them and listening to them. In the spousal relationship, everything is oriented toward the other and communicates with the other in love.

The closeness and love of an intimate relationship with God makes a difference in the efficacy of prayer itself. It conforms your own self to God, but it also affects how God can now act upon, with and through you as well.

There is a story in the Lives of the Desert Fathers of a labourer whose fields always gave better crops than those of his neighbours. When asked the reason, he replied that he always had whatever kind of season or weather he chose. "I never wish for any other kind of weather but what God wishes," he explained, "and as I wish for everything that pleases God, He too gives me the sort of crop that pleases me."

The value of prayer stems primarily from the depth of our relationship with God, not for what it “accomplishes.” It is not about “outcomes,” but with “Being.” And the effects of prayer are also due to this relationship itself and not due to any particular means or methods.

If we want to be able to be bold witnesses of Christ’s spirit of love in the world, the best thing we can do is become lovingly, intimately, presently in love with THE Spirit Himself, who will easily accomplish through us all that He desires.

Don’t miss any of our stories or helpful tools on evangelization. Sign up for our weekly newsletter below. 

Subscribe