(The Nationalist, 3 May 2001)
It’s good to think of prayer, not just as saying prayers, or speaking to God, but as listening to God; not just as words but as silence; not just the head but the heart; not just what we do but what God does in us – if we get out of his way and give him the chance. To listen to God in silence with the heart is an excellent form of prayer. What God asks of us is that we be silent and receptive. Just stay quiet, stop talking and listen. The noise outside us is the easiest to silence; the noise within is the difficult one. What God wants of us, more than anything else in prayer is our love. The best kind of prayer is that in which there is most love.
I believe there are many people whom God calls to contemplative prayer but who never make that step because they lock themselves into a fixed pattern of set prayers. By set prayers I mean those we have learned by heart or which have become part of a fixed daily pattern. That kind of prayer is a bit like a crutch. Sometimes we need it, and then it’s a help. Sometimes we don’t, and then it’s a hindrance. We need to know when to let go of it and when to take it up again.
Being tied to set prayers can be an obstacle to prayer. It can block it. We need to have the trust in ourselves to have the courage to take the step of letting those prayers go and reaching out for prayer in another form – stillness and silence, in which we give God a space in our lives. God wants to lead us forward, he wants to do things for us, he wants to grow in us, but we usually block him because we are tied to our own agenda, our way of doing or seeing things, or habits which we do not want to change. What we are called to do in such situations is to be prepared to let go of our own ways, however familiar or comforting they may have become, to let go and let God come in and give us direction, so that we go where God is leading us and we allow him to set the pace for us. And God’s ways are always those of freedom and gentleness. The signs of his presence are joy and peace.