Not a lot of people pray these days. To my sorrow, that includes many self-nominated Christians of every denomination, including mine. I understand some of the reasons. Our lives have never before been as cluttered as they are today. The world around us presents us with a multitude of distractions, some seemingly so imperative that they demand our immediate and absolute attention and force all other considerations from our minds. We reach the end of the typical day weary in body, mind, and spirit.
The irony here is that prayer is one of the great refreshments to the weary mind and soul. (You’ll still need to catch a good night’s sleep to restore your body.) Prayer relaxes and refocuses the mind. It salves the hurts of the day. It restores hope. What else is there that can do all that at zero cost?
This year of Our Lord 2022 will be a momentous one for these United States. Enormous events, the consequences of decisions made by millions, will impinge upon us. The nation might go down in flames…or it might rise renewed from its agonies of the two years behind us, and return to the values and principles upon which it was founded. The likelihoods seem about equal.
Prayer could help. Prayer has power.
A marvelous scene in Anthony Hopkins’s movie Shadowlands is relevant here. Immediately after the death of his wife Joy, one of C. S. Lewis’s academic colleagues says to him that “Christopher can scoff, Jack, but I know how hard you’ve been praying; and now God is answering your prayers.”
Lewis, brilliantly portrayed by Hopkins, replies in a truly piercing fashion:
“That’s not why I pray, Harry. I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.”
We need to be changed. We need to be clear of mind, stout of heart, and spiritually braced for the trials that we must undergo if we are to rescue our nation from a terrible fate.
And prayer can help with all of it.
All my best,
Fran
8 comments
Skip to comment form
Simple and direct. Well said, Fran.
One of your best ever Fran. Sadly, few will actually do it. That’s OK, its their lives to do as they see fit. We will only reach the remnant with words like these. But that is critical so keep it up. Give it to them good, Isiah.
I prefer to let God direct my life and remove from me the things that stand in the way of my service to God. You know, fear, anger, self-centeredness, selfishness and ego. In short, my basic nature seems to be playing God, and I need to rely on God to remove that also. Then and only then can I truly do God’s will.
Prayer works wonders at repairing my soul/spirit because it opens me up to God.
Great post Fran.
Grumpy
As a convert, I used to pray daily. Then weekly at Mass, then… I prayed when my wife got cancer the first time. Later, I did when I was handed my little tax deduction in Fuzhou, China and again in Changsha. Went to weekly Adoration for several years until back in the full-time workforce.
And then it got weird. My midlife crisis – rather than a new wife half my age and a shiny red sports car – of becoming a sci-fi author, meant that my books were informed by my faith. I never beat people over the head with “GO TO MASS!” but even in my romance horror, Cursed Hearts, I have the female lead cry, “never knew all that shit I ignored at religion class in Catholic school was right!” Many, if not most of my characters are Catholics who do not go to Mass and/or rarely pray. Gary and his girlfriend Henge being a huge exception. But they think about it and talk about it. If you pulled the golden thread of Faith out of my stories, they would fall to pieces.
Saying all that to say this: what I write, the stories I tell, to touch other’s souls and minds, is deeply informed by my faith. Is it sacrilege to call my thirteen books acts of prayer? I’d say not. That’s one of the main ways how I pray, FP. God bless you and yours.
Yessir.
Prayer is the response of a heart turned to God.
Our Father has given us access. To not use it is to show disdain for the gift.
Let’s not forget affirmations. Like prayer, you affirm your wishes and goals in a positive way. The mind is more powerful than we’re led to believe. Do be careful though of your wording and what you wish for. It may come with unintended consequences.
Well stated Francis.
I pray daily and sometimes multiple times a day. My chats, if you will, with the Lord are personal and very private between me and my maker. I am living proof that prayer works and works in ways we cannot fathom.
I only wish we could get through to more people about the need for prayer. I believe we have never needed prayer more than we do at this very moment. The world is turning into a mess and the evil of Satan is deep within many hearts. God has allowed Satan to tempt us and taunt us and we need his help to resist and overcome the evil one’s perversions and evil ways.
I had the privilege of baptising both of my sons. If you have not been baptised please do so soon. It is a simple act but, with huge consequence to both the recipient but also their family.
Be prepared for the end days, they are coming and don’t believe anybody who tells you they know when – they are liars and charlatans. Yeah, that includes tv preachers and their acolytes.
May the Lord be with you and your house.
I pray daily. I make an attempt to do the required three-times-a-day, and am planning to return to using tefillin with my tallit on soon.
It helps.
I also pray with my kids – as we leave the house we say the Shema. At bedtime, the same. And I remind them to say their “motzi” – prayers for food, which they’re still learning.