Day 7

Jesus is still teaching and he says when you pray “ go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

   When you pray thou prayest, enter into your closet, and pray to your Father, it means you need to assume a posture, he is referring to your construct of a mind-set. That the Focus should be on God, it is not a literal thing to mean every time you want to pray -run into your closet, he's saying whether you are in the midst of people or you are alone, the moment it's time for prayer, let nothing distract you, let your focus be on God. Pray to your father in secret.

Prayer is a time, a place apart. Anyone who wants to get close to God must set aside a short time each day to speak to Him alone, a time of intimacy and encounter with the Lord. The actual place is of little importance, provided the soul finds there sufficient peace and silence.

It may not always be easy to find a quiet, secluded place where the noise and activity of the world will not intrude. Sometimes this requires considerable experimentation, particularly if we are a member of a large, bustling family or perhaps share a tiny apartment with another.

Privacy is becoming more and more a scarcity — not simply the privacy of physical solitude but the privacy of quietude. The world is becoming increasingly noisy. We can no longer go around without being "caressed" by insane music and commercials.

 Our Lord always went up into the mountains to get away from the hustle and bustle of the world around him, a world considerably less frantic and turbulent than our own. If you are fortunate, and there is a room in your home where, during certain times of the day or evening, the world can be barred from entering, frequent that room. If not, perhaps your " mountain " is the shadows of a darkened church, or a hushed meadow, or the corner of a nearby park.

 One of the things I love is boarding a passenger bus. While the Daily Graphic and the Daily News were raised like bleached stalks of wheat in the seats around me, I discovered my own little space could be made into something of a " hermitage ." I could close my eyes undisturbed knowing I did not have to get off the bus until it the next destination. I found the rhythmic, monotonous sound of the diesel engines of buses to be conducive to " centering " and shutting out extraneous noises.

I know we are not monastics whose lives are carefully regulated to guarantee us time for private prayer and solitude. Nonetheless, there are always certain parts of the day or night when, if we cast about, the Lord will show us where we can carve out time for him alone. He will accommodate himself to our situation and never demand of us something that is beyond our means.

So is it possible to go to bed a little earlier and rise a half hour or so earlier? Perhaps you are one of those who really don't " wake up " until later in the day. After others have retired and the house is still and quiet, perhaps this is your " prime time " for the Lord.

It is important to give the Lord, not our spare time but our prime time, when we are most alert and " with it ." If we were dating someone, we would make sure we were always at our best in their company, as bright-eyed as we could manage! There will be times, through no fault of ours, when we will be forced to fight sleep during prayer, though this should not be a steady or regualr occurrence. If it is, we should try to set aside another time of day or night or perhaps try to get an extra hour of sleep.

What about people who, in order to feed their family and keep their children in school, must work more than one job, labouring from the morning's early hours to late night, winding up exhausted? One day a woman with many children and endless household chores came for advice that she was disturbed that she could not find time to pray. Always the common sense person, I advised the woman to say short prayers throughout the day, during and between her many duties and chores. Sometimes we don’t have to wait until the burdens and complications of life grow lighter before we have extended periods of time for prayer and quiet reflection.

At the time of his choosing, God will establish those open spaces in our life when we can be quietly alone with him. It is no secret how Christian contemplative spirituality is " birthed " within us. The Word is eternally "spoken" by the Father in ineffable silence. The Spirit, the ruah, the breath of God, communicates the Word in silence to our own spirit, "pouring out the Spirit of the Son into our hearts" (Gal 4:6).

To receive the Spirit in fullness we must dispose ourselves in silent, receptive passivity. The Spirit does not come on peals of thunder but on the soft silent clouds of inner peace and recollection.

There should be at least a room or some comer where no one will find you and disturb you or notice you. You should be able to untether yourself from the world and set yourself free, losing all the fine strings and stands of tension that bind you, by sight, by sound, by thought, to the presence of other men.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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