What is prayer?
For many people prayer consists almost exclusively of asking God for things and/or praising God. There isn't anything wrong with either or those things - in fact they are fine and good - but is that all that prayer is?
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Intercessory Prayer essentially involves making requests of God either on behalf of someone else or ourselves. It is the kind of prayer that most people think of when they think of prayer. The problem is that intercession by itself does not constitute a rich prayer life. Sooner or later, almost everyone runs out of things to ask for - and it probably happens sooner rather than later. In addition, surely God is more than some kind of super-charged cosmic Santa Claus. What are our other alternatives?
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Praise is a form of prayer, too, and it is exactly what its name implies - praising God. We can do this in words, and song, and dance...and sooner or later we have to rest. Is this all there is to prayer?
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Worship is good and important, and it certainly is prayer, but we can't worship all the time. Why do we worship? Some people believe that we worship because God wants and/or needs us to worship, but that is a huge misconception about the nature of God that ends up painting God as either extremely insecure or an ego maniac. What else is there in a life of prayer?
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Thanksgiving is another obvious kind of prayer. In it we give thanks to God for the blessings we have received, and that is certainly good. It is instructive to mention why we give thanks. We don't give thanks because God needs us to give thanks, and we don't give thanks so that we can con God into continuing to bless our lives. Most of all, we don't give thanks because we are worried that God might become angry if we don't. We give thanks because we need to give thanks. We give thanks to keep our run away egos in check and to keep us from believing that we are so wonderful that we don't need any thing or any body. Still, thanksgiving alone will not sustain us in a life of prayer.
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Confession is an important part of prayer, whether or not you belong to a tradition in which people confess to clergy. Human beings have a need to admit they are not perfect. We live in an age of perfectionism, and perfectionism is an illness rather than an asset. We need to allow ourselves to be less than perfect - to, in fact, be human. To be human is to make mistakes and to grow. Confession is the first step in that process.
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This guy, St. Paul, told us to pray without ceasing. What was he thinking? Don't we have to sleep sooner or later? Don't we have to eat? How can we possibly hope to pray without ceasing using one or all of the methods we have discussed so far? The honest answer is that we can't. We have to do all the things we have mentioned, but contstant prayer is only found through the next two methods.
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Whether or not we belong to a tradition that practices Eucharistic Adoration, there are ample opportunities for adoration of God. Many people find God especially present in nature. These people find that being in nature draws them closer to God in a way that needs no words This is adoration, and it is one way to move closer to God and closer to praying without ceasing. We all need to practice adoration.
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The prayer that allows us to pray without ceasing, the prayer that steeps us in the presence of God, the prayer that comes forth from the deepest part of ourselves, is known by several different names. Whether we call it still prayer, silent prayer, meditation, contemplation, centering prayer, or any other name, it is prayer without words - or with only a mantra - that opens us to union with God. We may find it walking a labrynth (pictured below), sitting quietly in a chair or on a cushion, or on our knees in a chapel, but if we desire it we will find it. There are many methods, but no one method is necessary. There are many doorways to contemplation, and if we are to find a way to pray without ceasing we must find our doorway. Love of God offers many opportunities to find you door to union with God, and we invite you to join us on that quest.
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