Lord, Teach Us to Pray

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” Lord, teach us to pray. The apostles had been seeing Jesus pray, and what was that like to see Jesus pray and to see how He prayed and how prayer affected Him, and so they’re wanting Him to teach them. And so, this gospel shows Jesus responding. He responds by teaching them the Our Father; here, it’s a shortened version, and Matthew’s gospel gives us the more fuller version. And He goes on to give more teaching about prayer, but He’s also been teaching them with His example. And we have another example of prayer in the first reading of Abraham. Abraham, as the Lord is about to punish Sodom and Gomorrah; and that’s a grave warning for our time in which the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are very present. But we see Abraham interceding with God. And one thing this shows us is it’s an example of prayer as a conversation. It’s one of a good example. There’s a lot of other examples, like with Moses and so forth, but there’s a conversation between Abraham and God, and there’s a dialog between them. And it reminds me of one of my very favorite parts in the diary of Saint Faustina, in which the Lord gives five dialogs with souls in different situations. And again there, it’s a dialog between the Lord and the soul. And in fact, as they’re asking Jesus to teach them to pray, but the whole gospel is an example of prayer, because it’s God Himself present, as He has become man, who they’re speaking with. And so the gospel is full of conversations between people and Jesus and a lot of that is an example of prayer as a conversation. “Lord teach us to pray.” I’ve said how the roots of the mission, a very important part of the roots of the mission, goes back to 30 some years ago, when I was serving in Monterrey, and two women came to me saying that they had been receiving locutions and asking me, saying that the Lord had wanted me to be their spiritual director. And as I got to know them, they shared their messages with me. And like a lot of what our Encounter with Jesus retreats, a lot of that came from the inspirations of one of these women. She’s still alive. Her name is well, the name the Lord gave her is Tiara. And at one point, the Lord gave her a course on prayer, a series of lessons on prayer. And I wanted to share with you the first, an excerpt from the very first message of that course on prayer. I’ve used a lot of these ideas for years, but I think this is the first time that, in fact, we even at one point, we had a little pamphlet made in which we adapted these passages from this first message. But so, I’ll read you this section, and then I’ll give a little commentary on it. He says, “I am going to speak to you about prayer. Pray that you may not fall into temptation. I said in my gospel, I want you to be praying, always praying. But how is that possible in the midst of your 1000s of occupations and activities? I’m going to explain that to you. To pray is to speak with God. Think about it for a moment. When two people talk in a friendly conversation, they mesh together, they transmit their thoughts, their feelings, their vibrations. They become imbued with each other. The same thing happens when you talk to your God. You become imbued with God, with His thoughts, with His feelings. Not only do you become imbued, but I give Myself to the other person who is talking, who is conversing with Me, I give Myself. I give Myself entirely. I give My Holy Spirit to those who pray, to those who think of Me, to those who remember Me. But how many people pray? How much do they pray? And how do My children pray? No one has taught them to pray. Poor children, without prayer, you are deprived of one of the greatest things possible in this life after sanctifying grace. Little children, to pray is to talk with Me, your God. You can begin by telling Me about the things that you are involved in, your projects, your work; not because I don’t know those things already, but because this is the simplest and easiest way for you to begin a dialog. Yes, my children, it is a dialog. Because when you start telling Me about what is going on in your life, you will see that if you then keep silence and meditate a little about Me, and think a little about Me, you will see that you will perceive My thoughts and My feelings with regard to what you have told Me and commented on. If you would only give yourself the time to begin to speak to Me about your concerns, how very many graces you would receive. We are going to start a worldwide school of prayer, I say worldwide, because I want this message to be known universally, and so it shall be.  I Myself, will be your teacher, My poor little ones, you poor souls who pass through this life which is so difficult as a consequence of sin, but without communicating or speaking with your God, without having felt the consolations, we might say of your God, you are human, and you need to feel loved. But how can you feel loved if you do not give Me any of your time so that we might speak together? I, Myself will be your teacher about prayer. Choose a time of prayer for tomorrow. May it be a specific time, just 10 minutes long in which to speak with Me, to tell Me about your life, about your projects, and your hopes. You will tell Me about all this, either in your own thoughts, slowly or out loud in a quiet voice. You will recollect yourself at that time, whether at home or in the church, for our dialog. You will begin by placing yourself in My presence, that is to say, thinking that I am there, just as I am in all places as God. I am in your spirit, at the center of your soul, and I am in the tabernacle, in My real presence as the man God among you. You will choose the place for your dialog, making sure that it is peaceful and distant from noise, from worldly noise. And wait until you are conscious of My presence, that you are in My presence. Only then will you begin your dialog. When you have finished telling Me your concerns of the day, your longings, hopes and trials, then keep silence, both interiorly and exteriorly. Interior silence means to refuse distractions, to not think about other things, but only about Me, about My love, about the fact that I am listening to you, and that I have been listening to you. Having thus recollected yourself, you will keep silence and let Me speak. You will hear Me speak to you interiorly in your thoughts and in your heart. After the 10 minutes, you will not just get up to leave haphazardly, but you will say, My God, I adore you and I thank you. And that way you may say goodbye. And from that day forward, you will reserve that time for Me, only for Me. That is to say, we will speak together every day, if possible, at the same time. Do you agree to that?  I am waiting for you?”  So that’s the message. So that’s just one part. So to me, it’s a very practical, very helpful message. And as I say, we’ve had to keep this buried for all these years, anxious to be able to share this. And so just a little commentary on this message. So, what we have in the Gospel is the disciples saying, “Lord teach us to pray”, wanting God Himself to be the one who teaches us. And I think that’s what He’s doing here. It’s the Lord Himself teaching. And He says very simply that prayer is speaking with God. So that’s a very simple explanation, a sincere conversation with God. And so, He likens it to an intimate conversation of friends, and that conversation helps them to draw together, to kind of meld together, mesh together, like to soak each other up, and so they become more and more united. And that’s a very simple, natural way to begin, in a sense, a very human way to begin. And one of the reasons I want to share this with you is not just for yourself, but so that you can share it with other people, other people who want to learn how to pray. Because if you have, you might have a lot of experience praying, but what about other people who don’t have experience praying? How can we help them? And so, I think this is a way that’s so simple that anyone can begin this way, even people who don’t know God at all.  Even people have a lot of doubts about God, and they don’t know whether He exists. Or even people who are very angry with God, that they can start that way. Lord, I don’t really even know if you’re there. I have a lot of doubts. Sometimes I feel very angry with you. That can be the beginning of this conversation. And so there’s two essential parts. The first part is speaking with God, because that’s the easier part for us to just speak. You know, we all have things that we need to get off our chest, and we need to find someone who cares about us and who has the time and who has the wisdom, if possible, so that we can get things off our chest, someone who will accept to listen to us. And that’s hard to find. A lot of times we don’t find someone who can really listen to us. Or maybe there is someone but they’re far away, or they don’t have enough time, and so that’s already very important, and I think that this, in a sense, it could be like a ministry in the Church, but for which you don’t need any special degree; just to be a good listener is a great help for people. And so, God is a good listener. And oftentimes, first of all, we need to talk to God. Talk to him about the things that are bothering us, or things that we’re hoping for, or things that are on our mind, so we can give Him to that. And so, whatever is on our mind, we can begin with prayer that way. So that’s a very simple human way, very accessible way to begin praying. So that’s the first part, and that’s an easy way to begin. But the second part is even more important. The second part is listening to God. And so, when we say listening, sometimes people receive what seems to be a very clear response from God, but sometimes we don’t. Sometimes that response might not be right away. It might be the next day. Or next week or later on. And it might not be words that we say, but like he says, he often communicates through by like a light in our in our mind or our sense in our heart, maybe communicating also, for instance, through scripture, through the many different ways, through nature, through many different ways, the teaching of the Church, many different ways that He communicates. But my point is that even if we don’t sense a response right away, to not be discouraged, because just trying to listen to God, just that act of trying to listen, trying to be open, is very important, because it’s an act of faith. It’s an act of saying, Lord, I trust that you’re the one who really knows the answer to my questions, and that you love me and that you want to help guide me. So that’s an act of faith, and it’s also an act of humility, because it’s recognizing that I don’t have all the answers that only God does. And at the same time, it’s an act of loving obedience, because we’re wanting to know His will. Instead of just trying to force God to do our will, we’re seeking to know what is His will. So just the act, even if we don’t sense a response right away, just the act of trying to listen already opens the door for a lot of graces. And so that’s the core, this very simple core to learning to pray, which is first, talking and second, listening. But He goes on to give some more practical helps. He says, “So when should we pray?” So ,He says, “choose a time.” So, choose a time. So, any time that the person wants can be good. But He says two things about the time. He says, may it be a specific time. So, it says, choose a time tomorrow. So, it’s different to say, I’m going to pray tomorrow. I’m going to try to pray tomorrow. It’s different to think, okay, when would be a good time for me to pray tomorrow? Maybe it’s early morning, you know, maybe after I get up or take a shower, or maybe it’s, you know, maybe it’s sometime in the morning, maybe it’s, maybe it’s like, I’m gonna go to Mass and so I’m gonna try to go early. Maybe it’s in the evening. But choosing a specific time, because, you know, maybe because having a specific time, it makes it much easier to follow through, to actually do it. So, choose a specific time, a time, think what is a good time for you, for your day, so that it can become a habit. And then He says, He also says just 10 minutes long. So, he wants to make it easy, something easy for us to do. So just 10 minutes. Of course, we can take longer, but sometimes if we try to make it too long, then we get discouraged. After a while, we stop doing it. So, it can be easy, just 10 minutes, He says. Then He says, where? So also, again, He’s leaving a lot of freedom. “You will choose the place for your dialog, making sure that it is a peaceful and distant from noise, from worldly noise.” So that could be in home, at home, that could be at Church, that could be, for instance, someplace outside. There’s all sorts of different places. Maybe it’s even in a commute. And so, then there’s these four parts, as I said, the two core parts are talking and listening. But He adds two more parts and but you’ll see that they’re very simple. Because imagine somebody who rang your doorbell and maybe someone you knew who walked in the doorbell and just started talking about something. Well, that would kind of be, I mean, kind of weird. I mean, normally you begin by greeting a person, right? That’s a very normal thing. That’s the first thing you do with someone. You notice, you greet them. But how many times do we start talking to God without really being or kind of rattling off prayers, without even being aware of His presence? So, He says, “You will begin by placing yourself in My Presence. That is to say, thinking that I am there, just as I am in all places, as God. And I am also in your spirit, at the center of your soul, and I am in the tabernacle in My real presence. And wait until you are conscious of My presence, that you are in My presence. And only then will you begin the dialog.” So again, it’s first of all like greeting God, taking a little moment to become aware of His presence, instead of just rattling off our prayers. But again, that’s a very simple human thing. It’s not a complicated thing. And then He talks about talking to Him and then listening to Him. And here He says that listening is keeping silence, not just exterior silence of not talking, but try to keep interior silence. That is, try to think about God, to focus on Him. And you’re going to say, well, I try that, and I have all sorts of distractions. Well, that’s okay, but don’t worry about the distractions. Just do your best when you realize that you’re being distracted, just try to focus on God again. And just don’t be discouraged by distractions, because each time you’re aware that you’re distracted and you turn back to God, is another victory for God and for your spirit. So don’t worry, if you struggle a lot with distractions, just do your best. And then, and again, the one example I’ve often given in my own life is people will come to me about difficult problems and problems that I don’t know how to solve those problems and I don’t know what to say to them, but I’ve often found by that just taking a little bit of time to pray with them quietly. A lot of times, it’s not that I hear something or I sense something right away. A lot of times I don’t sense anything. But then, as the conversation goes on, then something occurs to me, which seems like the answer that the Lord wanted me to give. And that’s something all of us can do; that God by just opening that door of trying to listen to God, we make it possible for Him, when and how He chooses to give us His light. And so that’s the third part, listening to God. And then what’s the final part? And the final part, again, is very simple, just like in a human conversation, you don’t just talk and listen and then leave; you say goodbye, and so, just that. And He says, “after the 10 minutes, you will not just get up to leave haphazardly, but you will say, My God, I adore you, and I thank you, and that way you may take your leave.” So basically, what it is saying is simply at the end of the conversation, it’s basically saying goodbye. And so very simple – greeting, talking, listening, saying goodbye. And then he says, “and from that day forward, you’ll reserve that time for Me, only for Me. That is to say, We will speak together every day, if possible, at the same time. Do you agree to that?” Because if we just do it once, that’s good, but where it becomes very powerful is if we do it every day, if it becomes a habit, and that’s why it’s so important to choose a time that works for you so that it becomes a habit. He says, “do you agree to that?” So that’s He’s inviting us to make a commitment, to make a decision about that. And then the final thing He says is, which is very important, He says, “I am waiting for you.” I am waiting for you. So, think of that. He is waiting for you. So think for just, just imagine for yourself. You probably already have but just imagine yourself a time tomorrow. So whatever time it is, whatever is a good time for you. Okay, now think about that time. Let’s just say it’s in the morning at some time, maybe after your cup of coffee or whatever. So, think of that time, and now we now think of what He just said, “I am waiting for you.” Think that that’s an appointment with God that He’s waiting for you personally. Does that seem different? Does that seem more important to realize that He’s waiting for you at that time? And so, if you forget, you miss that appointment, He’s waiting for you. He God Himself is waiting for you, and so that realization shows us first, how important you are to Him and how important for Him that time is with you. “Lord, teach us to pray.” And so, this is a very simple lesson He’s giving us that I think is accessible to everybody about how to pray, but this simple lesson that can lead us very far, because it’s God Himself who begins to teach us, to guide us. And so, we can ask our Blessed Mother to help us prepare, help us learn, listen to the Holy Spirit and learn how to pray. And remembering this invitation from the Lord to set aside. So, this is a very concrete, concrete lesson. He’s inviting you to set aside a time tomorrow, and then He says, “I am waiting for you.” Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 11:1-13
Colossians 2:12-14
Genesis 18:20-32