February 9, 2004

"How Can Ordinary People Spend Time in Prayer?"

How can an everyday person have time to spend in of prayer?  Life is so full!  We have a lot of lay people in our community and throughout the world.  We have a couple of families who have ten children, and they pray everyday.  They never miss a day.  Our prayer doesn't have to be long-it can be only twenty minutes.  God will take twenty minutes.  If we can only pray thirty minutes, He'll take thirty.  After awhile, we'll get used to His presence within us so that no matter where we are or what we're doing, we'll learn to pray always.  We'll learn to tap into His presence within us.

I was reading a book that belonged to one of our lay families children.  There was a picture of a beautiful owl.  We think of the owl as wisdom-the wise old owl.  The book said that the owl's ears are not directly opposite each other-one ear is a little higher than the other is so that the owl can hear all the way around him.  He can hear at two levels at the same time.  That's how the gift of wisdom works.  We can hear what people say to us in the everyday work-a-day world, but we can also hear what God is saying to us in our hearts at the same time.  It's easy to check-in with Him.  It's easy to consult Him and bring Him into everything we do. 

One time He let me understand how limited we are.  We are so limited.  We're limited in love.  We're limited in patience.  We're limited in energy.  We are limited in every way.  I finally realized and said to Him, "You deliberately made us this way, didn't You?"  It was almost like He was smiling as He responded, "Well, you finally caught on."  I said, "This is so that we will always need You."  He said, "Yes.  I don't want to be left out of anything you do-anything."  We can walk out of church and leave Him and His presence in the Blessed Sacrament, but we can't walk out of His life when He's within us.  If we shower, He showers.  If we sleep, He's always there.  

One time when I was waking up but not fully conscious yet, I felt like I was eavesdropping as I listened to the Trinity talking amongst themselves.  They are within us.  The Spirit is the breath of God.  We couldn't breathe if God wasn't breathing and giving us this great gift.  So we can pray always wherever we are.  Many of our people pray when they're driving a car instead of turning the radio on or putting a tape in.  They're talking with God.  It's amazing the insights and prayers that can happen behind the wheel of a car. 

God can speak to us anytime, anywhere, in any situation-this is a tremendous gift.  So we need to spend some time with Him.  We'll get so used to the hermitage within, to His presence within, that it won't interrupt what we are doing at all. 

Don't leave Him out of anything you do.  This way, our whole life becomes a prayer.  It becomes our lifestyle.  Mary's prayer life was her lifestyle.  She never, ever, left Jesus out of anything.  In fact, this is like a pregnant woman who is always aware of the life that she is carrying, even when she's busy doing many things.  She's always very aware that she's carrying life.  In this kind of prayer, we're very aware that we are carrying the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  We are aware that we're carrying Life Himself.

Excerpt from "Questions and Answers," Great Falls, VA, 2002.