March 14, 2005

"Lord, Teach Us To Pray"

We pray, "Lord, teach me how to pray" and He will say probably very much what He said to His followers.  "When you pray say ‘Our Father.'"   We go right back to the Father.  Sometime throughout the day, in your quiet time, ponder the "our" in "Our Father."  Jesus did not say, "When you pray say Father" because He is your Father.  Jesus did not have us pray, ever, apart from Him.  Our Father - this is amazing.  The first time I gave a talk to a Women's Aglow group, I wanted to give it on the "Our Father" because I thought this is something that we all have in common.  I got stopped right at those words, "Our Father, " and I thought, "Lord, there is something You really want to show me here."  I was thinking of "Our Father" as all of us together, and I was going to say this to the group, "We all have the same Father."  But Jesus said, "Our Father, Nadine.  Your Father, my Father - our Father."  Now that is mind-boggling.  Just pondering this can put you into contemplation fast!  Jesus is here with us, introducing us to the Abba Father in a deeper way. 

Then, the Holy Spirit comes in there, because it says in Romans that "No one can cry out Abba, Father, except in the power of the Holy Spirit."  So, right there, in just one little word, "our," we are getting empowerment, love empowerment from the Holy Spirit, who is the Revealer, also, of the first person of the Trinity, whom we call Father.  Just as His Spirit overshadowed Mary in the beginning, overshadowed all of those in the upper room, that same dynamic movement of the Trinity will overshadow us every time we go to prayer, if we are sensitive to it, if we are asking for it, if we want it. 

So in the beginning stages, our prayer is mostly vocal.  While we are repeating the "Our Father" or some other vocal prayers, it is quite possible that these will serve as a springboard and lead us into contemplation.  This has happened many times.  One day Teresa of Avila talked to one of her sisters because she saw that she was in contemplation and asked her, "How did you get there?  What is it you are doing?"  The sister just simply said, "I just ponder the ‘Our Father' and all of a sudden, I am with the Father.  There is no more (vocal) prayer."  Have you ever done that?  You never get through the "Our Father."  You connect right there! 

Often when we pray, we are just off and running.  We can begin the Creed, "I believe in God the Father....."  But I encourage you to stop and ponder, "I believe. . . ."  This is awesome - that we have the grace and the gift to believe.  When we really ponder these things which we believe, it can take us right into contemplation.  It is pure gift.  The only reason we believe in all these things that are in the Creed is because God has graced me with a gift of faith to believe.  He did not explain it to us.  We do not have to explain it to anybody else.  We do not have to dissect it, but we can believe it.  We can enjoy it.  We can experience it.  That is contemplation.
Excerpt from Mother Nadine's "New Creation," Omaha, NE, 2004.