Men and Women of Prayer

Christ is risen. He is alive. The late Pope John Paul II called for the Church’s organisations to be schools of prayer and for prayer to be a key element in all pastoral programmes. He then warned Christians against superficial prayer, saying that otherwise ‘we remain mediocre Christians or even in danger’. It may not be difficult to pray. But it is difficult to be a man or woman of prayer. This is what Jesus asks of us: ‘Abide in me’ (Jn 15). Someone who merely passes through a place does not abide there. Someone who pays a fleeting visit does not abide there. One abides somewhere when one spends time there, when one sleeps there, when one lives there. When Jesus says, ‘Abide in me’, he does not mean merely passing by him now and then or staying with him from time to time. He means to pray always; to pray continually (cf. Luke 18:1); ‘Pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Some men and women of prayer

We often see Moses speaking to God about everything, going to the Tent of Meeting, going up the mountain and staying there, with God conversing regularly with him (Ex 33:11). Jesus himself, the man of prayer par excellence, spends nights in prayer. He prays before the crowds (the raising of Lazarus). He prays for his disciples and for the world (John 17). He taught his disciples how to pray. There are different kinds of saints, distinguished by their own charism and their way of being, but all were men and women of prayer. The Virgin Mary ‘treasured these things in her heart’. She pondered them; she prayed. Saint Benedict, Saint Teresa of Ávila, Saint John of the Cross, amongst so many others, were men and women of prayer. Saint Cecilia never ceased, day or night, in her prayer and her conversations with God. If all these people are saints, it is also because they were faithful men and women of prayer. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many.’ Their primary secret was prayer.

Today, what Christ needs, what the world needs, what the Church needs, what communities need, are men and women of prayer. For ‘without me you can do nothing’. Unless we are men and women of prayer, we cannot live out the Word of God, nor can we communicate it effectively, for ‘the Father seeks true worshippers’ (John 4:23). ‘I will pour out on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of prayer’ (Zech 12:10).

A soul cannot claim to be in the image of Jesus unless it is a soul of prayer. The form matters little, but the substance is essential (Bishop Gray). Anyone who grows in their friendship with Jesus will be a man or woman of prayer. ‘From the break of day, the wise person sets their heart on keeping watch before the Lord who created them, and prays in the presence of the Most High’ (Sirach 39:6). ‘My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples’ (Isaiah 56:7).

Fruits

‘The door through which great graces enter the soul—such as those God has bestowed upon me—is prayer; once that door is closed, I do not know how He will grant them to us’ (St Teresa of Ávila). For a man or woman of prayer, prayer becomes like the breath of the soul, like its very life. Prayer then becomes a state in which one finds oneself. Then one can find God, speak to him whenever one wishes, even whilst going about one’s daily tasks. Thus, set times of prayer become an intensification of this state. A soul of prayer is like a hearth where the fire of God burns evermore. ‘I am your reward’ (Gen 15:1). Above all else, a man or woman of prayer has God as their reward. Jesus is risen; he is alive; let us remain with him in prayer.

Henri Bayemi