A reading of the holy gospel according to Luke. Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples do We to We kingdom come. Be Give us each day able our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. And this is the gospel of the lord.
In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. The first item that strikes me about this reading from Saint Luke this morning is why did the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray? That's point number one. They came to Jesus and they asked him to teach them to pray.
He didn't offer to do it. Furthermore, they called upon the example of of John the Baptizer who taught his disciples to pray. But apparently, our lord had made no effort to teach them to pray. Well, maybe yes and maybe no because there's one thing that is perfectly, undeniably clear is that Jesus prayed himself. His example must have had some impact upon the disciples disciples because because at at this this very very instance, instance, here's here's Jesus Jesus is praying.
What were they doing? Playing peanuts or something? So our lord is praying, and they're wandering around and doing something. So they come to us to pray. So without it may be well, it's it's perfectly clear that our Lord may not have given them any explicit lessons in how to pray, but he was giving them plenty of illustrations of himself in his prayer.
But they didn't know the words. You see, they wanted words. So our lord gave them some words. Now this subject of prayer is a humdinger. What does one say about prayer?
Well, first of all, what in the world is prayer? That's the first thing because obviously the the in English, as we use the mother tongue today USA, prayer means generally to ask for something. I pray you, forgive me. Prayer is almost a synonym for a for one kind of prayer, namely the prayer of petition. But that's the least form of prayer.
Prayer is a form of worship. That's what prayer is. I'm I'm sure I'm sure of that. Whatever else it is, it is that. And what is worship?
And let's get this perfectly straight. Prayer worship is is the is the committing, it's the offering or what word you wanna use of my heart and my soul to God to know him, to love him, to serve him. This is worship. Knowledge, to know. To love an act of the will and then some kind of action.
You just don't sit back in a rocking chair and sip the mint julep and call that prayer. There are all kinds of prayers, but whatever kind of prayer to beat, whatever you call prayer, for it to be authentic prayer, it's got to have this element of the elevation of the mind and the heart to God. Words, physical actions, gestures, place, architecture, music, liturgy, and all the rest of it. These are just the fringes of worship. They are not at all the essence of worship.
Now that doesn't mean they're unimportant. Far from it. But it's not the essence of the matter. It's not the substance. And if and while we need all of these helps, that's what they are.
They're human helps. While we need them because we're human beings, nevertheless, each one of them has its own danger that we can lose ourselves in something that isn't prayer at all. And it happens all the time. Now if you read say say Theresa of Avila, you will see there someone whose prayer was practically wordless. It was a a communion.
You we know about the curry of ours. He used to spend hours in church just sitting there. And one day someone said to the glory of ours, what in the world do you do? And I'd like to give you the French, but I won't try it. But what he answered in French was, I look at him and he looks at me.
Now I'm not offering this as the kind of prayer for all of us. Far from it. We are not the curia of ours. We are not Saint Teresa's of Aviles. However, you say it.
We are just our little old selves. But whatever else we do when we think we're praying, it's got to be the elevation of the mind and the heart to God. Now you'll say, well, I can't do that. I could key I could think of God for a minute or so and then, wham, I'm thinking about the market basket or whether the furnace is working or something. Well, let me tell you.
See, here I come to another important aspect of prayer. You will you will hear people say that prayer is easy. They'll tell you it's the most natural thing in the world. All I can say is I have not found it that way at all. At all.
Prayer is a it's a tough proposition, and I can prove it is tough. Helen Keller, when she was a little girl, one of the big problems was what to teach her. Remember, was blind, deaf, and mute. And the only communication was through an alphabet, which she had learned and been taught through the palm of her hand. So somebody thought they ought to talk to her about God.
She came to know from from the South. So they this well intentioned person started to spell out something about God. So Helen replied, show him to me. Show him to me. Now this you see, anyone who says that prayer is easy, it can't be easy.
God is completely invisible, intangible. He doesn't appeal to one of my senses. I can't imagine him. I cannot use I cannot say a I cannot make a single statement about god that is simply true. I cannot even say god is and say that that statement is absolutely true because the word is as applied to God has an entirely different meaning than it applies to me.
So this is the first problem. God is out there. Where is God? God is everywhere. That's beyond my imagining to think of something being everywhere out of space and time.
Well, so it goes. Prayer don't I mean, maybe you maybe you find prayer easy. I can tell you the generality of human beings do not. And let me tell you, Christ didn't find it so easy either. In many instances, he was pushed to prayer by necessity.
When the going got tough, he prayed. When he faced a crisis situation, he prayed. So what's good for him, it's good enough for me. So let's not be let's not think we're better than Jesus Christ when it comes to prayer. Prayer is hard work.
And you'll say, don't find any satisfaction in in my prayers. How often you hear this from good people, you know, honest to god, sincere Catholic people. They say, I try to pray, but my mind wanders. Why shouldn't it? Do you realize that that kind of a situation may be the best kind of prayer?
You see, the trouble with most of our prayers is I'm thinking of me more than of God. That's the thing in a nutshell. How am I doing, God? Why should I be worrying how I'm doing if I'm doing trying to do something? Why worry?
Who says my prayer has to be perfect? Who says that anything I I do has to be perfect? Don't forget, don't let the best be the enemy of the good. That's a French phrase too. I want to bring in something here.
In the latest well, it's almost the latest issue. I guess it is. Well, it was probably the September issue of the Reader's Digest. There's an article in there about a priest and a settlement house, he's running up in New York around 42nd Street and Broadway, where he's trying to salvage young boys and young girls who get into New York and hit the skids. And it's a spy it's a it's a multi million dollar operation run by this priest.
And he goes on the air and he goes wherever he goes to to help to beg for help, not just money, but for human beings to help out, to come down there and give one year of service to running this call it a settlement house. And he'll take anyone, no matter religion, no matter the religion, race, creed, or color, or sex. He's very Catholic. There's one thing he demands of all the volunteers. Now listen to this.
He demands that they spend three hours a day at prayer. When I read that, I that really struck me between the eyes. You have people down there making beds, sweeping floors, washing clothes, cooking, washing dishes. Imagine the work in a place like that, the counseling, and you suppose you get eight hours sleep. Alright.
That leaves you sixteen more hours. And out of those sixteen, he insists you've got to commit yourself to three hours of prayer. That is that's something a little new today. It's not new, absolutely speaking, but it's new today. You don't hear much of this.
The necessity of prayer, quiet contemplation. Forget that word. But myself, going and putting myself in the presence of God. Remember, you don't go any place to put yourself in the presence of God. You're there.
You're there. And so and I come back. When the disciples asked Christ how to pray, he answered their question, and I rest my case on his answer. I do not think there has been any prayer created by a human being to match the one Jesus Christ gave his disciples when they said, Lord, teach us to pray. And that certainly has to be our prayer.
We have to go to Jesus and ask him to help us to pray as we should. In the name of the father, son, the holy spirit. Amen.