Did you ever experience something so great you wanted everyone to experience it? For those who have ever had the experience of falling in love – didn’t you want everybody you know to know about it… to know how great the other person is… to experience that feeling-beyond-words too? If you are a parent or grandparent… don’t you want to share the joy of being loved and loving that special child or children with everyone you know? That’s how I feel about my relationship with my Creator through prayer. I just feel it’s too amazing an opportunity to miss!
Scripture, Jesus, our faith tradition, other faith traditions, 12-Step programs, and Vatican Council II all offer similar invitations to deeper relationship with God.
The spiritual life, however, is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. Christians are indeed called to pray with others, but they must also enter into their rooms to pray to their Father in secret (see Mt 6:6); furthermore, according to the teaching of the apostle, they must pray without ceasing (see 1 Th 5 17).
(Vatican Council II, Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, par. 12a)
Prayer is taking time developing a relationship with another Being. It is similar to developing a relationship with another human being. It can be formal and reverent… like honoring and celebrating a distinguished family member or friend at a gathering (akin to Liturgy). Sometimes it can be a conversation… like two people interested in developing a friendship (akin to daily prayer). It can need some help getting started (like Scripture or memorized prayer). Sometimes it can be a time with God in silence… like the silence of two long-time friends who do not always need words to communicate (akin to contemplation). The different ways of deepening relationship with God are as endless as the different ways a person deepens a relationship with another individual.
Building relationships is work. It requires time, effort, and the willingness to be vulnerable on our part. So it is with prayer. Experience teaches that it is important to set time aside to communicate with God, as it is important to set time aside with another human being. Experience also teaches that to hear God’s call and God’s response to our prayer, we have to be willing to hear the call and the response. We need to ask for a generous heart to allow God to touch us. God gave us free will, after all, and loves us no less when we say “I don’t have time.” We simply do not gain the beauty and the depth of relationship in response to God’s love when we decline God’s offer, similar to our missing out on the best human relationships when we do not work at them. Just as the experience of honoring a family member or friend is enhanced by having a meaningful relationship with that family member or friend, so can our worship of God at Liturgy be enhanced by having an expanded relationship with God, fed by the time, effort, and willingness we offer when we pray individual and small group prayer.
I invite you to respond to this blog by sharing your prayer experience. How do you pray? What happens when you pray? Where did you learn to pray? How has your prayer changed over time? How has your relationship with God changed over time?
I also ask you to submit your ideas of how the Spiritual Development Commission can help you continue the deepening of your relationship with God through prayer – either through small groups or by learning different ways to pray.
submitted by Jackie Krejcik Bluett
How Do You Deepen Your Relationship with God?
Did you ever experience something so great you wanted everyone to experience it? For those who have ever had the experience of falling in love – didn’t you want everybody you know to know about it… to know how great the other person is… to experience that feeling-beyond-words too? If you are a parent or grandparent… don’t you want to share the joy of being loved and loving that special child or children with everyone you know? That’s how I feel about my relationship with my Creator through prayer. I just feel it’s too amazing an opportunity to miss!
Scripture, Jesus, our faith tradition, other faith traditions, 12-Step programs, and Vatican Council II all offer similar invitations to deeper relationship with God.
The spiritual life, however, is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. Christians are indeed called to pray with others, but they must also enter into their rooms to pray to their Father in secret (see Mt 6:6); furthermore, according to the teaching of the apostle, they must pray without ceasing (see 1 Th 5 17).
(Vatican Council II, Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, par. 12a)
Prayer is taking time developing a relationship with another Being. It is similar to developing a relationship with another human being. It can be formal and reverent… like honoring and celebrating a distinguished family member or friend at a gathering (akin to Liturgy). Sometimes it can be a conversation… like two people interested in developing a friendship (akin to daily prayer). It can need some help getting started (like Scripture or memorized prayer). Sometimes it can be a time with God in silence… like the silence of two long-time friends who do not always need words to communicate (akin to contemplation). The different ways of deepening relationship with God are as endless as the different ways a person deepens a relationship with another individual.
Building relationships is work. It requires time, effort, and the willingness to be vulnerable on our part. So it is with prayer. Experience teaches that it is important to set time aside to communicate with God, as it is important to set time aside with another human being. Experience also teaches that to hear God’s call and God’s response to our prayer, we have to be willing to hear the call and the response. We need to ask for a generous heart to allow God to touch us. God gave us free will, after all, and loves us no less when we say “I don’t have time.” We simply do not gain the beauty and the depth of relationship in response to God’s love when we decline God’s offer, similar to our missing out on the best human relationships when we do not work at them. Just as the experience of honoring a family member or friend is enhanced by having a meaningful relationship with that family member or friend, so can our worship of God at Liturgy be enhanced by having an expanded relationship with God, fed by the time, effort, and willingness we offer when we pray individual and small group prayer.
I invite you to respond to this blog by sharing your prayer experience. How do you pray? What happens when you pray? Where did you learn to pray? How has your prayer changed over time? How has your relationship with God changed over time?
I also ask you to submit your ideas of how the Spiritual Development Commission can help you continue the deepening of your relationship with God through prayer – either through small groups or by learning different ways to pray.
submitted by Jackie Krejcik Bluett