Tuesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

“He Spent the Night in Prayer”

In the gospel reading from the beginning of chapter six today, the Lord inaugurates his Sermon on the Plain, as it is known in Luke (in Mt 5 it is the Sermon on the Mount). In Luke’s account, Jesus prepares both for appointing the twelve and his sermon by spending the night alone in prayer. Jesus is shown praying alone, often in a deserted place, several times in the Synoptic accounts.

Paul famously tells the Thessalonians (5:16), “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” That we are meant to pray should go without question. The question that does remain, however, is what is it, exactly, to pray?

We may think we know what prayer is. But then we often wonder if God hears us since things do not seem to change and we do not seem to receive what we pray for. We forget James 4:3, where the Apostle said, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” How is it possible to ask wrongly? Perhaps an insight into what James means can be had when he tells us later in 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

All prayer may be said to be helpful, but it must also be said that some prayer is more helpful. For there are many ways to pray. There is what is called “vocal prayer” which are prayers such as the Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours. There are “intercessory” prayers, praying for people’s needs or the needs of our world like we do during Mass at the prayer of the faithful. There is worship prayer, or prayer in common like the Mass itself or Benediction or the Stations of the Cross. All these are good and helpful and it would be good for us to practice them routinely, especially prayers for others (intercessory prayers) that we would do well to offer every day not to mention the prayer of the liturgy.

But there are two other types of prayer that have the most power. It is these that we would do well to never miss each day while still offering the others as a sort of “secondary” praying as well. These are known as the Daily Examen and Meditative prayer. It is certainly a given that without daily prayer of some sort, there is no spiritual growth. But the most growth spiritually happens by being faithful to these two types of prayers.

The first is the easier and simpler. It involves spending about five or ten minutes each evening before retiring going over your day hour by hour. It begins by consciously putting yourself in God’s presence, asking for God’s help and seeing where you were present to the Lord that day and where you were not. For the former, give thanks. For the later, ask God’s grace to overcome the fault or simply do better, which generally means to love more, accept more, forgive more, humble yourself more and do only God’s will. That’s it. That’s the daily examen in a nutshell.

The second is a bit more involved, for there are many ways to practice meditative prayer and thousands of books have been written on the subject. To keep it simple, allow me to just suggest the following. First of all, you must make a decision to commit yourself to praying this way every day, for a significant amount of time and at the same time every day as much as possible (and not after you get into bed! If you don’t schedule it at the same time, you’ll never get to it). But begin small, maybe five but no more than ten minutes a day. When you get comfortable with that (after a month or so) add five minutes more each month but don’t go to more than an hour (I know, but you actually can get to that point!).

Then, you must find a quiet place, easily accessible, where you will be alone and not disturbed. That might be difficult to find. Then, find a comfortable chair (but not so comfortable that you just fall asleep) that keeps you in an upright position. Set a timer so that you don’t worry about how long you’re there. Leave your phone in another room. Each time you go to that room to pray, consciously tell yourself that you are going before the Lord to pray and when you get there, consciously put yourself in God’s presence. Then ask for the grace to pray mindfully.

Then simply begin to speak to God- the Father, Son or Holy Spirit in whatever order or preference, or just speak to one then the other or all. Speak in your mind’s voice as you would to a dear friend. Tell God everything. What is concerning you, what graces you seek (especially the grace to do God’s will and to forgive), your struggles, pains, fears or sorrows, your failures, and any victories and spiritual gifts you’ve received. Anything and everything. Hide nothing, God already knows better than you. Resist feeling ashamed or unworthy. Do not worry that you are doing it wrong. When you become aware of distractions, just bring yourself back even if it seems that that is all you are doing.

Soldier on even if it is very difficult (it definitely will be if it’s your first time or you tried and thought you failed at this before), even if you think nothing is happening (remember, you will not “hear” God in any way you’ll understand now). Do this every day. Prayer this way is its own school. You learn by doing. Strive to stay focused and to keep speaking to God. Again, don’t worry if you feel you’re doing it all wrong or badly. At the end of the time, give thanks. You may want to reflect a bit afterwards on how it went. Resist giving up or into discouragement. Resist asking for anything but spiritual gifts. Resist asking questions, especially those that begin with the word “why.” Don’t read anything during this prayer either (you can read something before it, like a scripture passage).

Faithfully doing these prayers (the examen and meditation) every day will soon enough lead to good things happening. Begin today. Ask for the grace to continue praying this way every single day. Make it your highest priority. You will most assuredly be blessed.