Memory and Prayer

Catholics spend a lot of time talking about prayer. The good news is that there’s interest in the topic. Just this week, I was happy to read in three periodicals that people in the United States are more “spiritual.” America, a weekly Jesuit publication, posed the question on their front cover: “Is God Back?”

Certainly what the data seem to say and what folks frequently talk about is an interest in some type of interior life. A question remains whether such so-called “interiority” or “spirituality” could be called faith. Is it sufficient to say that God is a topic of interest in people’s lives? Or is religion a self-growth project?

People are indeed interested in the things of the spirit within them. What holds us as human beings together? What drives meaning in our human history and in our personal lives? Sometimes it is a question of how to survive in difficult times and in a quick and complicated world. Part of such questioning is thinking, reflecting, and trying to figure things out in a journey within ourselves. Could we call all of these things prayer? What does it mean to pray and how does it happen?

Learning to Pray
All of the above questioning is probably similar to the disciples coming to Jesus with their request that he “teach [them] to pray.” Either because of their understanding, or despite it, they came with questions. At first glance Jesus’ response seems so simple. We all know the answer to the disciples’ questions. “When you pray, say “Our Father…” The response could be a simple matter of giving them the correct words and manner of prayer. Scholars of the sacred scripture tell us it is more than the words or style of prayer, for the rabbis all taught their disciples how to pray. It was a question of prayer as relationship.

Jesus, in teaching them the words and style of the so-called Lord’s Prayer, teaches them about his relationship with the Father. Jesus, in teaching them to pray, offers them the opportunity to explore his own constant communion with the Father. What was marvelous to the disciples was the invitation to enter into the very life which Jesus had with his Father.

The words were important, but they were told not to multiply them. In other places in his parables, Jesus told his disciples that not all those who called “Lord, Lord…” would enter the kingdom. The words and style of prayer in the Lord’s Prayer are typical of the blessing style of Jewish prayer. “Father… hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in heaven...” “Hallowed” is to say blessed and we are blessed in the coming of God’s Kingdom among us. God lives with us and we are in communion with him as Jesus is in constant union with the Father. Blessing is to publically and in community remember God’s presence in his actions among us. He is teaching them to remember God’s indwelling presence and their

life in God as the base of their very living.

In praying we remember the actions and good deeds of God on our behalf. Prayer is not about self-remembering, where we recount our own deeds, our own concerns, and our personal victories. Prayer is indeed interior and “spiritual” in that it is about the embrace of all of us in the very life of God. Prayer is, however, about the very exterior and visible signs and wonders which God works among his People.

Originality in Prayer
In our popular approach to prayer, spontaneity and free form are often put forward as a better form of prayer. Yet, our tradition is one of ritual and formularies of prayer. Spontaneity, while neither good nor bad as way of prayer, can be a bit self-centered: my words, my concerns. In one sense we form God in our own image and we give God his agenda. That’s what the first commandment is about – idolatry, where the human family fashions God in their own image and likeness. Prayer, on the contrary, invites us to be fashioned in God’s image and likeness.

Scripture is the first mode of prayer and invites us beyond ourselves. We read, reflect, and own God’s Word. They initiate us in the process of coming into relationship with him. He invites and we respond. Prayer is first of all an invitation to communion with God. The Liturgy of the Word at the Eucharist teaches us how to celebrate the Word as the beginning of remembering the presence of God. The scriptures are read, listened to, both out loud and in silence in the community. Sung response lifts the hearers beyond themselves into the whole People of God.

Ritual itself, in its very repetition, frees us from ourselves. It is the pattern and rhythm of prayer. It moves slowly at times, rapidly at others. It has its emotions and feelings. Individuals are called beyond themselves into the community of God’s presence. In the Eucharist, itself, we learn that the end of prayer is communion, where we become the Body of Christ which we eat and drink. Prayer is learned from the long memory of the Church in its rituals.

More formal, memorized prayers are part of our tradition. The Rosary, the Hail Mary, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Holy Queen, the Memorare, the many litanies of the Church speak to us and present the faith experience of the saints who have gone before us. A good example is the so-called “Jesus Prayer” of the Orthodox churches. In the words of the prayer and in the very rhythmic breathing of the believer we are brought into the very presence of God. “Jesus, Son of God, have pity on me, a sinner.”

Whatever the source of the current interest in prayer in our society, the mystery of prayer remains an embrace in the mystery of God himself. We can only ask to learn to pray and wait for God to act in our lives.

CDH