Prayer: One Stepping Stone at a time

 


It’s not easy to discuss prayer: exposing our hearts is not necessarily appreciated or understood. Regrettably, many perceive prayer as mere articulation, liturgical celebrations, or emotionally focused gatherings; few pierce the ramparts to discover its heart. Virgil’s ‘Amor gignit amorem’ (Love begets love), guides my steps; like an Oriental garden, stepping stones expressive of envisaged choices form a path fusing the past to the future in the present. 

Augustine’s affirmation that prayer is the articulation of love offers a fundamental insight. Saint John Damascene strengthens this discernment by observing that prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God because only our longing of mind and heart makes prayer genuine. Saint Bonaventure’s Itinerarium in Mentis elucidates this comprehension.

Saint Teresa’s affirmation also demands attention: prayer is an act of love; words are superfluous (Interior Castle), verified by Bernini’s portrayal of her in Santa Maria della Vittoria (Rome). This focus on the heart enhances the Magister’s affirmation: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5,8).

Mother Teresa observes that prayer has nothing to do with asking and a great deal to do with putting oneself in God’s hands: a listening experience deep within our hearts where silence dominates. Edith Stein’s advice to take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands, and leave it there with Him clarifies this insight. 

One enriching insight concerns the need to focus on our restlessness: it distracts us, because “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6,21). Following Saint Augustine, we need to realise that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him (Confessions).

Prayer’s understanding evokes the Shema’ Yisrael (Deuteronomy 6,4): a listening experience where the ‘I’ allows the “Thou” to caress it without the fear of being obscured by the ‘It’ (Martin Buber, Ich und Du). Seneca thus reminds us, borrowing from Hecato of Rhodes, ‘If you want to be loved, love’ (Si vis amari, ama).

Martin


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