WAYS TO PRAY FOR PEOPLE WITH NO TIME TO PRAY
There is a bias that states that “real” prayer needs silence and separation from the concerns of ordinary living in order to flourish. Only people who followed such a way of life – monks and hermits and cloistered nuns – could hope to pray deeply.
Our 21STcentury is one in which we often find ourselves overwhelmed by the demands of life – family life, work, school, ministry and discipleship. One of the results of this is that people have found that the patterns of prayer based upon silence and separation were unrealistic. Our 21STcentury raises the question: are we being called to give up on prayer? Or can we live an active, involved life and still pray deeply? I believe that we can.
I believe that we still need to find time for quiet and solitude. We need from time to time to get away from the world to be on retreat with God. But the fact is that we do live and work in a very busy world. We do have active and often hectic lives. But in the face of this, I also believe that it is possible for us to pray in the midst of the world, in the midst of an active lifestyle.
Tonight I want to suggest four ways of praying appropriate to the lifestyle of the 21ST century, real prayer for the real world in which we live. I want to talk about four ways to pray for people who feel that they do not have the time to pray in the midst of a busy life. These are ways of “praying always” based on Paul’s words in 1 Thes. 5:1618 "Rejoice always, never cease praying, render constant thanks; such is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
A.C.T.S./GOD MOMENT PRAYER
The first way I want to talk about is what I call A.C.T.S. or God Moment prayer.
Any given day I have what I call God Moments, moments when I become aware of the presence of God in the people, places and events of my day. I meet a variety of different people and have a variety of different life experiences which can generate a brief moment of prayer as they occur. Instead of praying in hindsight, looking back at the people and experiences of my day, I can instead acknowledge them in the moment with a brief moment of prayer.
There are four basic verbal prayer responses that we can make to God. A.C.T.S., i.e. Adoration (Praise)- O God, I praise you for who you are.;Contrition – I am sorry God for what I have done or failed to do.; Thanksgiving – Thank you God for what you have done for me., and Supplication(Petition) – O God, I need your help for myself, for someone I know or for what our world is in need of. I can apply these four prayer responses over the course of any given day. So for example.
As I see a beautiful sunset and am struck by the grandeur of God, I might pray: Praise be to you God.
As I am struck with a sense of my sinfulness, I might pray: Forgive me God.I am sorry. I might pray the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
As I am struck with a sense of gratitude for a way in which I have discovered how God has blessed, gifted or graced my life, I might pray: Thank you God.
As I become aware of someone who is sick or suffering in some way or experiencing some other need, I might pray: God be with this person.
I might also link these prayers with action.
As I become aware of God in creation, I might commit myself to caring for the environment.
As I become aware of my sinful actions, I might think of ways to make amends to people I have hurt.
As I become aware of people or things I am grateful for, I might commit myself to not taking them for granted.
As I become aware of people who are sick or suffering, I might commit myself to reaching out to them – a card, a phone call, a visit – so that God can work through me to answer my own prayers. St. Thomas More said: “O God, give us the grace to work for the things we pray for.”
What this way of praying does is to develop in us an habitual attentiveness to ways in which God might be present in the world and in our lives. We begin to move towards praying always. These prayers remind us that God is with us in the ordinary, everyday events of living and keep us mindful of God’s presence, wherever we are and whatever we are doing. There are three parts to this way of praying: I listen and notice. I respond with a moment of personal prayer. I am led to a response of action.
I move from noticing God Moments in my day to becoming a God Moment for others.
THE JESUS PRAYER
The book The Way of a Pilgrim, and The Pilgrim Continues His Way translated from the Russian by R. M. French was written by an unknown Russian pilgrim in the 19th century. In the book, the pilgrim describes how he discovered, learned, and practiced the Jesus Prayer along with the profound impact this prayer made on his life. This book first introduced the Jesus Prayer into Western Christianity.
The Prayer itself is simple. The shorter version is: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. The longer version is: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner. There are other variations of the Jesus Prayer that you may encounter in the literature about it. It is a prayer that is meant to be recited again and again either in a formal time of prayer but also throughout the course of the day.
The Jesus Prayer finds its origin in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.We hear the tax collector pray with head bowed: "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
The constant repetition of the name of Jesus is an essential part of the prayer and spiritual lives of Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians.
In the prayer itself, the words “have mercy on me” do not just mean pardon my sins. Mercy, as the Orthodox use the word, means much more: it means grace and loving-kindness. When you ask for mercy, you are asking not only for the forgiveness of your sins, but you are also asking for Christ to grant you whatever graces or virtues you need to live a gospel lifestyle day after day.
It can be prayed in a more formal way. We set aside a specific time in which we do nothing else but pray the Jesus Prayer. It can also be prayed in a more free way. It can be prayed anytime and anywhere you find yourself while driving alone in your car, while waiting somewhere in line, while taking a shower in the morning any time you have a few minutes free. Part of the distinctive value of the Jesus Prayer lies precisely in the fact that, because of its radical simplicity, it can be prayed in in the midst of our busy lives when more complex forms of prayer are impossible. It is especially helpful in moments of tension, stress and anxiety.
No particular posture is essential to the Prayer. It can be recited when seated,standing, kneeling or even lying down. In the Orthodox tradition, there are those who recite it standing with the arms outstretched in the form of a cross. A prayer rope, normally with 50 or one hundred knots, is often employed in conjunction with the Prayer, not primarily in order to count the number of times it is repeated, but rather as an aid to concentration and the establishment of a regular rhythm. If we make some use of our hands as we pray, this will help to still our body and to gather us together into the act of prayer. “The hands at work, the mind and heart with God.” The words may be said aloud or silently. It is often linked with breathing. We breathe in and say, Lord Jesus Christ. We breathe out and say, Son of the Living God. We breathe in and say, Have mercy on me. We breathe out and say, A sinner.
What can the regular repetition of the name of Jesus do for us? What is its value?
1. Our minds are often filled with a lot of clutter, a lot of background noise, a lot of distractions, random thoughts, worries, fears and anxieties. In the Jesus Prayer, you replace this random noise with the name of Jesus. Through the seemingly mechanical recitation of the Jesus Prayer, the name of Jesus gets into your bloodstream, into the marrow of your bones, into your mind, heart and soul, into the very depths of your being. The ceaseless repetition of the name of Jesus slowly begins to transform your heart and life. Over time you begin to see and respond to the world and to the people of the world through the mind and heart of Jesus. At a very basic level, this prayer acknowledges our need to apprentice our lives to Jesus, to make them Christocentric, to put on the mind and the heart of Jesus. And it is Jesus alone who can lead us to God and to our desired union with God that is the goal of the spiritual life.
2. I find that the prayer is a good antidote to unChristlike thoughts that I might have in the course of a day. If I find myself being judgmental of someone, I will replace those thoughts with the Jesus Prayer. If I am driving my car and someone cuts me off or is driving too slow and I find myself becoming impatient or irritated, I replace those thoughts with the Jesus Prayer. It is a very versatile prayer that can be used in many different situations. The point is that in using the prayer, I am trying to put on the mind, heart, and values of Jesus so that I see and respond to people and the world from a Christocentric point of view rather than from an egocentric point of view.
3. This prayer acknowledges that all is gift, that we are dependent on Jesus for everything all that we are, all that we have, and all that we can become. Jesus is the source of all of our gifts and what we do with them. It is an antidote to the prayer of the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The prayer of the Pharisee is proud, arrogant, and selfrighteous. He points out to God all that he has done, all that he has accomplished. There is no room in his life for God. In the Jesus Prayer, we acknowledge our dependence on Jesus, on God for all we are and all we can become.
4. If you have a plow that is dirty and corroded and if you use it to plow the earth, over time the sheer force of the plow moving through the earth will scrape off the rust and corrosion making it shiny and clean. In a similar way, over time the ceaseless repetition of the name of Jesus will allow Jesus to begin to clear away the sinfulness, the baggage that we carry around with us, and we will begin to shine with the light of Christ.
THE JESUS PRAYER
Long form: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Short form: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
Take some time to quiet yourself. Concentrate on your breathing for a while, becoming aware of the air as it comes into you and goes out.
Begin your prayer by asking for the help of the Holy Spirit. It is only in the power of the Spirit that we can worthily pronounce the name of Jesus.
As you invoke the Name, you should not deliberately shape in your mind any visual image of Jesus. Simply feel his presence. Through the invocation of the name of Jesus, you feel his nearness with your spiritual senses. You know him, not through a series of successive images and concepts, but with the unified sensibility of the heart. Let it be, in the richest sense of the word, a prayer of affection. It is with your loving affection that you do right to begin.
Then begin to pray the Jesus Prayer using either the long or the short form.
When you breathe in, say the first part of the formula, Lord, Jesus Christ. As you do so, imagine you are breathing into yourself the love and grace and presence of the Lord Jesus. Then hold your breath for a brief moment in your lungs, and as you do this, imagine you are holding in yourself what you have breathed in, that your whole being is suffused with his presence and his grace. As you breathe out, say the second part of the formula, Son of the Living God. As you do this, imagine you are breathing out of yourself all your impurities, all the obstacles you are putting to his grace. Then breathe in and pray have mercy on me. Breathe in the forgiveness, grace and healing power of Jesus. Then breathe out and say, A sinner.
Conclude your time of prayer by slowing praying the Our Father.
GOD JAR
This is my God Jar. Let me talk about it as a form of prayer. I grew up in an Irish Catholic family. I lived right across the street from my Irish grandparents. There are a lot of wonderful characteristics of the Irish. But I find that the Irish also have a down side, i.e. their tendency to worry. My grandmother had the art of worrying perfected. She worried about everyone and everything all the time. When my sister and I were growing up, we never had to worry because we knew that grandma was taking care of it for us. Naturally, she mentored my mother in the art of worrying. And my mother mentored my sister and I. As I was growing up, my grandmother had a PhD in worry. My mother had her MA working on her PhD. My sister and I had BA’s in worry as we worked towards our MA and PhD. I learned to be a worrier. I now have my own PhD in worry and anxiety.
Many years ago, I discovered an antidote to my tendency to be anxious and worried. It is called a God Jar. Here is how it works. When I find that I am worrying needlessly about something, I write it down on a piece of paper. Then I put it into my God Jar. As I put it into my God Jar, I say to God, what do you want me to do about this thing that I am worried about? I will do it, and then I will place the outcome into your hands. You see I have a big God Jar. My grandmother could have used a 55 gallon steel drum.
The good thing about a God Jar is that a few days or weeks later, I can take the slips of paper out of my God Jar to see how things turned out. More often than not what I worried about never happened. Often the thing I worried about turned out far better than I could have ever imagined it would. New possibilities came about that surprised and amazed me. And if the worst case scenario of what I worried about actually happened, I realize that I survived it, and I learned something about myself or the situation that would help me in future situations. My God Jar has taught me that God who has been with me in terms of all the things I have worried about in the past is also the same God who will always be with me no matter what it is that life brings my way.
Now if you are like me, from time to time you will take what you were worried about out of the God Jar and start worrying about it all over again. When you find yourself doing this, put it back into the God Jar and again ask God what God would like you to do to address it. Then do that and place the outcome in God’s hands.
If you find yourself worrying about something but do not have your God Jar handy, mentally put it into the God Jar. I often say to myself – God Jar – in the midst of my day. Later on you can write it down on a piece of paper and put it into the God Jar.
If you want, instead of a God Jar, you can have a God Can because only God can do for you what you can’t do for yourself.
By the way, as an extra bonus for you for coming here for this Parish Mission, feel free to write down one of your worries and put it into my God Jar, and I will worry about it for you.
Let me now share a letter from God and some quotes about worry and anxiety.
A LETTER FROM GOD
Good day. This is God.
Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help.
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you do not think that you can handle, DO NOT attempt to resolve it. Kindly write it down and put it into your God Jar. It will be addressed in my time and way and not yours.
Once the matter is placed into the God Jar, do not hold onto it or attempt to remove it. Holding on or removal will delay the resolution of your problem or concern.
If it is a situation that you think you are capable of handling yourself, please consult me in prayer to be sure that it is the proper resolution.
Because I do not sleep, there is no need for you to lose any sleep. Rest my child. If you need to contact me, I am only a prayer away.
QUOTE FROM CHARLIE BROWN
I now only dread one day at a time.
QUOTE FROM MARK TWAIN
I’m an old man who has known a great many problems, most of which never happened.
ANONYMOUS QUOTE
Don’t tell me that worry doesn’t do any good. I know better. The things I worry about never happen.
QUOTE FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON