The Gospel of Luke, chapter 11:1

Almost daily, the old man slipped into the last pew of the parish church and sat there quietly. One day the priest asked, “when you come to church to pray, what do you do? What do you say?” The old man replied, “I don’t say anything. I just look at God, and God just looks at me.”

God needs no reminders about us. He has us in mind from all eternity and His son, Jesus, has taken us to heart. But we need to remind ourselves that we need God. When we pray we remind ourselves of that.

The disciples in today’s Gospel story saw Jesus praying in a “certain place” and when He had finished, one of them asked him; “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus gave them the ‘Our Father’- the Lord’s prayer.

The ‘Our Father’ is noted for its simplicity, sense of immediacy and brevity. The quiet words of the Lord’s prayer are to the point, and they invite personal reflection. Each statement of the beautiful prayer calls for silence-a lingering silence between words. St. Theresa of Avila said it was better to say one ‘Our Father’ well than to repeat it a thousand times over. The ‘Our Father’ is meant to be prayed-to be reflected upon, bit by bit, until it’s meaning is digested and appropriated to our own experience. Prayer is an art; it is a way of thinking creatively, of turning our thoughts to spiritual and moral matters and inviting a change for the better in thought and behavior. The spiritual masters have outlined various stages of prayer commensurate with the different human stages of spiritual and moral growth. This makes sense since grace builds on nature.

Like any other art, the art of prayer has to be acquired. We must work at it by acquainting ourselves with the right ideas. Spiritual reading, especially of the scriptures, is a necessary background for a prayer life. There are delightful inspirational books that make contemplation effortlessly attractive. Why not try some of these books!

Getting back to the old man I mentioned at the beginning of this message. What was his secret? He didn’t say anything. He just looked at God in church and God just looked at him. Surely such a person had done his homework well to position himself in a state of quiet ease before His Maker. The “Prayer of Quiet” is, indeed, a highly desirable stage of prayer. The old man prepared himself for the “Prayer of Quiet” by listening to the word of the Lord and by contemplating it quietly in the presence of the Lord.

Fr. Hugh Duffy