Teach Us to Pray

Teach Us to Pray

One morning, the disciples must have gotten up earlier than usual and observed Jesus from a distance while he had been in intimate conversation with the Father. That sight must have been more magnificent and more awe-striking than any sight they had ever seen. Unable to contain their wonderment, they eagerly asked him: “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)

Incredible as it sounds, due to our inability to pray, we have a lot to learn about prayer: In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. (Rom. 8:26)

The initial thing we learn is the role of the Holy Spirit as the One who should be praying in us and in our stead. 

As obscure as the correct way of praying still is to us, we wonder why the Father answers any of our requests always the same way: i.e. by granting us the Holy Spirit.

What is wrong? Surely, there is absolutely nothing wrong with our Father’s hearing. Nothing wrong with his caring, his attentive presence to our situation, his love, and his vision of our future past our limited imagination, self-serving plans and our too modest hopes.

Now that we are ready to accept the fact of not knowing how to pray as we ought, what does the Holy Spirit teach us about prayer of petition?

It must be the secret of making the most of our smallness and insignificance. It is the spiritual version of the old saying that the squeaky wheel gets oiled. St. Therese of Lisieux capitalized masterfully on this. After all, what father or mother can ignore the request coming from the smallest of their children?

Notice how this is precisely that on which Abraham capitalized in his daring, persistent prayer of petition to God on behalf of the perverted city of Sodom: Abraham spoke up again: “See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes! (Genesis 18:27)

This is what Jesus himself suggests as the humble attitude to adopt as, so very bluntly, he points out that we, although wicked, are willing to fulfill lovingly and correctly our children’s requests.  

To soothe the hurt of this blunt assessment about our wickedness, we can accept that even the holiest human being is “wicked” compared to God! But many still resent that and would rather rely on their good performance and loyalty to Christ to get the expected, good results from their prayers of petition. However, counting on our good deeds and loyalty to Christ is a common delusion from which we all occasionally suffer.

It is flatly debunked by Jesus: I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) And St. Paul adds a sobering reminder to that sweeping statement: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ by grace you have been saved. (Eph.2:4-5)

Now, about convincing ourselves, viscerally, of being dust and ashes, of being insignificant, of being wicked and wretched, we must level with each other.

To different degrees, we all work hard to impress each other, to pretend to be better than we are, to draw attention away from our flaws and towards our good qualities, and to minimize what is unpleasant about us. We believe that we are skillful at this game of smoke and mirrors and, therefore, we can manage to interact and deal with each other mindful of that caveat. However, since we cannot play this game with God who knows us much better than we do ourselves, it becomes impossible to request favors from him while counting on good deeds which are not due to any merit of ours. It is, then, spiritually advisable to exaggerate our frailty, our smallness, our wickedness before the Lord (cf.  2 Corinthians 12:9)

Now, comfortable at last with our smallness and wretchedness, how can we reconcile Jesus’ insistence on perseverance in our asking with the meager results of our prayers thus far?

We know, we celebrate, at least weekly, the astounding fact that the Father has already given us his Son nailed to a cruel cross out of love for us, but why is it that we seldom seem to get all the other things which we request?

The Holy Spirit, who should always be initiating and guiding our prayers of petition, assures us that the Father answers all our prayers made in the name of Christ, but not necessarily in the way envisioned or hoped for by us in our limited and narrow perspective.

The Holy Spirit tells us that the Father is not a Divine Vending Machine operated on demand, by our targeted prayers; but a Father who has always our true and best interest at heart.

The Holy Spirit teaches us to replace our earthly expectations with trust, endurance, patience, and hope.

We might be praying to him to miraculously make all obstacles disappear, lighten our cross, cure all illnesses, relieve the troubles that oppress us, and to smoothen our path. However, the Holy Spirit shows us, rather, how to raise our eyes from the miseries of life and to carry trustingly our cross and follow Jesus wherever he goes.

Only at the end of our grueling and trying earthly journey will we all realize that all our prayers were answered in the way most spiritually profitable for us and for the whole Body of Christ.