P.R.A.Y.

The Catholic Liturgy for the 18^th Sunday of Ordinary Time. August 5, 2018. Gospel – John 6:24-35. Theme: P.R.A.Y.

I think it’s very interesting that the word Jesus uses for “work” in today’s Gospel meant, in his own language, “hard physical labor”, “intense activity”, or to put it in slang, “working up a sweat”.  I wonder how many of us would think of our faith-relationship with Jesus as being like that?

I do think that most of us would say that living out our faith in Jesus is pretty simple and easy. We believe in Who He said He was and we profess this in the Creed at Mass. We come to church on Sundays and do our best to keep the Commandments during the week.  That’s what it takes to have a life-giving relationship with Jesus, right? Wrong. Those things are indeed important, but they can become just an outward show, fooling even ourselves.  That’s a danger for liturgical-based religions like Catholicism, where our prayers and actions are pretty much set in stone and all we have to do is follow the directions and read the words. 

It really pretty easy – no sweat or hard work at all - to come to Mass and go through the motions while our minds and hearts might be somewhere else. To avoid that trap of routine, our faith needs to flow out of a solid meaningful relationship with Jesus. And as we all know from experience, keeping any relationship worth having alive and growing demands attention, self-giving and commitment.  So, to believe in the One whom God has sent demands the hard work of building, maintaining and living this deep personal relationship with Him through prayer and the Eucharist. 

I think most of us Catholics don’t have trouble with that second part – the Eucharist.  We know what it means to draw close to Jesus through active participation in the Mass, by a faithful intentional reception of His Risen Body and Blood in Holy Communion, by coming before Him truly present in the Blessed Sacrament for adoration. But I do think that many of us get quite confused when it comes to building and working on a life of prayer.  I know that it was a very confusing thing for me when I first started to work on a life of prayerful conversation with God.   I didn’t know how to begin or what to do to keep it going. That’s why I found it very helpful when someone suggested that I use the acronym P.R.A.Y. to teach me how to pray from the heart.

P – stand for Praise. Begin your prayer-time with a short and simple spontaneous praise of God and all He has done for you.

R – stands for Read (or Repeat).  Take up your Bible and read a short passage. Read slowly. Thoughtfully. Or perhaps you have already read something and a particular verse caught your attention. Then Repeat that verse to yourself a few times, thoughtfully. Let it sink in.

A – stands for Ask. Ask God to show you what this reading or verse should mean in your life. What message does He have for you through it? You’ll find out His answer in the last step of this acronym…

Finally, the Y - stands for Yield.  Just as we yield – or slow down and look around carefully when driving - we do the same thing when praying. We yield to God’s action in our souls. This requires some silence. Some quiet time. This is where God will speak to us through ideas come to us, through thoughts that stick in our minds or keep coming to our imagination. God communicates with us in so many ways. As long as what we think or sense is not sinful, as long as it brings a kind of peace and spiritual calm, we can trust it is a direction from God.

So, let’s PRAY – praise, read, ask and yield - every day. Even if just for a few minutes.  It will take intentional effort at first, hard work and sweating it out in the beginning. But after a bit of time devoting ourselves to this labor of love, we will see our personal relationship with God blossoming and our faith will take on new and deeper meaning, as we work at believing in the One Whom He has sent, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior.