July 30. 2022

Reflection

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PRAY

A man came to me to see a priest - to see if I could help him pray better.

He said he prayed.

He told me, "Years ago I was visiting a friend of mine - a colleague - and the man was dying. He was laying there in a hospital bed and said, "I don't know how to pray."

Silence for a second. A long second.

I then said a low sounding, "Wow."

Then this man in added, "I never forgot that moment. I  said to myself, 'I don't want this to happen to me' - so I learned how to pray."

He came to talk to me about prayer at the age of 55.  I was 65 at the time. I was a priest and he figured I would know how to pray - and how to pray better.

I listened to him tell me about his prayer - about how the Our Father and its petitions were part of his thinking life.

He talked especially about the fourth petition: "Thy will be done."

Then he asked, "How does anyone know the will of God?"

He mentioned a talk he heard on the Our Father.  The speaker said, "Millions and millions of people say 'Thy will be done' - but they have no mind in the slightest to do anything in life but their own will.

And he laughed as he said that,

He went on to say that his family says grace before meals and they go to Mass on Sundays.

But I was intrigued above all about his desire to pray/

I said, "Well, turn your desires into prayers."

Then I said, "Turn your thinking into prayer."

I added that Saint Alphonsus wanted to get people to move from thoughts into talking to God  and with God.

It was getting late, so we said we'll talk another time.