IF YOU CAN’T PRAY, BREATHE
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 2nd Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “If You Can’t Pray, Breathe.”
From time to time I’ve noticed in surveys about what Catholics are looking for from their Church, they are looking for teachings and methods about how to pray - or how to pray better.
A key quote in the scriptures on this for me has always been, Luke 11: 2. “Lord, teach us how to pray just as John taught his disciples.” Jesus' disciples had seen John the Baptist’s disciples praying. They saw Jesus praying in a certain place, so here was their chance to ask him that question. So Jesus taught them the Our Father. Then he gave them a few more teachings about prayer: to bother God - to keep knocking on God’s door, seeking, and asking God for what we want. [1]
The most basic prayer that Jesus is teaching there is the so called, “Prayer of Petition” - “Bidding Prayers” - “Asking Prayers”.
St. Alphonsus, founder of the Redemptorists was a great teacher of prayer. You can see his statue up here in our sanctuary - as part of the old high altar - and across from St. Teresa of Avila - another great teacher on prayer. Alphonsus wrote a whole book on prayer - entitling it, Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation. His basic teaching is: “If you want to be saved, pray. If you don’t, you’re going to be lost.”
I love it that he says in the Introduction to his book on prayer: “I have published several spiritual works but I judge that none of them is as useful as this little work, in which I speak on prayer, the necessary and surest means of obtaining salvation and all the graces necessary to attain that goal.”
Then he makes a great promotional pitch for his book. He says, “While I do not have means to do so, if I were able I would have as many copies of this book printed as there are faithful in the world. I would give each one a copy so that everyone might know how necessary prayer is in order to be saved.”
His publisher for 26 years, Remondini of Venice, must have loved that. He helped Alphonsus in getting out many of his 111 published works. Alphonsus knew that a lot of the publishers in Italy were sloppy - not Remondini, who had branches in Bologna, Ferrara and Rome - and agents in all the other major cities of Italy as well as on the other side of the Alps.
ONE TEACHING ON PRAYER - NOT IN ALPHONSUS
So being a Redemptorist, if someone asked me where to begin on how to pray, I would suggest reading books on prayer - and St. Alphonsus would be a good place to start. [2]
Having said all that, one teaching in Alphonsus that I don’t see in his writings about prayer, that I would push is the following: “If You Can’t Pray, Breathe.”
I’ve read much of Alphonsus and he certainly teaches and pushes prayer - jumping from writing about prayer - to jumping into prayer in his writings. For example, he might be talking about Jesus and Mary - and then start praying to Jesus and Mary in print.
Still people have trouble praying. So I would teach people to commit themselves to a time for prayer - whether it’s before Mass - during Mass - in the car - doing what I see as “Sitting Back Prayer” or "Sitting Down Prayer".
I would teach a person to just sit there for a moment - saying to God - “I’m here to pray.” Then I would suggest, pausing. Then I would suggest breathing. Catch your breath. Realize your breath. Breathe in and out - in and out - in and out. Realize that’s what God did when he created the first human. God formed us out of the clay of the earth and breathed life into that clay and we became human - making us in God's own image and likeness. If we’re breathing - if we have breath, we are alive. When a baby is born, they get that baby breathing. When someone drowns, they give that person artificial respiration - to try to get them breathing again.When we pray, we need inspiration.
So I would suggest that the first steps in prayer would simply to be in the presence of God our Creator and let God breathe life into us once again - to form us - to inform us.
In the Book of Genesis when this is described very imaginatively, the breath is called in Hebrew, the “Ruah” - the Breath of God. [3]
I’m not making this up. Breathing is the basic instinct in the opening prayer of many people who pray, “Come Holy Spirit!” “Come Breath of God.” Breathe new life into this clay called “me” again.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
That’s the first step - realizing the gift of the Breath of Life, the breath of God in us.
I began thinking about this last night when I read today’s first reading when Samuel, the Seer, the See-er, the Prophet. He goes looking for the next king amongst Jesse’s sons. Not seeing him there amongst Jesse's 7 sons, he asks if there area any other sons. Jesse says, “Well, there is one more, the youngest, who is out there shepherding.” Samuel says, “Send for him!” And when he saw David, he knew this is the one. And Samuel said, “Anoint him. This is the one!” [4]
THE RUSH OF THE SPIRIT
And then we hear the great line in today’s first reading, “the Spirit of the Lord rushed up him.”
When I spotted the word “rushed” - I was intrigued. So I looked up the Hebrew word last night that one English translator translated as “rushed”. The Hebrew root word is “t-saw-lakh”. The Jewish Study Bible translates it, “The spirit of the Lord gripped David from that day on.” The Hebrew word “t-saw-lakh” means to break out, to come out mightily, to push from or forward, to cause to, to tear into him, to rush upon, to grip.”
I’ve noticed that teachers about prayer from around the world often begin by telling folks to begin by breathing - then becoming aware of their breathing. I’ve noticed Catholic teachers of prayer, sometimes begin by teaching people to begin praying by saying, “Come Holy Spirit.” I noticed that when Jesus began his public ministry he took the text from Isaiah that said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” [5]
CONCLUSION
The title of this homily was, “If you can’t pray, breathe.”
In reading and reflecting upon how to pray, I learned that prayer is taking time to catch one’s breath. I learned that taking time to catch one’s breath, one finds oneself - and one finds God - and one finds one's neighbor. We all share the air we breathe. I learned that making time for prayer, a good place to begin is to begin by breathing - by becoming aware of one’s breath. I learned by doing that one starts to sense the Spirit of the Lord coming upon one - sometimes in a rush - sometimes as a still small wind. [6]
So if you want to learn how to pray, whether it’s here at Mass, before, during of after, of if one prays better at home or in the Eucharistic Chapel - or when driving, sense your breath, catch yourself breathing - and allow the Spirit grip us, impulse us, push us, rush upon us, to go forth from prayer to love and to serve. Amen.
NOTES
[1]
Luke 11:1-15
[2] A helpful book would be
Alphonsus de Liguori, The Classics of Western Spirituality, Selected Writings, Paulist Press, 1999. This book has prayers and how to pray - taught by a saint - who has been described by some as, "The Doctor of Prayer."
[3]
Genesis 2: 4-7
[4] Confer
1 Samuel 16: 1-13
[5]
Luke 4: 16-21;
Isaiah 61: 1-3
[6]
1 Kings 19: 11-12
; John 3:7-9
