How Personal is Personal Prayer?

We must pray, for ourselves and for others. We must pray together, if possible being physically together. If it is not possible? The early church prayed in one heart and mind. It is obvious they were together also, but the first part is more important and that is the most important factor of prayer - raising our heart and mind to God. We need to be enabled to find a prayer-filled life. This is possible only if we can realise that we can pray anywhere. When you are working with your computer or being engaged in any other profession, feel the presence of God there being with you, and there you raise a sincere concern before God, something that concerns you, your boss, world, church ... Or if a day is dedicated for prayer, then keep the whole day keeping the specific intention, specially remembering whenever you get a break. More than time and place, but what really matters is our attitude of sincerity and humility, intensity and earnestness.

Many suggest an ideal prayer life, but paradoxically they themselves live their own helplessness which is also some form of hypocrisy. Instead, can we not initiate new paradigm for ourselves and others whom we guide, a possible way by which we can meaningfully and prayerfully fill our life, job and other struggles. Rather, when we look for ideals and when not possible, we fill ourselves with guilt and disappointment. We might say that many achieve the ideal! Well, if they are able to do it joyfully and freely that is really a blessing. But we know that many ‘ordinary’ people do struggle. We must know that what is possible in a retreat centre or in a monastery is not possible when we think of working people or the life of youth. If you can work on this you can also improve on a quality personal prayer-life.

Very often personal prayer is limited to a set of ‘doings,’ – “I read the Bible, said the rosary, and ‘did’ praise and worship…just as he/she taught me.” Personal prayer is really ‘personal’, whereas the liturgy is the prayer being within a community. A period of time spent without involving our person cannot be a personal prayer. The areas of our personal involvement must be the content of our personal prayer, our struggles, celebrations, relations, commitments, profession, pain, … We are carrying all these while we drive, while we work, and while we worship in community, but can we find the presence of Christ joining us in all these? If yes, that makes the personal prayer. Are they ‘personal,’ and can that be prayer? Surely yes, if we can raise our heart and mind to God. As filled with gratitude and joy, we praise; and as we are filled with peace, we worship.What we need in our heart is trust, awareness of a caring presence of God. If we could experience this trust, we can really feel the genuineness of prayer. When we are fully exhausted, burning with anger, or totally depressed, the most sincere prayer we can make is to tell God that we are exhausted, we are angry and frustrated, and we are depressed. If we don't feel to pray, the trust will enable us to tell God that we are not feeling to pray. We have chased the sacred from our living fields and our real feelings, can we find for ourselves and show others a path for bringing the sacred back to the places where we live and labour. It needs a docile spirit. Worship in the temple is easy but bringing God to our fields is rather difficult.

Here in the field,
God continued to work
The wind blew, the flower danced, and the birds came
The Sun smiled….
“Where is the man of the field?” They asked.
God said: “He has gone to the temple to worship.”