Prayer
Very early in the morning Jesus went off to a lonely place to pray. Mark 1:29-39
5th Sunday Ordinary Time B
Where did Jesus get the energy to do the things he did every day? Out in the fields, he preached to thousands and cured the sick. Inside the house of Peter, He cured the mother-in-law before sitting down to eat. At night while people were asleep He stole out of the house to a lonely place to pray. Then at the crack of day when the apostles found him He hurried to the next town to do the same things He did the previous day. Jesus got tired but He did not stop. The mission was tiresome but He was tireless and untiring. How so?
It goes without saying that His strength in doing all these comes from His union with the Father in His prayer. Prayer is His source of energy.
Prayer is essential to everyone. They say when our life gets hard sitting or long standing we should try kneeling. And that he who is too busy to pray should really stop and pray.
We’ve been praying since as tots we were taught how to make the sign of the cross. In the seminary priests were taught different ways of praying like the Ignatian and Sulpician methods from the West and awareness and contemplation styles from the masters of the East. But after all those formative years how really well do we pray now? Did prayer do something to us?
An impatient man once prayed “God give me patience. And I want it now”.
There was a man who was fed up with his nagging wife that one day he prayed “God change my wife”. It was crude but God nevertheless answered his prayer – in His own way. He changed not the wife but the man – particularly his attitude towards his wife. His wife still nagged but he did not anymore complain because God made him into a patient man. Prayer changes us not the people we live with, not our jobs, our house, not circumstances nor our situation – definitely not God. If we really pray then prayer should transform us as Jesus was transfigured at Tabor while at prayer.
How should we pray? Jesus went to a lonely place to pray. But He was not lonely because He was not alone because He was with God. As St. Teresa de Jesus said “Solo Dios basta.“
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